READING STRATEGIES

Dear Parents,

One of the keys to creating a love of reading and to enhance your child’s experience with text is to read to your child every night. Not only does this create a love for reading but it also gives your child a chance to hear you read and to spend a little “one on one” time with you. This special time spent together is cherished. Many of our families are not first language English speakers and we encourage parents to read in their “home” language too.

Below you will find some “open-ended” questions to ask your child as you read to them. This will support their understanding of the story and create a deep meaningful conversation. Also below are some tips on how to read and have a better understanding of expository text such as science stories and articles. These tips, while geared toward science, could be used with social studies as well.

Enjoy your reading time together and keep in mind how quickly our children grow up.

Happy reading adventures to you!

J

Open-Ended Questions: (From, INVITATIONS, by Regie Routman)

Ms. Routman says: “Among the best open-ended questions are prediction questions, with readers describing what the think will happen in the story or predicting an answer before they read.” After you turn a couple pages ask this: What do you think will happen next?

1. Where and when does the story take place? How do you know? If the story took place somewhere else or in a different time, how would it be changed?

2. Think of a different ending to the story. How would the rest of the story have to be changed to fit the new ending?

3. Who is the teller of the story? How would the story change if someone else in the book or an outside narrator told the story?

4. What are the main ideas behind the story? What makes you think of them as you read the story?

5. Is this story like any other story you have read or watched? Why?

Reading a Science Article

The environment, space, animals—science topics are interesting but can be challenging. To help you better understand science articles, use the reading tips on this page. Practice by using them with your science or social studies text or a science or social studies article.

*Read the title to find out what the article is about.

1. What is the title of the chapter?

*Ask yourself, "What do I think this chapter/article is about?"

2. In a few words, describe what you think the chapter/article is about.

*Read the introduction to help you identify the main idea of the article.

3. Based on the introduction what do you think is the main idea of the

article/chapter?

*Reread new or hard words. Look for clues that explain their meaning.

4. Find the words in bold. Write these words and their definitions.

*After you read the article/chapter, try to explain it in your own words.

5. On the back of this page, write a summary of the article.