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Literacy makes up a cornerstone of your child's life-long learning journey. It is embedded in most subject areas and is critical in helping students makes sense of the world around them. Students will learn to effectively comprehend and connect to materials through reading, viewing, and listening opportunities. They will learn to refine the communication of their thoughts and ideas while writing, speaking and representing. Learning might take the form of stand alone lessons around conventions, strategies and processes or as the opportunity enfolds within all subject areas.
Literacy Links
Literacy Links
Connect to audiobooks, videos and a huge assortment of books within this great resource! I encourage students to explore topics of interest and see where their wonder takes them. This resource is a great independent learning opportunity or to explore areas of interest as a family.
Reading is a message getting, problem solving activity. Students at the intermediate level employ a variety of strategies to decode text that revolve around the meaning of the story, structure of sentences and visual information of words. Confident readers learn to cross-check these three sources at lightening speed and often without even realizing they've done so. Encouraging your child to self-monitor themselves at difficulty by checking whether or not their attempt looks right, sounds right and makes sense will help them achieve greater independence as readers. In addition to this strategic activity, students tie in to their background knowledge of the world to understand what they read.
In order to build comprehension, we will be looking at how we can delve deeper into our reading. "Reading Power" by Adrienne gear is a resource and philosophy that we will be referring to in order to do just that. By making connections, asking questions (before, during and after reading), making inferences and visualizing, students will develop a stronger understanding of materials and learn to thoroughly analyze what they read.
Making connections is perhaps the greatest tool for activating a child's background knowledge in order to make better sense of text. the following video explains three different ways that a learner can make make connections when reading. They are: text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world.
Please encourage your child to read on a nightly bases. Building reading fluency and comprehension is a very student-centred activity. In other words, when your child is actively engaged in reading material that is interesting and at just the right level, they become their own best teachers!
Having regular discussions with your child while making connections together will ensure that they are reading for meaning. Relating reading back to your child's life experiences, other materials that have been read or their knowledge of the world are great ways to model deeper thinking while reading.
Just Right Books
We will be discussing what it means to select a "Just Right" book as a class. Material that is too hard leads to discouragement while "too easy" can lead to boredom or a lack of new learning. A "just Right' book will be a perfect opportunity for your child to develop reading fluency and build reading comprehension. In addition, it's infinitely more engaging to read a book that is interesting, not overly challenging and that activates deeper thinking. It is quite possible that your child might not be able to put this type of book down!
You can help your child select "Just Right" books by listening to them read the first few pages or chapter and discussing what was read. the reading should sound mostly smooth and all but a few words should be read correctly. Referring back to the attached chart is a great way to stay on the right track and help your child to chose responsibly. It is important for your child to know that it is OK to change course if a book is too easy or too hard!
Need a definition for something? Select the link to access the Britannica Kids Dictionary
Watch this short clip to learn about the 6 elements contained in a story plot!
Watch this short clip to learn about generating a topic sentence!
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