Balanced Literacy
It is essential that everyone is reading EVERY SINGLE NIGHT at
home. I understand that schedules
are busy, but without practicing, we won’t get any better. Read to self, read to someone, or
listen to a book!! We will
continue to meet in our reading groups and everyone is expected to finish their
assignments. Here is a reminder of
our reading group expectations.
Thank you for helping them to remember to do their
assignments!
These are our reading group expectations:
- Bring your reading group folder, current
book, Dear Mrs. McGee, and a pencil to reading group every time we
meet.
- Students will keep track of their
assignments on the assignment pages provided in their reading group
folders (gold folders).
- Students who do not bring their books back
to school or complete the assignment will lose their entire recess.
Some kids are having a
hard time keeping track of their reading books and assignments. I am hoping that this will help
everyone! Thank you for your
continued help at home.
Here are some of the things we are discussing in our reading
groups:
Personal
connections, text to text connections, vocabulary words, character traits,
setting, conflict and so much more!
Non-fiction elements: headings, bold letters, glossary, table of
contents, index, photographs, graphs, charts, maps, etc.. Some groups have begun Literature
Circles and are having a great time.
Reading groups are so FUN!
We are reading BIOGRAPHIES and learning about some very interesting
people. In the next few weeks, we
will work on creating reports to share what we’ve learned about these amazing
and interesting people.
We use a wide variety of
strategies every day in third and fourth grade. We are learning many ways to solve addition and subtraction
problems in math, and there is a wide variety of strategies to use while reading
as well. These are some of the
ways we learn to read unknown or difficult words while in our reading
groups. Here are some reading
strategies you can use at home:
Word-Attack Strategies:
Help students decode,
pronounce, and understand unfamiliar words. They help students attack words piece by piece or from a
different angle.
Use Picture Clues:
Look at the picture. Are there people, objects, or actions
in the picture that might make sense in the sentence?
Sound Out the Word:
Start with the first letter, and
say each letter-sound out loud.
Blend the sounds together and try to say the word. Does the word make sense in the
sentence?
Look for Chunks in the
Word:
Look for familiar letter
chunks. They may be sound/symbols,
prefixes, suffices, endings, whole words or base words. Read each chunk by itself. Then blend the chunks together and
sound out the word. Does that word
make sense in the sentence?
Connect to a Word You
Know:
Think of a word that looks like
the unfamiliar word. Compare the
familiar word to the unfamiliar word.
Decide if the familiar word is a chunk or form of the unfamiliar
word. Use the known word in the
sentence to see if it makes sense.
If so, the meanings of the two words are close enough for understanding.
Reread the Sentence:
Read the sentence more than
once. Think about what word might
make sense in the sentence. Try
the word and see if the sentence makes sense.
Keep Reading:
Read past the unfamiliar word
or look for clues. If the word is
repeated, compare the second sentence to the first. What word might make sense in both?
Use Prior Knowledge:
Think about what you know about
the subject of the book, paragraph, or sentence. Do you know anything that might make sense in the
sentence? Read the sentence with the
new word to see if it makes sense.
