Reader’s Workshop Newsletter

WINTER 2007

A little known fact about reading is that you can often practice comprehension skills without ever opening a book!  While I am not advocating not reading, I am suggesting ways to build comprehension while engaging in other activities.  Anytime you and your child converse, you can help strengthen comprehension by the questions you ask.  The next time you view a movie or TV show with your child, try asking these questions: 

• What was the main idea? 
• Why did the character(s) do this/that? 
• Would you want to be friends with this character? 
• What do you think will happen next? 
• How did the setting of the show impact what happened? 
• What was the problem? 
• How was the problem solved? 
• What caused this? 

In addition, if your child is telling you about events that transpired during the day, you can ask similar questions.

However, during these cold days, it is nice to curl up and read a great book.  We will be practicing this during our yearly Rockland County Read-In on Friday, February 16, 2007.  

Fall 2006

Things have been very exciting in the reading room so far this year!  We know that children often need repeated exposure to a given skill in order to master that skill.   Ergo, the classroom teachers and I have coordinated our lessons so that the exact vocabulary, comprehension strategies, word work and word attack skills that are being taught in the classroom are being taught in the reading room during the same time frame!  What this means is that on any given day, the children are doubly exposed to the same skills and strategies. I have already seen an improvement in understanding difficult strategies such as main idea and cause-effect relationships and mastery of difficult vocabulary words.

          Research shows that access to a variety of books effects a child’s reading motivation and achievement.  The more a child reads, the better his/her vocabulary, reading skills, and knowledge will be. One way to provide children with a variety of books is through a bookstore.  Hence, Link Elementary School now has its very own bookstore:  Link’s Little Shop of Stories.  Students can purchase books on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 7:40-8:10 for $1.75 each.