For the Week of January 4th

Benchmark Week

Our winter benchmarking is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, January 7th and 8th. I have noticed that two good habits that will help your child score their best on the benchmarking are getting a good nights rest and practicing reading each day. When students do not get the sleep they need during the night, they move slower and feel lethargic so they read at a slower pace. Many students at the grade school level do not know when they should go to bed to get the amount of sleep they need. They must be told when to go to bed. Likewise, some students must be told to practice their reading. They are too young to understand the long term effects of reading or not reading. Especially since we have 16 days off of school before benchmarking, it is especially important to have your child read outloud to you. Keeping words fresh in your child's mind will help them to do their best reading.

For the Week of December 14th

Sight Words

For the past two weeks I have listed sight words that are important for every student to memorize. Here is the continuation of those lists. List 12: been, they, obey, guarantee, does, goes, shoe, tongue, List 13: because, laugh, aunt, moisten, restaurant, could, would, should, your, hour, blood, door, flood, fountain, mountain, loose, doubt, List 14: already, break, great, ocean, steak, sergeant, build, built, sew, garage, massage, List 15: anxious, fashion, foreign, soldier, review, height, view, their, taught, daughter, caught, choir, special.

Wishes for a Wonderful Holiday

I want to wish every Prairieview family a warm, delightful holiday. My hope is that all students will come back refreshed, ready and enthusiastic to learn.

For the Week of December 7th

Sight Words

Last week I wrote about students memorizing sight words. I included lists of sight words to practice. Some of you may have found that your student already knows all of the sight words I included so I am including more lists in this weeks blog.

List 6: many, busy, pretty, beauty, any, only, chocolate, List 7: above, among, animal, pasta, isle, trouble, triple, double, people, List 8: imagine, change, once, medicine, recipe, engine, strange, angel, List 9: garage, library, necessary, orange, parent, sugar, toward, honor, source, List 10: answer, brother, every, father, mother, other, very, America, another, bury, cover, hero, purpose, List 11: again, against, always, said, says, today, straight, Wednesday

Conferences

I enjoyed conferences last week. It is great to be a part of the cooperative effort with parents to help their student thrive in the classroom. It was fun to hear anecdotes about the students and to get a more varied picture of them.

For the Week of November 30th

Fluency with Sight Words

There are rules to learning to read the English language and many words that follow those rules. There are words, however, that do not follow the rules. These words are known as sight words. They may follow some of the rules but not all of the rules. Sight words must be memorized. If you have a child who is striving to learn to read, memorizing and drilling the sight words will help. First, ask the child to read all of the words on the list. Make a note of those that your child does not read quickly and easily. Then write them on notecards. Have your child practice reading the words. To make it fun, you could time how long it takes to read the whole stack. Practice reading them faster and faster. Write the words in sentences and make sure that your student can read the words in context. Play a memory game with the words by making two copies of the words. Lay all of the words face down and take turns turning two words over. If they match, that player gets to keep them. At each turn, the player has to read the words they turn over. The player with the most cards at the end of the game, wins.

List 1: son, put, what, to, the, push, won, both, a, List 2: full, shall, pull, plus, add, yes, was, is this, of, his, has, List 3:from, want, chalk, comb, half, talk, walk, month, else, length, palm, pint, List 4: cost, lost, wind, friend, front, strength, List 5: often, listen, fasten, soften, almost, island, control, buffet, exhibit, List 6: are, come, done, gone, one, some, sure, there, were, where, clothes, eye, glove, lose, love, move, prove, shove, taste, waste, whole, owe, whose, List 7: machine, minute, police, promise, something, approve, improve, someone, List 8: pie, tie, bye, two, to, the, do, a buy, who, oh, die, lie, List 9: acre, into, mothing, become, also, honest, woman, remove, women

If your child can read all of these it is quite an accomplishment. I will add more sight words next week.

For the Week of November 23rd

I hope everyone enjoys a restful, thankful time with family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday.

It is important to engage students in meaningful writing. This means writing for specific purposes such as shopping lists and writing emails or letters. One type of meaningful writing that can have significance for the whole family is to spend some time writing about the things we are thankful for. I have discovered a number of ways that different families do this.

One family cuts out a construction paper tree with branches and tapes it to a wall. Then as Thanksgiving draws near, members of the family write items they are thankful for on colorful construction paper leaves and attach them to the tree. When Thanksgiving arrives, they read all of the reasons their family is thankful.

Someone else suggested giving a smooth stone to each person and have them write with marker what they are thankful for. Each member takes turns reading their "thankfulness stone" to the family.

Each person could write what they are thankful for on a piece of paper and put it in a basket. The basket is then passed around the table and members take one piece of paper out and read it to the family.

Some of the things related to being a teacher that I am thankful for are: 1)being in a position to make a positive impact on the lives of children, 2)working with teachers, staff and administration that are dedicated to and love their jobs, 3)partnering with supportive parents and, 4)having this beautiful facility to work in. I am truly blessed and thankful.

For the Week of November 16th

It is hard to believe, but our winter holiday break is just around the corner. With that in mind, I would like to encourage District 66 parents to consider giving the gift of reading. When you give the gift of a book or magazine, you are saying that you think reading is an enjoyable, worthwhile activity. If you think carefully about your child, their likes and interests, you will be able to pick out the perfect book or magazine. Be sure to tell them why you chose that particular piece of literature as they open it. Also, spend some time helping your student "get into" the reading. Read the first chapter with them or look at the pictures in the magazine and discuss the interesting articles they can read. If everyone in the family receives something new to read, it can be cozy and fun to make something warm to drink and all sit around enjoying your new books together.

For the Week of November 9th

Veteran's Day - Wednesday - No School

This past Thursday evening I attended a Veteran's Day service at Wheaton College given by the ROTC. The service reminded all of us how much we owe our freedoms to those who fight to preserve them for us. I would like to thank all of you who are veterans or who are currently in the military. Thank you for your service to our country. Thank you for protecting us. Thank you for laying your lives on the line so that we can continue to enjoy all the benefits of being citizens of the United States of America.

Another Intervention for RTI - Wilson

This week I would like to describe another intervention that we use at Prairieview for RTI. It is called Wilson. It is a system of teaching reading created by Barbara Wilson. Methodically, the students learn the six syllables types. They learn how to break longer words into syllables in order to decode them quickly and easily. There are specific methods to help students learn sight words; words that do not exactly follow the decoding rules. There is vocabulary instruction. Students are taught to read in phrases, instead of word-by-word. They are taught to make pictures in their mind of what they are reading and then put the pictures together in the correct order to make a movie. This helps their comprehension. Wilson is a research based intervention that works on all five components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.

Helping your Child with Fluency

One method you can use to help your child with fluency is called "echo reading." Read one sentence very fluently while your child listens. Ask your child to try to read the sentence the same way you read it. Then do the same thing on the next sentence. After you practice that for several days, ask your child to read a sentence silently to himself and figure out how to read the sentence so that it sounds best. Then have him read it outloud to you. Have him work on reading phrase-by-phrase instead of word-by-word.

For the Week of November 2

Over the past number of weeks I have been highlighting some of the interventions we use at Prairieview in our RTI program. This week I am going to describe Fundations which is a phonics, sight word, vocabulary and spelling program. Fundations uses letter cards to help the teacher build words on the board. It uses magnetic tile boards for the students to build words on their desks. Small dry erase boards are used for student practice. Each student also has a student notebook and a composition book to help keep track of the rules he/she has learned. Fundations is a very systematic approach to learning the English spelling and reading rules. It shows students how suffixes change words and explains how and when the base words changes as suffixes are added. It teaches the different kinds of syllables and how to break longer words into syllables. Fundations is a research based method that we find helpful for many students.

For the Week of October 26th

This past week I went to a conference orchestrated by SCIRA, Suburban Council of the International Reading Association. P. David Pearson, a literacy specialist, author and researcher from Berkeley, California was the speaker. It was a wonderful experience. This man radiates the joy of literacy and teaching literacy. Dr. Pearson gave me a lot to contemplate about teaching reading. One idea he presented was that reading should not be an end in itself but should be presented to students as a tool to use to understand their world. Reading is a tool to learn about science, social studies, math and literature. He is working with scientists and teachers to write and publish curriculum that combines science and literacy. The students spend their time doing hands-on science quests, writing about what they have seen, talking about it and reading about it. Doing it. Writing it. Talking it. Reading it. Succinctly put, those are the approaches that help children learn. One idea I would like to pass on to parents is that many students, boys especially, dislike novels but love reading science. If you are a parent who has trouble getting your child to read, try going to the library or bookstore and looking at the science section instead of the novel section. See if a science book will capture your child's attention.

For the Week of October 19th

Last week I wrote about the computer program called Read Naturally that we use in both small pull-out groups and as individuals in the classroom. (see last week's blog) This week I am going to describe Reader's Theater. Reader's Theater is a fun way that we work on fluency with the students. It is used in the regular classroom as well as in small pull-out groups for RTI. Reader's Theater scripts are just like scripts for a play. Each student has the role of one character in the play. The difference between a play and Reader's Theater, however, is that the students don't do any acting. They only use their voices to make their characters come alive. They practice their parts until they can read them fluently and then they work on expression and sometimes even accents or funny voices depending on their characters. Reader's Theater is a researched based method for helping students with their fluency. Of course, vocabulary is a byproduct, because they learn new words as they are reading the Reader's Theater scripts.

You can try this at home if you have several people willing to participate. Find a book that has a lot of talking between characters. Assign a character or two to each child and someone to be the narrator. If your child is a reluctant reader it might be better to have the parent start out as the narrator because the narrator parts are usually longer. The character reads only those parts that are in quotation marks. The narrator reads the rest. This breaks up the text in a different way than paragraph-by-paragraph or page-by-page. Children enjoy adding expression to their voices. Reader's Theater can also be done with poetry by splitting up the poem for different readers.

For the Week of October 12th

Did you ever wonder what your child does when they work on the computer program Read Naturally? Read Naturally is a research based program that we use both in small pull-out groups and in the classrooms to work on reading skills. Students begin by choosing a story. Each story is introduced with vocabulary words. Then the student uses those words, the picture, the title and their background knowledge to write a prediction about what they think the story will be about. Next the student does a cold read of the story and is timed. This tells the student how fast they read the story without any practice. Then they listen to the story up to three times as a model for fluent reading and to help them learn the words that they don't know. After listening, the student practices reading the story themselves. Each student has been given an individualized goal for how fast he needs to be able to orally read the story. When he is able to read the story at that rate and he knows all the words, he moves on to the comprehension quiz. The quiz includes both multiple choice and short answer questions. After that the student must write a short summary of the story. When all of these steps are accomplished, the student is ready to pass. The teacher comes to listen to the student read the story aloud. The teacher counts the errors, listens for fluency and times the student. The teacher also looks over the written work and makes comments and suggestions for improvement. If the student passes, he then picks a new story to read. The three big areas of reading most worked on in 3rd-5th grades are fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. All three of these areas are addressed with Read Naturally.

For the Week of October 5th

Paraphrasing - A Great Reading Strategy

One strategy that you might try with your struggling reader is to help him/her paraphrase what he/she has read. Paraphrasing is saying the same thing that the author said, but in your own words. To help your child do this, you should do it several times yourself first. Read a paragraph together with your child. After reading, put the book aside and tell about what you read in your own words. If you can't remember something, or realize that you didn't understand something, look back and reread. Talk about your thinking with your child. After doing this several times, let your child try it on the next paragraph. Tell your student that it is important to make sure they understand what they have read so far before they read more. At first paraphrase paragraph by paragraph. After paragraphs are mastered, sections can be read before paraphrasing.

For the week of September 28th

Response to Intervention small groups began this past Monday. There were some minor problems, but overall, students moved smoothly to new areas, and have been working hard to make progress in their reading. I have spoken to or had email correspondence with a number of parents, and am pleased with the positive feedback, helpful suggestions, and questions about how parents can help their children at home. Many weeks on my blog I write about different things you can do with your student - things which are enjoyable and beneficial at the same time. Look back over my past blog posts to get some ideas. I will be sharing more ideas as the weeks go on.

The most important thing you can do if your child struggles some with reading is to spend time sitting with them and reading. It is sometimes difficult for a child to force themselves to do something that is hard but it is more fun, and it is easier if a parent is doing it with them.

For the Week of September 21st

Students who have not made the target scores in aimsweb will begin getting extra instruction this week. Parents can help their children at home by sitting beside them as they read aloud. Give the child 3-5 seconds to determine unknown words. If they cannot get the word - give it to them, have them repeat what you said and go on with their reading. This can be done with any text or book as long as they can read the majority of it without you helping them. 4-5 words per page should be the maximum that you have to feed them. Echo reading can also help them to begin to learn to read with expression. You read a sentence and then they try to read the sentence with the same phrasing and expression that you did. It is amazing how just 20-30 minutes a night of this practice will help your child to become a more fluent reader.

For the Week of September 14th

This past week a team of 11 benchmarked, for reading, every student in the school. Now the teachers and administrators will be studying the results to see who should be placed in small groups for extra help in reading. Each student who is below the target score will be discussed and placed in the group where he/she will receive the support that they need. Those parents with students who need extra support will be notified this week. Small group time will begin the week of September 21st.

I am eagerly looking forward to working with this year's students. They are a great group of children.

A Fun Game - Match the Homophones

Its fun to play games with your child that also improves their reading. This is a great game to play with your 3rd grader. Make a batch of cards with the following words printed on them. Try to include some that your child knows and some that he doesn't know. Pick a reasonable number of matches for each game. Turn all of the cards face down and take turns turning over two cards and reading them. The person reading them must tell what each words means or use the word in a sentence. Mom or Dad can help if needed. If they are homophones (two words that sound alike but mean different things) then the person turning them over gets to keep them and take a second turn. The winner is the person with the most matches at the end of the game.

Cards to make: right, write, know, no, which, witch, son, sun, some, sum, banned, band, guest, guessed, missed, mist, plain, plane, mail, male, mind, mined, find, fined, weather, whether, father, farther, hi, high, by, buy, oh, owe, flour, flower, thrown, throne, nose, knows, write, right, night, knight, new, knew, seen, scene, sent, cent, piece, peace, sell, cell, its, it's, pale, pail, sale, sail, brake, break, lead, led, worn, warn, bury, berry, herd, heard, meat, meet

Help Me Find a Book!

Walking into a library or a bookstore can be a daunting task when asked to find a book that your child will actually sit down and read. Knowing your child's Lexile score can help. That score is on their ISAT test results but those scores haven't come out yet for this year. One site that might help you is http://fab.lexile.com. On this site you can enter the grade your child is in and how they feel about the reading they have in that grade. You are then asked about your child's interests. Almost magically, books appear that will be approximately on your child's reading level and on topics your child is interested in. Print off the list and take it with you to the library or bookstore. It takes some of the guesswork out of it.

Welcome Back!

After having a wonderful summer, I am excited to be back in the classroom. It is fun planning for a new school year. I am looking forward to seeing all of the smiling faces walking in on Monday morning. If you have any questions about your child's reading, please feel free to contact me. Here is to a great year!

For the Week of June 1st

Make Reading A Priority

Research demonstrates that students who spend more time reading, read better. Some students enjoy reading and read as much as they can. Others prefer doing anything more than reading. For those parents, I would encourage the following: 1)Set a certain time and place for reading. Do not tell your child to go read, instead read together. If you do not have time to do this - hire someone to do it with you student. It can even be a mature high school student. 2)Go with your child to pick out books at their reading level. They should be able to read a page in the middle of the book and have no more than 5 errors on the page. 3)Set up a reward system. Do not make your child wait until the end of the summer to receive his/her reward. Make smaller rewards weekly with a larger reward if he/she completes the summer schedule.

Being able to read well is so important for children's future academic achievements that we must all work to make reading a priority just like we do for practicing an instrument or playing a sport. Making sure your child reads may be a struggle, but it is a struggle worth undertaking.

Thank You!

I want to thank all of the parents for the privilege of teaching your children. It is a rewarding and fulfilling job and I am very thankful to be employed by such a wonderful school district. Have a safe and fun summer. I am looking forward to the fall with another new beginning.

For the Week of May 25th

Structure Brings Security

I had the privilege of attending a two day conference this past week at Northern Illinois University organized by Illinois ASPIRE. Besides learning about many helpful studies in the area of reading, I also learned about setting behavior goals for students. One of the speakers, Randy Sprick, Ph.D., spoke of how important school structure is for the success of our students. He used an example of school lunch lines. If school lunch lines are run inefficiently so that students have to wait a long time to get their lunches, then students begin to think about how they are going to get down to the lunch lines before everyone else. The problem is that they start to think about this while they are in still in the class that meets before lunch and so their attention is taken away from the lesson on which they should be concentrating. I was thinking about how I feel better when my life is properly structured. I like to have a plan for what meals I am going to prepare and have the food on hand to make those meals. I like to know that my clothes are ironed and ready to wear. I like to know that I have enough time to do what I need to do and also get enough sleep at night so that I feel rested and energetic the next day. Children, also, thrive with structure. If there is a natural flow and rhythm to their lives, they feel more comfortable and secure. This structure varies from family to family, but it should include eating times, homework times, reading times, helping times, relaxing times and bed times. The gifts of well-structured homes and schools can be a positive influence on the behavior of our children, both in school and out of school.

For the Week of May 18th

Helping Your Child with Vocabulary Acquisition

A mature reader is able to use context clues as a strategy to help understand unknown vocabulary words. You can encourage your student to see and recognize clues that will help them to understand the nuances of words better. There are four main types of clues that authors use.

The first is to give the reader the definition or a synonym of the word. An example is: A hydrophyte is a plant which grows well in very wet places. When you come across this type of word, simply ask your child, "What does the sentence say a hydrophyte is?" You can point out that if they see words such as "refers to, is defined as, is or means," then the definition is sure to follow. Sometimes the vocabulary word or its definition is in italics. Sometimes the definition is set off by commas, dashes or parentheses.

The second type of clue authors use is to give us examples or illustrations to make the word's meaning clearer. An example is: The boy was very responsible. He always tidied up his room before he left for school. He did his homework neatly and on time and he remembered to feed and groom his dog. By studying the examples of the responsible boy, the reader can begin to understand what responsible means.

The third type of clue authors use is contrast. This is when the word's opposite appears in the sentence. An example is: Tommy is very rambunctious but his brother is quiet and orderly. Some word clues that help signal a contrast are "however, on the other hand, in contrast, but, yet, different and unlike."

The fourth type of clue authors use is inference. To use this type of clue effectively, you must apply your background knowledge to information in the text. An example is: My teenage daughter was being flippant when I asked her why she was late coming home last night. She said that she had gotten run over by a train and it was none of my business anyway. Using your background knowledge of how teenagers can behave, along with the words that the teenager said, and you can begin to understand the meaning of flippant. Make sure to look at the sentences around the vocabulary word to get as many context clues as possible.

For the Week of May 11th

Science and Literacy

Does your child enjoy science? Do they struggle in science? The following books have been recommended by The Reading Teacher. These books were picked for both their scientific content and their literacy. They are recommended for 5th graders but would be great as read alouds also.

Science Projects: Sound by S. De Pinna
Space Station Science: Life in Free Fall by M. J. Dyson
Destination Rain Forest by J. Grupper
The Drop in My Drink: The Story of Water on Our Planet by M. Hooper
Animal Defenses: How Animals Protect Themselves by E. Kaner
Light and Sound by P. Lafferty
The Most Beautiful Roof in the World: Exploring the Rainforest Canopy by K. Lasky
Super Cool Science: South Pole Stations, Past, Present, and Future by S. Markle
Tornadoes by S. Simon
A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder by W. Wick

Reading During the Summer

As we approach summer, I would encourage you to think about your family's reading plans. We make plans for sports camps, vacations and swim lessons. Why not make reading plans? If as a family, you decide when reading would best fit in your schedule, then it is more likely to happen. Don't let this summer slip away without spending some quality time with some good books. Your children will thank you for it - maybe not now, but sometime in the future.

For the Week of May 4th

Family Book Clubs - Thank you to all of the students and parents who came out to our Family Book Club evening. It was such an enjoyable evening. I just love hearing students discuss important topics and interacting with their parents and others. It is impressive to hear the thoughtful, wise comments students make.

Small Groups - Our RTI (Response to Intervention) small groups continue to work on the three big areas of reading: fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. We work on fluency by doing phonics work, word families, sight words, repeated readings, reader's theater, book reading, and Read Naturally, our computer program. We work on vocabulary by working on the words they encounter in their reading. We work on comprehension by explicitly teaching and practicing the six reading strategies of predicting, connection, visualizing, inferring, summarizing and questioning. Like I said last week, reading and writing go hand-in-hand so we continually read and write and then write and read.

For the Week of April 27th

Family Book Club - Wednesday, April 29th 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Prairieview

The family book club committee is looking forward to our annual Family Book Club meeting. We enjoy hearing students and parents discuss important issues brought up through the reading of fiction. This year's books were selected because there are a number of character values to discuss such as truthfulness, anger and friendship. If you have read either Shiloh or Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, please join us for a fun evening together.

Gym Shoe Rescue

We will continue our gym shoe rescue for one more week. Help the earth. Recycle! Bring in gym shoes you no longer need or want. Thanks for all of your help.

Reading and Writing Together

Did you know that you can improve your child's reading skills through writing? Timothy Rasinski and Nancy Padak, in their article in The Reading Teacher journal titled "Write Soon!" offer numerous tips to parents about ways they can incorporate writing their child's life. Here are some of their tips: 1. Lists - Encourage your child to make lists - for who to invite to the party, what to serve, chores, favorite meals for your reference or activities done that day for future reflection. 2. Notes - Find a fun place to stick a note where your child will find it, like under a pillow or in a lunchbox. Encourage your child to leave notes for you. Give your child a small spiral notebook to write notes to themselves about things that interest them or something they want to talk to you about or try in the future. 3. Journals or Diaries - Keeping a journal can be fun. In a dialogue journal the family members take turns writing and responding. This way the child has a chance to not only write, but will look forward to your response to his writing. This is a good place to ask questions. 4. Letters and E-Mails - What a great way to stay in touch with friends and loved ones while working on reading and writing at the same time. 5. Parodies - Rewriting new words to familiar songs can be fun for the whole family. They can be as silly as you want. Sing them together as you read the words and your child is practicing reading and he/she won't even know it. Remember that writing must be authentic. If it serves a purpose then it won't seem like an extra homework assignment. Don't be overly concerned about mechanics. If you write together, the child will begin to use the parent's writing as a model. Writing should be a part of the family routine. Make sure the necessary materials are readily available. Have fun!

For the Week of April 20th

Gym Shoe Rescue - All of this week and the next we will rescue our old or out-grown gym shoes from the landfill. Gym shoes will be collected, here at Prairieview, and given to SCARCE, an organization that is concerned about our environment. They will either send the shoes to Nike to be made into surface or other products, or they will actually be used by people who need them. Please have your child bring in any shoes that might otherwise find their way into your trash can. Thanks for helping our environment. Character Counts!

Family Book Club - Family Book Club is coming up Wednesday, April 29th. It is not to late to read one of the two book choices and participate with us. We would love to have you. It is an experience that many parents have appreciated because they have the opportunity of seeing their child discuss important issues with thoughtfulness and interest.

Small Groups - Reading focuses on 3 main areas during the 3rd to 5th grade years. Fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are the main areas of concentration. We focus on fluency by doing word studies, repeated readings, readers theater and poetry reading. We work on vocabulary both in the stories and poems we read and in our content courses. Comprehension strategies are taught systematically and thoroughly throughout the year. These include predicting, visualizing, connecting, summarizing, inferring and questioning.

For the Week of April 6th

Learning to infer well is very important to successful reading. Help your child practice making inferences by asking him/her questions about a book you are reading together. Inferences are conclusions the reader draws about his reading that the author does not state directly in the text. The reader uses clues that the author gives and his/her own background knowledge in order to make inferences. There are a number of types of inferences. For example, a reader can infer what emotion a character is feeling or expressing. He/She can infer what character qualities or traits characters possess. Where the story is located can be inferred. Characters occupations and actions can be inferred. The time period of the story can also be inferred. Ask you student questions like "What did the author mean by _________?" or "When do you think this story takes place?" You might ask, "How do you think that character is feeling right now?" or "What do you think that person does for a living?" Follow up these questions with questions about the clues your student used to decide his/her answers. There should be some obvious and some subtle clues that your student can point out that helped him/her make the inferences.

For the Week of April 6th

Are you looking for a good book to read? Is your child looking for a way to stay busy over Spring Break? Join us for Family Book Club Night on Wednesday, April 29th @ 6:30 p.m. Simply go to the Center Cass 66 District website, click on "Prairieview", and read more about this great school event! You can then print a registration form and send it in. Please note that registration has been extended.

If you have any questions, contact Lynda Slinger lslinger@ccsd66.org or Jennifer Cerney jcerney@ccsd66.org. Hope to see you there!

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I am reading a new book I received from the International Reading Association. Teaching Individual Words: One Size Does Not Fit All by Michael F. Graves discusses, among many other things, how important certain words are to learn. He gives these interesting statistics: English has over 180,000 words. The average high school senior has a vocabulary of about 50,000 words. The average 8th grader has a vocabulary of about 35,000 words. The 100 most frequent words account for about 50% of typical texts. The 1000 most frequent words account for about 70% of typical texts. The 5000 most frequent words account for about 80% of typical texts. Knowing this helps educators know which words to target for instruction.

For the Week of March 23rd

Family Book Club is Wednesday evening, April 29th from 6:30-8:00 PM. This year's books are Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech and Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Why not read one or both of these books with your student over spring break and then let us know that you will be coming to the family book club evening. We would enjoy having you join us. Over the years of doing this, we have received many positive comments about how parents got a completely different picture of their child as they listened to them discuss text. It is also a great way to meet other parents in the district.

For the Week of March 16

I was reading an article in the "Reading Teacher" about sustained silent reading in the classroom. For many students this is an important part of the day. During this time students get to select their own books and read for pleasure. This daily practice helps them to imprint more words on their brains so that they can read at a faster rate and more accurately. However, for some students, sustained silent reading is not that helpful. Some students pick out books that are too hard for them. This causes them to loose interest quickly and soon they are pretending to read. Books that students read for pleasure, with no adult help, should be books that have a maximum of 5 words on the page that are difficult for them. This same principle applies to students reading at home. The article stressed how important it is for students to choose books at their level. Parent can help with this selection by listening to your child read a page out of the middle of the book. Count how many errors are made. Steer your child towards books at their level. If you are reading a book together and can quickly feed your child words that they don't know, then it is fine to get a reading level that is higher. When students' abilities and the reading levels of books fit, students are much less likely to put the books down.

For the Week of March 9th

Cook to Read and Read to Cook

As I was driving south on 355 this morning, I was listening to two people have a discussion about how beneficial it is for children to spend time cooking with their parents. They were emphasizing the merits of children learning how to cook, learning about good nutrition and spending quality time with their parents. If I could have called in, I would have added that reading recipes and following the directions helps a student's reading ability. In fact, one part of the reading section of the ISAT test is devoted to reading something like a recipe or directions for making or doing something. Then questions are asked about that reading. When students read a recipe, they have to comprehend what the recipe is telling them to do in order to come out with a tasty product. Measuring helps math skills. Volume and fractions are learned hands-on. Double the recipe to make it more exciting - then share some with someone who could use a little cheering up. Cooking together has now turned into a character building exercise. So, pick out a delicious sounding recipe and have some fun together. There are numerous reasons to do so.

For the Week of March 2nd

Games can be a great way to have fun as a family as well as improve your child's reading and vocabulary skills. The following games were taken from The Reading Teacher Vol. 62. No. 4 December/January 2009 in an article titled "The Games Children Play" by Nancy Padak and Timothy Rasiniski.

Word Theater is played much like Charades. Put vocabulary words on slips of paper. Players take turns drawing a slip and silently acting out the word. Other players guess the word being acted.

20 Questions is a game where you secretly select a word from a shared reading text. The child can ask 20 yes-or-no questions in order to guess which word you are thinking of. The child should be allowed to look at the text from which the selected word comes.

Word-Part Rummy requires cards with prefixes, suffixes and roots that can go together to make words. Have enough cards so that there are about 10 per player. After shuffling the cards, deal five to each player. The rest are kept in a pile, face down.Players look for cards that create words and place them on the table. Take turns drawing a card and discarding a card if you don't have any matches. The first one to use all of the cards in his/her hand, wins.

For the Week of February 23rd

Important Announcement
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Spring Picture Day - All students will be photographed. Please
notify your student's teacher if you do not want an individual portrait
taken of your child.
Look Before You Buy:
Send no money now - View your portraits before you buy.
Your finished portrait package will be sent home for review.
Simply return any un-used portrait sheets with your payment.

ISATS are Around the Corner!

I have been working with all three grades, helping the reading teachers to make sure each student is prepared and feels confident going into the ISAT tests. As I have been doing this, I have been pleased with the level of reading going on in this school. Each student combines his/her background knowledge with what he/she reads to make meaning of the text. Each one brings a unique perspective and valuable contributions to discussions about text. It is a joy to be a part of this process.

For the Week of February 16th

When I was a young student, many years ago, they used to make us memorize the names of all of the presidents of the United States. With such easy access to information, such as lists of all of the presidents, the need to memorize their names has disappeared from school curricula. The importance, however, of learning about our presidents and understanding the contributions they have made to our nation and it's welfare is ongoing. As a commemorative to the 200th birthday anniversary of Abraham Lincoln, why not enjoy a good book on one of the presidents with your child. There are many biographies of the presidents and also a number of encyclopedias about the presidents. Here are a few recommended books: Abraham Lincoln: 16th U.S. president Author:M.C. Hall ; illustrated by Marty Martinez; Big George: how a shy boy became President Washington Author:Anne Rockwell ; illustrated by Matt Phelan
Dwight D. Eisenhower: thirty-fourth president, 1953-1961 Author:written and illustrated by Mike Venezia George Bush: America's 41st president
Author:Betsy Ochester

For the Week of February 9th

One of the wonderful resources that we have at Prairieview is Jackie Warkentien. She is an immense help to teachers and students looking for a good book to read. She averages reading about a book-a-day and keeps track of them on a website called "goodreads.com." The following is a review she wrote about a book she highly recommends. We Are the Ship by Kadir Nelson reminds us that we, as baseball fans, owe a debt of gratitude to those immensely talented men of the Negro Baseball League who played the game with dignity, affection, and devotion. Where would our beloved game be today if we did not enjoy the talents of Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Derrek Lee, or C.C. Sabithia? These dedicated men who put up with bumpy bus rides, segregation, playing three-games-a-day, and jeers and insults from white fans, are a testament today of the work ethic that makes doing any job you love worth doing. I, as one overly enthusiastic baseball fan, am in awe of these men who went about their business because of the love of the game, knowing full well that it wasn't about the money, or the fame, or the perks...it was about camaraderie, the intricacies of the game, and the passion of playing and giving it your all.
Kadir Nelson writes with a chatty, folksy tone and it seems as if he is sitting down next to you on the bleachers on a sun-filled summer day, eating a hot dog and watching your favorite game. He tells the reader the unvarnished truth, with no regrets, or apologies, or sugar-coating. He simply wants you to know what came before the multi-million dollar salaries, the luxuries of the clubhouse, and the mind-numbing figures of product endorsements.
As bad as some of it was, it wasn't all bad; they were playing the game they loved. As Nelson writes, "We look back and wonder, 'How did we do all of that?' It's simple. We loved the game so much, we just looked past everything else. We were ballplayers. There was nothing we would have rather spent our time doing."
If you are a baseball fan, We Are the Ship is a must-read. If you are a card-carrying member of the human race, this book should be required reading. If you are an aficionado of American History, this is a story that fills in some of the blanks about our country. If you appreciate a job well-done, devotion to a passion, or inspiring stories passed down through generations, this beautifully crafted book full of intricate, life-like illustrations must not be passed up. This is a book for kids of every age, especially 'kids' who love the game. Don't miss it.

For the Week of February 2nd

I was excited this week to get a new book from the International Reading Association. It is titled: Bright Beginnings for Boys: Engaging Young Boys in Active Literacy.I haven't had a chance to read the whole book, but as I was skimming it, looking forward to what I was going to be reading, I came across the following which I wanted to share with you. This is a brainstormed list (p. 137) that comes from boys who have been asked how their older brothers should work with their siblings when they read a book.
10. Have FUN!
9. After you read, take time to discuss the book. Ask one another who, what, when, why, and how questions.
8. Ask the child his or her favorite part and character.
7. If the child is a reader, have him or her read to you. If you notice too many mistakes being made, check for readability. Ask the librarian or teacher in charge to make sure the book is at the proper level.
6. If the child does make an error while reading that distracts from the meaning of the story, prompt the child with a question that will help him or her recognize the error.
5. As the child reads, remember that some mistakes are OK. If the child says house for home it does not change the story's meaning. If meaning is not altered, let it go.
4. Encourage the child to ask questions about the story if the plot is confusing.
3. Identify and discuss unfamiliar words.
2 Encourage conversation. Ask the child if his or her initial predictions were correct.
1. Take time to discuss the book before you read. Look at the cover, point out the author and illustrator, and ask the child what he or she thinks the book will be about.

For the week of January 26th

Fluency

An important part of fluency is reading in phrases instead of word-by-word. If your child struggles in this area, one way to help him/her is to echo read. First point out places that make natural breaks to take a quick breath, like commas and just before prepositions (on, under, around, beside, behind, between etc.) Then, you read a sentence in phrases at breaks that help to give meaning to the sentence. Have your child read the sentence trying to echo you or read it exactly as you have. As your child gets better and better at this, you might ask him/her if he/she could think of another way to read the sentence, with different pauses, that give clear meaning to the sentence but emphasize a different word or phrase.

Doing this with 2-3 sentences every night can help your child become a more fluent reader.

For the Week of January 12-16

Students will be taking the IOWA tests this week. One factor that makes a huge difference in a student's ability to perform well on tests is the amount of sleep he/she has received the night before the test. Another factor is getting the fuel, through nutritious food, which supports the hard work the brain is going to be given that day. By making sure our Prairieview students get to bed early enough to enjoy a full night's sleep, eating a healthy breakfast, and encouraging them to do their best work, we can be confident that we will have accurate test results. Accurate test results are important because they help to inform our practice as teachers - what have we learned and on what do we need to focus.