1. Supporting Reading At Home: Creating Lifetime Readers Please take a look at the handouts at your desk. If you have any questions that we do not address, please write your questions on your index card. Thank you! Mrs. Carpenter, Mrs. LeFevre, Mrs. Manuel, Mrs. Zappia

2. Our school values reading. We require our students to read independent texts that they choose at their independent reading level. Independent reading books should be 2 levels below their guided reading level. We monitor students reading progress, make recommendations about new things students might like to try, and give students an opportunity to interact and to develop reading skills through independent reading.

3. Accountable Independent Reading Has Five Purposes:  To engage and motivate students in learning things they care about  To promote students’ love of reading  To build students’ vocabulary  To build students’ knowledge through the world (reading both fiction and informational text)  To build students’ reading “stamina” : their ability to read harder texts for longer periods of time

4. Grade Level Reading Expectations  3 rd Grade: Students complete independent reading during the school day but it is an expectation that they read at home.  4 th Grade: Read 20 minutes nightly  5 th Grade: Read 20 minutes nightly

5. How can I help support my child at home?  With the help of parents and teachers, kids can learn strategies with comprehension, decoding and fluency.  Hold a conversation and discuss what your child has read. Ask your child probing questions about the book and connect the events to his or her own life.  “What was the chapter mostly about?”  “I wonder why the girl did that” How do you know?  “What lesson can we learn from the book?”  What makes you think that? What in the text makes you think that?

6. How can I help support my child at home?  Help your child monitor his or her understanding. Encourage your child to stop and continually ask herself/himself questions during reading to promote thinking while reading.  Help your child go back to the text to support his or her answer:  Locate specific details that match your thinking  Find a quote in the story to explain your thinking  Go to page _____ and explain the main idea

7. Benefits of Reading Aloud  Young children learn a great deal when books are read aloud to them. They will learn the structure of stories: how they begin, different types of conflicts, and possible solutions.  Encourages a love for reading  Creates background knowledge  Builds vocabulary  Provides a reading role model

8. How Can My Child Pick an Independent Reading Book?

9. Community of Readers  Visit your local library  Ask your child’s teacher about Scholastic Book Orders  5 th grade Book Club  Read aloud to adults, siblings, pets  Create a book club with friends  Reading websites: Here are some websites that can help you support your child’s reading at home: http://www2.ed.gov/parents/read/resources/edpicks.jhtml http://www.scholastic.com/parents/ http://www.reading.org/informationfor/parents.aspx http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/