How to Help Your Child Chose Books on Their Reading Level
Teaching children to read is challenging. One thing that helps so much is helping children chose books on their reading level.
To help your child find books on their reading level you can do the Five Finger Rule. To do the Five Finger Rule - Pick a book, open it to any page and have your child read a page or two depending on how much text is on each page. Count the number of words the child misses on the page/pages. If you count 5 or more words the book is probably too hard. Look for a book on a lower reading level and do the 5 Finger Rule again. Reading books on a child's reading level is so important to build confidence and fluency. Students can also benefit from reading books that are a bit below their level as well to help with fluency and prosody. |
How to Figure out Book Levels with so many Reading Programs
There are many types of Reading Programs, and trying to figure out what a child's reading level is can be difficult. Here are a few of the ways books are leveled and a nifty conversion chart to help you find your child's reading level.
1. Accelerated Reader - Accelerated Reading is a reading program that we use at E. Rivers that allows a child to practice their reading comprehension. We have set goals for each grade level to met, double and triple their reading goals and award prizes accordingly Here is a link to our Roaring Rivers Readers AR Program 2021-2022. We have worked to put AR level labels on our books so children can find books on their reading level quickly and efficiently. 2. Lexile Level - A popular method used by schools to measure a student reader's ability is Lexile level or a Lexile Measure. A Lexile measure is a valuable tool for teachers, parents, and students. It serves two unique functions: it is the measure of how difficult a text is OR a student's reading ability level. 3. Fountas and Pinnell - Our teachers use Fountas & Pinnell in their classrooms and have leveled books for the students to read according to that level. |
Help Your Child Love Reading and improving their Proficiency
One of the most important things that you can do is make reading a nightly habit. There are a few ways you can make it fun and help your child become a reader.
1. Partner Read with your child -To partner read, you read a page and then your child reads a page. Help your child with difficult vocabulary and words that they may not know. I recommend not asking a child to "sound out" the word because many words do not follow the rules for phonics. Show them how you sound it out so you can teach or reteach them to be successful next time they see that word. 2. Question Read - As you are partner reading with your child you can add asking questions. When one of you is reading a page, the other partner is thinking of a question to ask. This way you are really paying attention to the details of the story and practicing comprehension skills. 3. Remind your child to take an AR test. You can find the AR program in MyBackpack. Find the Renaissance App, click on AR, type the name of the story and take the AR test. The most important thing about reading with your child is having fun and building memories. At the same time you will be helping your child to love reading and improve their reading proficiency. |
Additional Information on Helping your Child Read
Parent/Child Tech AgreementOver the holidays you may have given your child a new ipad, Chromebook or other technology device. Before you bestow a powerful digital device upon your child, make sure you have an agreement in place for its safe and responsible use.
Print out the Parent/Child Tech Agreement from CyberWise and sit down with your child to make sure you have some basic guidelines for your child's technology use. It is easy to fritter the day away on technology and miss out on getting outside for some exercise or hanging out with family and friends. We also want students to be safe online! Parent/Child Tech Agreement Internet SafetyThis year I will be doing Internet Safety Lessons with all students in grades 2-5. I will be posting Parent Internet Safety Tips for you here so check back often.
The first Parent News Letter on Internet Safety is: Common Sense on Digital Life Internet Safety
Common Sense Media Common Core Standards Georgia Standards Ten Read-Aloud Commandments Book Response Logs Questioning your child at the end of a story will help him or her develop a better understanding of the story. K-1 Response Log |
Volunteers NeededMedia Volunteers Needed
The Media Center is in need of extra volunteer help. Some of the tasks we need help with are:
There is never a dull moment in the media center! It's a lot of fun serving our readers and we hope you will join us! If you would like to help in the media center, please email me at [email protected]. The job pays lots of thank yous, smiles, and gratitude from me and our wonderful students. Thank you in advance! Mrs. Boston :) |