First and Fourth Grade Reading Buddies- Informational Book Share Fun!

On Friday, Fourth Graders in Mrs. Harlow's ELA class met with their First Grade Buddies to share their informational books about National Parks.  Every fourth grader at Memorial researched a National Park and created a book about the park using their iPad devices. Students were very proud of their work and excited to share with their first grade friends!

Joey shares his book with Aanika and Abby.

Daniel reads his book about the Everglades to Mahi.

Here are a couple of the National Parks books from Mrs. Harlow's ELA class.  You may need a BPS email account to open these books- a student email will work.

The Grand Canyon in Depth by Madison

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park by Brendon

Glacier National Park

Spring is in the air...

     Spring is definitely in the air here at Memorial!  Stories of softball, baseball, soccer, etc.
are circling the classrooms and playgrounds.  Finding time to fit in dinner, a game, and homework can definitely be challenging at this time of year.  It just may require being flexible about where the reading gets done!
    What is a parent to do when they hear, "I don't have time to read tonight!"   My recommendation is to get creative!  Encourage your young readers to think of times and places they can get the reading done...

• Read in the car on the way to or from their practice / game.
• Read aloud to a younger sibling/friend to occupy them both while brother/sister is at their game or practice.
• Read aloud to family at breakfast / at some time in the morning before heading off to school.

     There is a lot of research that correlates time spent reading to a child's success in school.  The Greer Genius chart below compares a child who reads just 20 minutes per night to one who only reads 4 minutes or not at all.  The difference in the amount of words read is staggering!  Challenge your child to be the one who gets more experience reading!

The Literacy Lowdown- What is Fluency?

When students are just beginning to read, their reading typically sounds choppy and labored as they are still focused on decoding unfamiliar words.  As students begin to grow as readers, it's important that their reading becomes fluent.  A fluent reader is able to read at a natural rate with accuracy, and expression.  When fluent readers read, it is as if they are speaking in their natural voice.

Why is fluency important?

Reading with fluency allows kids to be able to focus their attention on understanding the meaning of text.  Readers who are not fluent have to focus on decoding words, and so it is more challenging for these students to comprehend the story or passage.  Developing fluency in readers allows them to read with ease.

How do kids become fluent readers?

The largest component of most fluency instruction is repeated readings of the same text.   At home, you can help your child become a fluent reader by encouraging them to read aloud their favorite books and poems multiple times.  Another helpful tip for families is to read a book or poem to your child first, and then have your child read the same text along with you.  To increase reading rate, I would also suggest timing each time a child re-reads a paragraph or poem.  Encourage the reader by pointing out how they are able to read faster as they continue to practice.

How do we assess fluency at Memorial School?

At Memorial and throughout the district we utilize a couple of tools for monitoring a reader's fluency.  The DiBELS Oral Reading Fluency Assessment (DORF) is used in 1st-5th grades to measure student rate and accuracy when reading.  Accuracy is the percentage of total words read correctly.  After they are finished reading aloud on the DORF assessment, kids are asked to tell as much as they can about the passage that they read.

Another assessment used for oral reading fluency at Memorial is the Developmental Reading Assessment 2 (DRA2) .  For this test, students are asked to read a book and then demonstrate their understanding of the text.  Depending on the level of the assessment, the Oral Reading Fluency score is composed of different subscores such as phrasing, accuracy, rate, and expression.

In addition to these formal assessments, each child's fluency is informally measured by their teacher during guided reading lessons.  Because guided reading is taught to small groups of students, teachers have the opportunity to listen to each child's oral reading as they get to know them as readers.

E.A.R.S. is an acronym that I like to use when explaining fluency.
Expression.  Accuracy.  Rate.  Smoothness.