Reading daily should become a daily activity for every student and families should participate in reading activities together nightly. Reading is fun, so join us and enjoy. Reading is Mrs. Hughes's favorite pasttime and her greatest joy is instilling that love of reading in her students. It is her hope that every child acquires an amazing enjoyment of reading.

Listen to many different books read to you by moviestars by clicking on this link now.
Hear Stories Online Read by Movie Stars

Students and parents stay connected by visiting our web page often, as we are always updating it for you. We hope to create parental involvement and link you to helpful sites. We will continue on our way to an exciting school year filled with new discoveries and learning experiences for all of us. We will experience that school can be fun!
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Reading Tips

How to Pick The Perfect Book
Five Finger Rule or The Goldilocks Method

1.) Use the five finger rule. If five or more words on a page are
      unfamiliar to your child, the book is too difficult.

2.) Read easier text to practice fluency and expression.

3.) Take turns reading pages with your child. When you read,
      you are demonstrating good reading behaviors.

4.) Ask your child questions as you read together to check for
      comprehension.

5.) Make frequent trips to your local library to get new books to
      practice reading. Students are more likely to read, when the
      books are about something they enjoy.

Reading Comprehension!

The main purpose of reading is comprehension. To focus on improvement in the area of Reading Comprehension aalways is my goal.

I wanted to share some of the important reading strategies we work on in class. When reading with your child at home, you can work on these strategies to reinforce what we are learning at school. You can pause reading and do "think alouds" with your child to practice these strategies. We are already becoming familiar with this vocabulary in class!

Predict

Make predictions about the book right away. Start by looking at the cover and illustrations. Predict what you think the book will be about. Good Readers think as they read. Stop and predict what will happen next in the story.

Connect (Prior Knowledge)

Think about your own life when you read something. Think about what you may already know about the topic you are reading about (text-to-self connection).

Think about how the book may be similar to another story (text-to-text connection).

Think about how the book relates to the world (text-to-world connection.).

Make a picture in your mind as you read.

Question

Ask questions while you read. Look for answers to your questions.

Clarify (Understand It)

Slow down and be sure you understand what you are reading. Reread it if you need to.

Evaluate

Form opinions as you read and after you read. Did you like the book? Why or
why not?

Reading Strategies

Predict/Infer
Phonics/Decoding
Monitor/Clarify
Making Connections
Question
Evaluate
Summarize

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_3rd_original.htm

http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/table3.html

In our classroom we will base our model of thinking when we read on the following ideas:

The Components of Active Literacy

Reading, writing, drawing, talking, listening, and investigating to engage in the world of issues and ideas, to enhance understanding, to build and actively use knowledge, and to develop insight.

Talking and Listening to each other

Having a conversation--"Literacy floats on a sea of talk." (Britton 1970)
Sharing, thinking, and learning with others
Discussing, agreeing, disagreeing, debating

Reading to construct meaning

Noticing and thinking about the inner conversation
Activating background knowledge and thinking about new learning
Asking authentic questions
Inferring to surface big ideas and themes
Determining importance and synthesizing information