Mrs.Weinstein

I will use varied approaches during my reading instruction. In addition to whole group instruction, I will also teach Guided Reading Groups, based on the philosophies of Fountas and Pinell.

The following strategies are the heart of guided reading. I encourage parents and guardians to follow these strategies when reading with children.

• In the early part of the school year, children may rely on looking at pictures to discover what a word may be. Encourage them to see if they can use a picture clue to decide what the word is.
• Have your child look for 'chunks' in a word, such as "at" in mat, "ing" in standing, and "it" in sit.
• Ask your child to get her/his mouth ready to say the word by shaping their mouth for the first letter.
• Ask you child if the word looks like another word they may know. (hand/stand, cook/look, etc.)
• Have you child read on to the end of a sentence. By reading other words in context, this strategy may help your child figure out the unknown word.
• If your child says a word wrong while reading, you can ask questions such as: Does that make sense?Does it sound right?Does it look right?

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  Questions to Ask Your Child About a Story

• While reading a story

1. What are some of the events that have happened so far?
2. What is the problem in the story? Why?
3. What do you think will happen next?

• After reading a story

1. Who are the main characters?
2. Where does the story take place?/ What is the setting of the story?
3. Describe the setting.
4. Does a character in this story remind you of any other character you have read about? How are they alike? How are they different?
5. Tell the main events that happened in the story.
6. What was your favorite part of the story and why?
7. If you could write a different ending for the story, how would it end?

• While I am working with Guided Reading Groups, the rest of the class will be involved in group centers, partner reading, or independent work assignments. During this time, my classroom rules are:
• Inside voices at all times.
• Follow all instructions.
• Ask three before me.
• Do your personal best! :)