Supporting Literacy Growth

Good Fit Books Continued

It is important for parents to be aware of their childs reading level in school. This is information that your childs teacher can share with you and they can guide you in the right direction of good fit books. The following acronym is a guide to help you and your child pick books. I PICK (Good Fit Books) I choose a book P urpose - Why do I want to read it? I nterest - Does it interest me? C omprehension - Am I understanding what I am reading? K now - I know most of the words
The Daily Five by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser

Reading Strategies and Prompts for Parents and Families

Sharing a book with your child is one of the most effective ways to help your child develop understanding about print and acquire the desire to read. Emphasize the importance of reading by modeling reading to your child and encourage them to read with you or to you.

What can your child read?

Books, magazines, recipes, menus, newspapers, road signs, cereal boxes, letters, articles, short stories, books on tape, and games. Visit the Public Library, ask the librarian for help in selecting books for your child. They have a large selection of various genres and a great selection of leveled books. Your childs reading level and listening level are different. As you read easy books to a beginning reader, you will notice that soon they will be reading along with you. When you read more advanced books, you infuse a love of stories, and you build the motivation that turns children into lifelong readers!

Reading Is Fun!

Reading Strategies and Prompts to Help Parents

Reading successfully goes well beyond fluency and word recognition and relies heavily upon comprehension of text. There are many strategies that children may learn to assist them with their reading. These strategies are applied before reading to activate prior knowledge, during reading to deepen understanding and after reading to maintain meaning and apply to new situations. It is important for parents to be aware of the strategies used by their children to make meaning and to build upon those strategies. Parents and Reading, Reading Today

Swanavon Elementary School

Good Fit Books

Recognize your childs interests and encourage their reading development through picking books that they would enjoy the most. Genres: fiction, non-fiction, humor, mysteries, biographies, sports, science, history, poetry, folk tales, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and graphic novels.

Pamphlet created by: Nicole Lavallee Reading Recovery Teacher

Before reading
Ask your child
What do you think the book will be about? Who are some of the characters in the story? Have you ever had any experiences similar to those on the cover? Take a picture walk through the book and make predictions about the story. Discuss any interesting pictures in the story. While your child is reading it is important to remember that this is a gradual progression and the goal is for them to become independent. We do not want them to be frustrated but they also need to learn strategies that will help them to become stronger readers. Teachers use prompts to guide students in their reading journey. Prompting means, encouraging the learner to use what they already know and can do. It is an effective strategy to focus students attention to build their cognitive awareness and their confidence. The following are some Reading and comprehension prompts that you can use with your child while they are reading to you.

Visual What do I see?

Use the visual information to solve words. Use the sound of the first letter(s) to attempt or solve words. Use analogy to solve unknown words. Example: look/took he/she Use known words or parts to solve unknown words. (upstairs)

Prompts for Comprhension

~ What do you know already (from your background knowledge) that can help you understand the text better? ~ Does this text remind you of anything that ever happened to you or to anyone you know? Can you explain? ~ What do you picture in your mind when you read? ~ Is this book, like real life in anyway? ~ How does your connection to this text help you to understand it? (Note: You may need to reword some prompts for our early readers)

Prompting for Visual Information

~ Do you think it looks like _________? ~ What sound does it make? ~ Do you know a word like that? Day/play ~ Do you see a part that can help? ~ Say the first sound. ~ Look at all the letters. ~ What letter do you see first? What is the last letter or ending? ~ Do you know a word that would fit the meaning and look like, start like, end like)_________?

Literacy and Technology

Try some of the following websites to enhance your childs reading experience.
http://www.tumblebooks.com access through public library http://www.speakaboos.com/ http://www.storylineonline.net/ http://www.storytimeforme.com http://www.raz-kids.com/ http://wwwkids.aol.com/KOL/1/KOLJrStories http://www.sundhagen.com/babbooks/

Structure Does it sound right?

Use knowledge of language to solve unknown words. Reread to see if a word sounds right or makes sense in a sentence. Reread to correct sentence.

Meaning - Does the story make sense?

Searching for and using information. Use the meaning of the story or text to predict unknown words. Reread to gather more information to solve a word. Use headings or titles to think about the meaning of a section of text. Use readers tools to help in finding Information; (glossary, index)

Prompting for Structure

~You said, _____. Does that sound right? ~Listen to this. (Model two choices) Which one sounds better? ~Try that again and think what would sound right. Example: Child says, The dog runned down the street. Correction: The dog ran down the street.

Did you know that there are many applications (apps) for your phones or tablets (ipads). Just to name a few Preschool-Grade 2 Grade 3-6
ABC Pocket Phonics ABC Sight Words Dr.Seuss ABC ABC Letters Tracing Silly Stories Preschool memory match Silly Stories Scrabble Audio Boo Storykit Dictionary.com Spellet

Prompting for Meaning

~Can the picture help you think about this part of the story? ~Try that again and think about what would make sense. ~Think about the story. ~Take a closer look at the picture and think about the story.