Baggie Books and journals will come home every Monday and need to be returned
every Friday. Your child needs to read his/her books several times through-
out the week. Repeated readings of stories are very important. They build
vocabulary, improve fluency, and enhance expression all which ultimately
improve comprehension. Comprehension is the reason we read.
I am including �The Helping Hand� and several strategies to aid your child in
decoding unknown words. Please read this carefully and share it with your
child. Beginning readers and more experienced readers can both utilize these
strategies. If your child is a beginning reader, please feel free to echo
read with him/her. You read a sentence, and then your child reads the same
sentence. You can repeat this as many times as necessary. More experienced
readers can also benefit from hearing you read. It can improve their fluency,
tone and expression. It is also a good strategy to do a picture walk before
your child reads the book. Look at the pictures and make a few predictions
about what will happen in the story. Go ahead and discuss any difficult words
or see if your child can relate to the story in some way. Now your child is
ready to begin reading.
As your child reads, please don�t forget the importance of understanding the
story. As the stories become more difficult this becomes even more important.
Help your child monitor his comprehension as he reads. At the end of a
sentence or a page ask him if he understood what he read. Ask him to retell
that part of the story in his own words. If he can�t, ask him to reread that
section and really concentrate on the meaning. Maybe there was some difficult
vocabulary words, maybe your child read it too fast, maybe he didn�t know
enough about the topic, etc. There are many reasons for not understanding
what we read. We just need to help our children learn to monitor their own
comprehension.
After reading, choose one of your books to use in completing a response in
your journal. Inside the journal you will find a list of ideas to write
about. Please have your child choose one book and idea to write about each
week. Don�t forget to write the title of your book at the top of the page and
to draw a detailed illustration to match your sentences. One to two sentences
are acceptable at this time. Please do more if your child is capable and
always use your very best handwriting! I will look forward to reading the
journals weekly.
After your child reads the baggie books, ask him/her to write the titles on
the record sheet, and reflect on whether he/she enjoyed the book. Parents,
please sign your initials. Your child only needs to record the book once,
even though he/she may have read it several times.
I also invite you to refer to �Literacy Lessons� on our class website for
more information about reading.
Please enjoy this special time with your child!
Feel free to contact me with questions or
concerns. Thank You, Lisa Traflet
