Your child will have routine fluency homework chosen strategically from complex texts they are reading in class. This will require grown-up participation.

For this assignment, your child will read aloud the excerpt 3-5 times to themselves and then aloud to a grown-up. A grown-up will need to sign the fluency homework for accountability purposes.

Benefits of fluency practice for middle/upper-grade readers:

1. Comprehension: The module core texts we are reading in class are higher level. The fluency passage comes directly from the core text. When your child reads this text out loud multiple times, they not only practice reading a very complex text (with complex vocab), but they also gain additional understanding each time, internalizing the content even further.

2. Public Speaking: Reading this level of text out loud to an adult enhances public speaking skills which will be useful in the many presentations required throughout high school and college.

Each day that your child does not complete their homework, they will fill out a “Missing Assignment Notice” and take it home to be signed by a grown-up. Please sign the missing assignment notice for your child to return the next day. This is your child's way of communicating to you, to ensure that you know that they did not complete their homework. This is not meant to be used as a punishment. This slip is meant to be used as a tool to help your child build strong, independent work habits.

Please help your child be successful at home by allowing them time to do their work.

Your child should be reading at home for at least 20-30 minutes a night. We analyze complex literature in class, so I encourage students to choose a book to read at home that they are truly interested in. Independent reading can be in the form of magazines, audiobooks, graphic novels, non-fiction texts, etc. Anything goes! If your child is struggling to find a book to read at home, please let me know.

Please note: Your child may have pages/chapters to read from their module core text. This can be considered their independent reading practice.

"Independent reading leads to an increased volume of reading. The more one reads, the better one reads. The more one reads, the more knowledge of words and language one acquires. The more one reads, the more fluent one becomes as a reader. The more one reads, the easier it becomes to sustain the mental effort necessary to comprehend complex texts. The more one reads, the more one learns about the people and happenings of our world. This increased volume of reading is essential (Allington, 2014)." (ncte.org)