Dear Parents,
This week we will begin The Great Poetry Race. Each week, I will select a poem for our students. We will read the poem in class on Monday and glue it in our poetry notebook. Your child will read the poem to as many people as possible throughout the week. After your child reads the poem, the person who was read to signs the paper included. The student with the most signatures at the end of the week wins a small prize.
The purpose of The Great Poetry Race is to build reading fluency. Reading fluency is when children are able to read quickly and accurately with expression. Research shows that when students read texts multiple times, their fluency increases. This in turn improves comprehension.
Students are not required to read the poem a certain number of times. I hope that The Great Poetry Race will be an enjoyable way for your child to practice reading for an audience while improving both fluency and comprehension. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Kari Vachon