| Fourth graders have a little different reading
program than in the past. During the reading time, students read
by themselves for about 30 to 40 minutes. I meet with each child
at least once during the week to discuss what they are reading, assess
sight word knowledge and fluency, and in general check comprehension.
It is really delightful to experience such enthusiasm about
reading. My goal is to have the students reading a variety
of books this year from many different genres. It is interesting
to see what they select to read and maybe introduce a new book to them.
Most of the homework for fourth graders will be reading. (Not
worksheets, but actual time spent reading.) There is a definite
correlation between reading each day and test scores. Students
should be keeping track of the amount of reading they do each day away
from school. Minutes each day should be recorded and returned to
school on Mondays. Students are surprising me again this year with
weeks of 300 minutes and more.
We have introduced the STAR testing to our program this year.
Students were tested during the third week of school to check their
vocabulary and some comprehension skills. Students receive a score
that helps to set the goals for AR. We have student goals for the
amount of points to get in a nine weeks and have also set goals for
reading a set number of books at certain grade levels and point values.
Students have done very well so far to read at the right level and be
successful. We have already earned more than 1300 points in AR.
In fact, we had a bowling party in March to celebrate all of our reading
success. |
This year the class will work on several different strategies for
reading. We will talk about questioning, prior knowledge, and imaging
quite a bit. One of the strategies will be finding main ideas in non-fiction selections. This is such
an important skill to use in Science and Social Studies. Most students have a good
grasp of the basic reading skills and are ready to explore character, plot, and
style. I hope to include more non-fiction this year. We will be
using A Daybook of Critical Reading and Writing this year for the
first time. This small journal will give students a chance to read a smaller
passage and look for specific comprehension devices. Writing will be a big
part of our Language and Reading classes. Students will be asked to write sentence and
paragraph answers to questions. We will continue to work on the writing process and
using good grammar and punctuation. Our goal is to become better communicators.
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