home reading

1. Dear Parents,
Studies show that parental involvement in home reading
increases student’s behaviour and academic success (Reading
Rockets)
I will provide research based ideas for you so that you can read
with your child to develop their reading skills, increase
motivation to read, and increase the amount and breadth of
their reading. These research based ideas will be taught at
school and expected to be reinforced and practiced at home.
I taught primary grades for many years and a home reading
program was expected and very successful. So why does it have
to stop in grade two? I am a mother of two boys that loved
reading at a young age; however the love of reading seemed to
stop during 4th
-8th
grade. I am not saying all children in the
tween years don’t read at home for enjoyment, but often these
are the years the passion dwindles.
Explicit instruction of comprehension strategies during reading
at school will take place daily but often there is not enough time
to practice and be monitored by an adult. Your child with also
learn strategies for decoding multisyllabic (big) words.
Did you know from 5th grade on, the average student
encounters about 10,000 new words, most multisyllabic, per
year? Since the meaning of intermediate-grade content area
reading is generally carried by multisyllabic words, without the
ability to decode multisyllabic words, students are unable to
understand vocabulary and understand the meaning of what
they read. Taken from:
http://www.leadteachers.com/1/post/2013/02/the-importance-
of-multisyllabic-instruction.html
Your child will take home a guided reading book or a short
passage to practice reading fluency. Re-reading this text (or a
portion of) will only take ten minutes. Please make it a part of
your daily routine.
The book MUST be returned each day. You may notice the same
book coming home for 1-3 evenings. There was no mistake,
rereading increases fluency, comprehension, and confidence.
The rubric on the left indicates skills and behaviours of a
proficient grade 5 reader.