Room 14's Webpage - Reading/Language Arts

Reading Anthology Themes

·Friends and Family·Animal Discoveries·Live and Learn·Our Life/Our World·Let's Make a Difference·How on Earth?

Reading is Cool is a reading program sponsored by the San Jose Sharks Foundation. Students read books and record how many pages they have read each month from October to April. Students turn in their reading log at the end of each month. One reading medal is awarded each month. This program is optional, but students are strongly encouraged to participate.

Language Arts Links for Students

San Jose Public LibrarySeussvilleSpelling CityFree RicePottermoreReading Brain at FunBrain

Comprehension

RetellingAfter reading a book or a section of a book, we ask the child to tell us about the book. We do this for a few reasons:It helps us to gauge how much the child paid attention as they were reading, how much they understood, and how well they remember what they read.It helps the child to retrieve and organize events and information from the book.What to look for: How much can your child remember? How specific are they when retelling the book? Are they retelling the book in order? Do they need to go back and look through the book, or can they remember it well without going back to the book? (Reviewing a text is a great skill--and we teach them to go back and reread and look through the book. It is not a bad thing--but do they need to do it to retell the book?)
Summarizing is a very important skill. It is often hard for children of this age group to narrow the events to what is most important without including each and every single little thing (we call this extraneous information).
Evidence: We always want to push the child to give us evidence.Do you like this book? Why? What part is your favorite? Tell me about ______________ (character or information). What helped you to know that? (When reading an informational book) Do you think this book is accurate? What in the book makes you think that?
Connections and Questions: We want to hear children tell us that parts of the book reminded them of a time in their life, something they have seen, another book, etc. We want to hear them say something like, "When I read the part about ____________, it reminded me of _________________ because __________________." Or "This part made me think that ____________________ would happen because ______________." We also want to see children ask questions about a word or section of the book. This tells us that the child is monitoring what they are reading and beginning to evaluate the text as well. This is a step up from simply being able to retell the book.

Spelling Practice

Here are some optional spelling practice activities students can do at home.1. Stairsteps - Write words as if they are stairs, adding one letter each time. a al alr alrea alread already
2. ABC order
3. Write the spelling words 3 times each.
4. Look up the words in a dictionary to divide the words into syllables.
5. Look up the spelling words in a dictionary to find their meanings.
6. Speed sort: Students sort their spelling words into the sound patterns and try to complete the task quickly.
7. Word hunt: Students look for more words that fit the patterns.
8. Type them: Type all your spelling words on a computer.
9. Fancy letters: Use old magazines or catalogs to cut out letters and glue them down to spell your words.
10. Snowman (Hangman) - Snowman is a nonviolent version of Hangman. On a wipe-off board or chalkboard, draw a snowman with a hat and three buttons. Play like hangman (don't forget to draw the lines to show how many letters the chosen word has), but erase a part of the snowman for each guess. The object is to guess the word before the snowman melts.
11. Colorful Words - Use two different color pens to write your spelling words. Use one color to write the consonants and the other for the vowels. Do this one more time. Close your eyes and picture the word in your mind. Now try and write the word with just one color.

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