Reading to self is the foundation for creating independent readers and writers.  During read to self, students read just-right books and build stamina by reading more and more and for longer periods of time every time they read.  Students are taught 3 ways to read a book – read the pictures, read the words, and retell the story.  Repetition is the key to success in helping students develop good literacy habits and independence.

Reading with someone helps students read independently and grow as readers.  Reading with someone helps readers, especially developing readers, become more self-sufficient and less reliant on the teacher for assistance.  Research shows that taking turns reading increases reading involvement, attention, and collaboration.  Reading to someone increases the volume of reading, level of attention to reading, reading motivation, fluency, reading rate, word-attack skills, and the love of reading.  During Read to Someone partners sit EEKK (or Elbow to Elbow, Knee to Knee) and each person holds one side of the book so they both can see.  They take turns reading the pages and the person who is not reading the current page has to “check for understanding” where they have to describe the “who” and the “what” that happened on that page (or practice a comprehension strategy such as making connections). 

Listening to reading helps children with comprehension, vocabulary, volume, reading rate, and fluency.  There are several wonderful websites that children can visit to listen to stories or books on tape and MP3s can be checked out of the libraries.

 

The connection between reading and writing is very strong and research has shown time and again that children need to connect what they read with what they write and vice versa.  During Work on Writing students spend time on writing that truly matters to them.  Typically it involves persuasive writing (convincing a friend to read a favorite book), friendly letters, personal narrative stories (stories about themselves such as a lost tooth, loss of a pet or a sporting event), poetry, non-fiction “all about” or “how-to” writing. 

 

Word Work is important because it gives children a format to discover how words work, to memorize sight words they encounter over and over, and to notice and practice spelling patterns in words.  There are many appropriate materials that may be used for this activity: whiteboards, magnetic letters, Wikki Stix, clay, Play-Doh, letter stamps, colored markers, beans, paint and the list goes on and on.  There are many helpful websites to work with words as well.