Mon premier blog

Read & Understand with Leveled Texts, Grade 1 Evan-Moor Educational Publishers
Publisher: Evan-Moor Educational Publishers

As I skimmed the article, my bias meter went . The title of this entry is purposefully over the top because I want you to read it and because I'm willing to bet that there are many kids out there who actually are afraid to read because of the pressures they are under to . Earlier this week, I came across a headline to raise the eyebrows of all of us lovers of reading: “American High School Students Are Reading Books At 5th-Grade-Appropriate Levels: Report.” Say what? One thing that she said that really stuck in our So what do I do? As a K-4 ELA teacher in a Title One public school, I attest to the great need of thinking differently and more critically about text acquisition. How do I ensure my readers are reading books that they can understand, while teaching them to become more independent in choosing the right books, and maintaining my positive community of readers? I have been attending graduate courses on reading instruction for pre-K-6 in order to find out the reason for the shift in attitudes. So, they have I, too, have struggled with the need for and usefulness of book leveling. I use Reading A-Z fluency drills, leveled books, and poetry daily to supplement my class literacy goals. It is quite a long book and while I could read the majority of the words, I didn't have the background knowledge or the life experience to understand a lot of the action. If you've been reading my recent posts you'll know that I recently attended a conference with Lucy Calkins about her Units of Study in Reading, grades 3-5. I meet with guided reading groups everyday (in the upper grades I met with them several times a week) and they get new books, at their level. One of the textbooks used was Guiding Readers and Writers (Grades 3-6), a 672 page tome packed with information Reading at the independent level is extremely valuable because the reader gains fluency, reading “mileage,” new vocabulary, and experience thinking about what texts mean (comprehension).