Reading Workshop

"Why Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?"

Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week.
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!

Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 each week.
Student A reads 20 minutes x 5 times a week = 100 mins. a week.
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes.

Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.

Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months a school year.
Student A reads 3600 minutes a school year.

Student B reads 720 minutes a school year.
Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year. Student B get the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.
By the end of 6th grade, if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits, Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days. Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 days.
One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:
Which student would you expect to read better?
Which student would you expect to know more?
Which student would you expect to write better?
Which student would you expect to have the better vocabulary?
Which student would you expect to be more successful in school...and in life?

Which student are you?

Article borrowed from Mrs. Barth,
2nd grade teacher, Resurrection School, KY
and http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/MrsThonus/fyi.cfm?subpage=161435

Choosing Just Right Books!

EASY * you can read the words fluently (smooth and with an interesting voice) *there often are not a lot of words on a page *you know how to say all the words *there are not a lot of pages in the book *you have a lot of schema for the subject *sometimes the book has a larger font *you totally understand the story *your reading rate may be quicker *your thinking comes easy as you read the words

CHALLENGING *many of the words are too hard to decode (failed a five finger test) *you don't know what the tricky words MEAN *your reading becomes choppy more than it is fluent *you don't have any prior knowledge the subject *there are often a lot of words on the page *often the font is small *you lose focus as you are reading *you are not enjoying the book because you have to do too much word work *your thinking is confused *your reading rate slows way down

JUST RIGHT *you can read most of the words *you can understand what you are reading *you enjoy the book *you may have some schema for the subject *you can read the book with smooth fluency but there are some choppy places *your reading rate is just right- not too slow and not too fast *you can figure out the tricky words and still get the meaning of the story

 

Kids Book Reviews

Teacher Websites © 2012 Edline