Building a Reader at Home

Parents often ask me how they can help their child grow as a reader at home.  The following tips are ones that I recommend!

Lots to celebrate in room 204!

Our first round of interventions have wrapped up and three second graders share with you some new learning about nonfiction features.  This new learning will help them to read nonfiction books with ease!

"I learned that photographs are real  pictures of a  person, place or a thing." By Kayla

"I learned that labels are words that explain the picture." By Camren

"I learned that maps are drawings of where plants, people, or animals live." By Anthony

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Wow! Jefferson was named as an Outstanding School for Excellent Participation in the West Allis Public Library Summer Reading Club for having the third largest number of readers that completed the library summer reading program from among the West Allis-West Milwaukee schools! The reading teachers shared  the West Allis library's summer reading program information last May at our literacy night and our K5 students also took a walking field trip to the library.  This award displays that reading should be done every day and in every season in order for children to grow as readers.  :)

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Congratulations to Camren M. and Nathaniel C. who no longer need Title One reading! These awesome readers have worked hard this quarter and are now reading in the middle level in their classrooms. Keep up the great work!

"Falling" for reading!

-A big thank you goes out to the boy scouts of pack 584 at Jefferson for helping to fill three boxes to the brim of gently used books! Through the donations of Jefferson students, our classrooms will enjoy reading these books!

-The PTA has begun their reading program for this year "Get Buggy for Reading".  Make sure to read each day and record your minutes and pages read to win some great prizes!

-Are you looking for some great books to read inside during these chilly fall days?  Check out these great books from the Jefferson and West Allis libraries:
The Little Scarecrow Boy by David Diaz
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert
The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

Congratulations to Hunter S. and to Lizzy S. who both have finished Title One reading!  Both of these fabulous readers have reached the middle reading group in their rooms and no longer reading support.  Awesome job!

What we do in Title One Reading class...

A typical lesson with 1-2 grade students looks something like this...(this is told from a student's point-of-view)

Fluent Writing Review

Before my 30 minute lesson begins, I get to write some words on the board. I’m learning to write little important words as fast as I can so that I can write them in my stories. It’s fun to write on the board!

Rereading Familiar Books

In every lesson I get to read lots of little books. I get to pick some of my favorite stories that I have read before. This is easy for me. I try to read my book like a story and make it sound like people are talking.

My teacher says, “That’s good reading; that’s how good readers read.”

Rereading yesterday’s New Book and Taking a Running Record

Now I have to read a book all by myself! My teacher will check on me and won’t help me unless I

have a hard problem. If I just can’t figure out a word or I get all mixed up, my teacher will tell me the word or say, “Try that again.” I read this book yesterday. My teacher helped me work hard to figure out the tricky parts. Now I think I can read it pretty good all by myself!

Letter Identification and/or Word Making and Breaking

Sometimes I need to do work on learning about letters or important “chunks” of words. My teacher

knows all about the things I need to learn. I like to move the magnetic letters around on the board;

they help me understand what I am learning.

Writing a Story

Every day I get to think up my own story to write in my writing book. I can write lots of the little words all by myself. My teacher likes my stories and helps me work to figure out how to write some of the words.

We use boxes and I say the word I want to write slowly so I can hear the sounds, and then I write the

letters in the boxes all by myself. I like to read my story when I’m done.

Cut-up Story to be Rearranged

I read the story and my teacher writes it on a long strip of paper. My teacher cuts up my story so I can put it back together. I have to think real hard to get it all back together. Then I have to check myself to see if I got it right. Most of the time I do!

New Book Introduced

I like this part of the lesson best! My teacher picks out a story just for me and tells me what the story is

all about. We look at the pictures and think about what the people and animals say in this book. My

teacher helps me think about some new and important words in my story. Isn’t it fun to hear about the story and look at the beautiful pictures before you read it? I think it helps me read the story too!

New Book Attempted

Now it’s my turn to work hard again, but I like this story and I know my lesson is almost over. When I

come to a hard part my teacher will ask me questions to help me think, or show me what I should try to think about or do. My teacher is trying to teach me all the things that good readers do. If I have to work real hard on this story, we will probably read it again together so I can just think about the story, but I’m not sure there is enough time.

Three of my second friends have been learning about using strategies to read nonfiction books during intervention time.  They are going to share what they learned about dinosaurs this week with you.

"There were dinosaurs with clubs on their tails." -by Cameron

"There were dinosaurs with long sharp claws and long sharp teeth." -by Anthony

"There were  dinosaurs with  horns." -by Kayla

Welcome back to school!

Welcome back to another wonderful school year at Jefferson!  I look forward to sharing this year with new faces as we learn reading strategies and read awesome books together.  Some great opportunities for learning about math, reading, technology, and more are coming to Jefferson.  Make sure to look for the Preparing for School Success flyers around school to learn more about how to be successful learners.  Also, make sure to stop by room 204 anytime to say hi!