Visualizing

Visualizing is a great way to help your students understand what they are reading.  Children are encouraged to paint pictures in their mind of what an author is telling them.  This creates a "movie in their mind".



Sometimes it can be difficult to motivate children to read at home, but for students who love to draw and color, visualizing is a perfect activity outside of school.  Read for a few minutes with your child and then have them draw a picture about what they read in the story.  Have a discussion with them about their artwork when they are done. You may be able to learn a lot about what your child thinks about the characters, setting, and events of the story.

Visualizing can be a fun comprehension strategy to practice at home, and it helps your student to deeply understand what is happening in a text.

Making Predictions

The ultimate goal of reading is comprehension.  In other words, it is important to make sure your child truly understands what he or she is reading at home.  One comprehension strategy that you can use to improve your child's comprehension is the strategy of making predictions.

A prediction is a guess that one makes using clues from the text or pictures.  The best predictions are supported by evidence.  "I think ______ because _________" is a basic way that students can respond in a clear way.

Before reading, take a picture walk.  Look through the pictures and think about the title.  Then, have your child predict what he/she will read about.

During reading, stop and think every few pages and have your child predict what will happen next.  It is very common for students to stop and adjust their prediction along the way as they learn new information in the story.

After reading, always make sure you reflect on the prediction with your child.  See if your child was right in his or her prediction and talk about it!

If you find that your child is having trouble making predictions while they read, try out the skill while watching their favorite TV show.  Predict what may happen, and then adjust the predictions during commercial breaks.  Then, when the show is done you can have a conversation with your child about how their prediction changed throughout the show.  After your child has made predictions with TV shows, it may be easier to generalize the skill into their reading.

Here's a link to a list of several great books used often by teachers to teach how to make predictions: http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/good-to-teach-prediction

Happy reading :) As always, we are here to help so contact us with any questions you have!

Helping with Math At Home: January Update

Happy 2014!  We hope your  year is off to a good start!  We are beginning the second half of the school year and are excited about all the student progress.  Many parents ask how they can help at home.  Ensuring your child is in a smooth routine with homework is the first step. 

We found this great graphic that shows other ways to help your student reinforce math skills at home.

In order for you to be aware of which specific math content is being taught this month, I have broken it down by each grade level.

Kindergarten:  Numbers 11-20...students will need to compare numbers, tell the number that comes before/after/between and show understanding of quantity.

Grade 1:  Addition and Subtraction within 20...students will need to solve word problems, show different ways to represent a given number, balance equations, and find a missing number in an equation.

Grade 2:  Addition and Subtraction within 100, then 1,000...students will need to understand how to regroup or borrow when computing and will need to solve and write story problems.

Grade 3:  Time...students will be learning to tell time to the minute as well as solve problems using elapsed time and schedules.

Grade 4:  Comparing Fractions and Understanding Decimals...students can use pictures, drawings, models or number lines to compare fractions as well as understand decimals to the tenths.

You can help at home.  Cooking and measuring for a project helps students learn about fractions.  Time is an everyday life skill.  Having your child keep or use a schedule can help them make sense of elapsed time.  Numbers, addition and subtraction are all around us.

Thank you for the continued support!

Oral Reading Opportunities

Oral reading, or reading aloud, is a critical component to increasing your child's fluency.  When students read aloud, they hear the words they are saying and often are able to correct themselves when they notice something doesn't sound quite right.  They also are given an opportunity to improve their expression.  When they read aloud, students will try to adjust expression accordingly to convey meaning.  It is so important to give students as many opportunities to read aloud as they can.  Some simple ideas for this include:

• Have your child read to you at bedtime for ten minutes, or read every other page
• While you're cooking, have your child sit at the table and read for a few minutes aloud to you
• Your student can take turns reading to different members of the family...younger siblings are great for this!

When your child reads aloud, they often correct their own mistakes.  If they don't correct a mistake, oral reading gives you an opportunity to give your child corrective feedback.  For example, "I noticed you said the word 'carpet'.  Let's look at that word again.  It has a 'ch' at the beginning.  What word could it be?  Let's reread and see if ____ makes sense." 

Oral reading is a window that lets you see inside your child's reading process.  When they read aloud, we are able to see what things they need help with.  We encourage you to give your students opportunities to read aloud at home.  It can be a great experience for all involved!

Making Connections while Reading

In order for students to gain a deep understanding of something they are reading, it is important for them to make connections.  Making connections is a skill that improves a child's comprehension of what they are reading and helps them to appreciate the text.

Teachers and parents can help a student comprehend by stopping after a few pages or paragraphs and asking questions that guide students to making a connection.

There are three basic types of connections:

1. Text-to-self connections: Making a connection between the text and themselves or their own life/experiences
2. Text-to-text connections: Making a connection between the text they are reading and another text that they have read
3. Text-to-world connections: Making a connection between the text and the world that they know around them

To help your child make connections, there are several questions you can ask them such as:

• That character seems to be feeling scared.  What was a time you felt scared before?
• The ending of that book surprised me.  Remember that other book we read where the ending was such a surprise? What was the name of that book?
• It looks like this book is talking about recycling.  A lot of towns recycle in different ways...what are some ways we recycle in Newington?

Making connections with a text is a great way to improve your child's comprehension, and it is also a wonderful way to have a discussion with your youngster!

For more information and tips, visit the following link:

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/blogs/scholastic-parents-raise-reader/help-your-kids-connect-to-books-they-read

We hope this helps!

Improving Sight Word Recognition

One part of reading fluently is being able to recognize sight words automatically.  Sight words, also known as high-frequency words, are words that are commonly used in text.  When students can recognize these words automatically, it helps them to read a text in a smooth manner.

Lists of sight words are available in many forms.  Fry sight words and Dolch sight words are the most commonly used lists.  These words can be found at the following websites:

- Fry words: http://www.k12reader.com/subject/sight-words/fry-words/

-Dolch words: http://www.k12reader.com/dolch-word-list/

Please feel free to contact your teacher to find out which list of words your child would benefit from practicing the most.  We can provide you with what words they currently are struggling with and also tell you which words that they know well!

Practicing sight words does not have to be a boring task.  You can make it fun.  The following are games you can play with your child:

1. Beat the Clock: Write the words down on index cards.  Time your student going through the flashcards and see how long it takes them.  Then, see if they can beat their time the next time.  Students love trying to read all the words before the timer goes off!  You can also play a different way.  Set the time for 30 seconds or a minute (whatever time you think) and see how many words they can read in that time.  The next time, try to read more words in the same amount of time.  Students are often motivated when trying to beat their own personal bests.

2. Memory: Make 2 sets of sight word flash cards.  Use these cards to play Memory with your child's sight words.  Just make sure that as the student flips over the card, they read the word.  It is a fun way to practice your child's sight words without them really knowing you're practicing.

3. Sight Word Hangman: Using a word bank with the list of sight words you are working on, play hangman with a sight word.  This helps students pay attention to how many letters are in the word, what order the letters are in, and how the letters correspond to sounds.

4. Sight Word Shuffle: On a whiteboard or a notepad, give your child the word with the letters scrambled.  They have to unscramble the word, and then write the word themselves with the letters in the right order.

5. Sight Word Bingo:  Just like Bingo, but with sight words.  Contact us in The Learning Center if you want some blank copies of sight word bingo boards.  We would be happy to send some home!


Practicing sight words can be fun if you put it into a game-like experience.  This practice can help increase your student's decoding and fluency skills and improve their overall reading achievement.

Contact us with any questions.  As always, we are here to help!

A Poem of the Week to Build Fluency

Many struggling readers feel discouraged when reading aloud because they have difficulty decoding the words.  However, oral reading is an essential component of building reading fluency.

Poems are the perfect tool to help your student become excited about reading aloud.  Poetry is filled with rhyme, rhythm and repetition, which helps a student build fluency naturally.  Students can sometimes anticipate the words that are coming next.  Implementing a poem of the week with your student is easy.  You may want to consider the following quick steps:

1. First, find a poem!  There are several poetry books available at John Paterson's library, as well as Lucy Robbins Welles Library.  Poems can also be found at the following websites:

http://www.poetryteachers.com/schoolpoems/schoolpoems.html

http://www.gigglepoetry.com/


2. Pick a time and place to read your poem.  If the poem is in a book, you may want to keep it on a nightstand to read before bed.  If it is a printed piece of paper, the refridgerator is a great place.  Creating this routine helps your student know what to expect.

3. Practice, practice, practice! Have the student read the poem aloud 2 or 3 times every day for a week.  You will notice that throughout the week, your student is not only reading the poem quicker, but that he or she is reading the words more accurately and with improved expression.  To make sure this happens, it helps to point out things that you want your child to work on the next day when reading it.  (For example, if your student reads all the words correctly, but isn't reading it with enthusiasm, you may want to tell them that tomorrow you are going to focus just on reading with expression.)

There are so many entertaining poems out there for children.  Find the right ones and your children will enjoy reading aloud and their oral reading will improve!

We hope this helps!  Let us know if you have any questions!

Encouraging Everyday Reading

Reading on a regular basis is crucial to a child's success at school. Daily reading allows a student to naturally develop fluency and accuracy. Fluent readers use a steady pace and can read the majority of the words. Reading becomes faster, smoother, and more expressive. In many cases, understanding of the text is also increased.

Fluency can either be taught directly, like many of the approaches used at school, or indirectly. The indirect method involves encouraging children to read on their own time, voluntarily.

How do we get voluntary readers? Here are some helpful tips:

1. Make reading a habit in your home. Read regularly as a family. Let your child see you reading the paper, a book or a magazine and encourage them to get involved.


2. Speaking of magazines, many children's magazines are highly motivating and interesting.


3. Technology is often appealing to children. Consider using a program such as Raz-kids or find an appropriate online reading site.


4. Create a comfortable place in your home where reading takes place. Let your child help you identify where. Make sure it is well lit and allows for no interruptions.


5. Visit the town library and have your child share his/her interests with the librarian. Prior to the visit, you can ask your child's teacher what his/her independent reading level is and then share that information so the librarian can guide your child in the right direction.


6. Involve your child in everyday reading. Have him/her read recipes, simple directions, and lists. Create notebooks where memories are recorded and then read. Reading of signs, common logos and menus helps students understand the importance of reading.


7. Find a series that your child likes. Often times, one series can jump start a love for reading. Expose your child to many forms of media including appropriate comic books. Any genre can be the bridge to reading. 


If you have any tips to share, please post within the comments section! We would love to hear from you!