Building Good Reading Habits

Just Right Books

It is important that students are reading books at their just right level. Matching a reader to the correct level of book is important as it provides the opportunity for the child to read with comprehension and relative ease. It is crucial that a child understands the book they are reading. 

A just right book is one that a child can read and understand while providing a small challenge. It should be a book which interests the child and can be read with little or no assistance. Reading just right books during independent reading time will help students become stronger readers. 

To help our students determine whether a book is just right, we have learned the Five Finger Rule. Students select a page, from the book they wish to read, and hold up a finger for each unknown word they encounter. If they have 5-4 unknown words then the book is too challenging, 3-2 unknown words then the book is just right, and 1-0 unknown words then the book is too easy. 

It must be noted that we must also consider the child’s understanding of the book when determining whether a book is just right. Some children are excellent at decoding (letter/sound representations) and can “read” books far above their level, but not understand the book in a meaningful way. 

 Elements of the Fiction

Throughout the year, we will develop our knowledge of a variety of genres. Developing genre knowledge is important both for comprehension in reading as well as composition in writing. 

The first genre which we will be studying is fiction.

Knowing the elements of fiction can support the reader in increasing their understanding of the text. As students become aware that all fiction books contain characters, settings, events, a problem, and a solution they are better able to think critically about these elements and analyze stories. 

Asking your child to discuss the elements of the story after reading provides the opportunity for your child to deepen their understanding of the text. Comparing and contrasting elements from different fiction books is a fun and stimulating activity! 

Reading is Thinking: Before I Read, I Preview

Pre-reading activities occur before a child a begins to read the text. These activities help to increase the reader’s engagement, activate prior knowledge, and improve meaningful comprehension of the text.

Prior to reading any fiction book, you should encourage your child to complete their fiction preview. This preview consists of reading the title, looking at the illustration on the cover and thinking about it, reading the blurb (if there is one available), doing a picture walk, and finally making a prediction as to what they think will happen in the book. We encourage our students to make a brief prediction which contains a beginning, middle, and end. These pre-reading activities are designed to support students in understanding the text they are about to read.

Developing Fluency and Deepening Our Understanding

Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression. Fluency is critical as it acts as a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. Fluent readers do not have to focus on decoding words, instead they can focus their attention on the meaning of the text. This allows the fluent reader to make  connections and think reflectively about the text while reading. A child who is not fluent must devote their attention to decoding the words. This reduces the amount of attention they can devote to understanding the text.

It should be noted that a child must also demonstrate comprehension of a text in order to be considered fluent. A child who reads with speed, accuracy, and expression but does not understand what they have read is not fluent.

One method of developing fluency is re-reading books. When students read a book a second, third, or fourth time they are able to improve their ability to read with accuracy, speed, and expression. They also improve their comprehension of the text. Some strategies you can use at home to support your child in developing fluency include:  

• Modeling fluent reading by reading aloud to your child.  
• Having your child read aloud to you with the goal of reading in a story teller voice.  
• Having your child re-read a book multiple times.

 

Visualize

Visualizing or envisioning is a strategy which supports reading comprehension. When we ask a child to visualize, we are asking them to make a mental movie of the text in their minds. Visualizing supports reading comprehension by allowing the students to gain a more thorough understanding of the text as they consciously use the words to create mental images. Visualizing while reading also supports students in having a richer reading experience and recalling what they have read for longer periods of time.

To support your child in visualizing while reading at home, you can prompt them with statements such as “Imagine the story like a movie taking place in your mind.” “Imagine the characters. What do they look like ? "What they are doing?” “Imagine the events of the story taking place in the setting.”

Encourage your child to visualize when reading independently and being read to. 

Monitoring for Comprehension

Comprehension is the act of understanding what we read.

We want to support our students in learning to monitor their comprehension while reading. When a good reader monitors their comprehension, they keep track of their thinking while reading; they notice when the text makes sense and when the text does not make sense.

Once a reader identifies that the text did not make sense, they should stop reading, then return to the part of the text did not make sense, and use a “fix-up” strategy. Fix-up strategies include re-reading the passage or using one of our decoding strategies. If this does not resolve the confusion, the reader should speak to an adult to get support. 

Making Connections

Strong readers draw on their prior knowledge and experiences to support their comprehension when reading. They use their prior knowledge and experiences to make connections to the text. Making connections supports students in gaining a deeper understanding of the text. Students can make three types of connections while reading: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world. 

Text-to-Self

Text-to-self connections are of a personal nature. When the reader makes a text-to-self connection, they are identifying similarities and differences between their own life and the text.  An example of a text-to-self connection would be “This reminds me of how I felt on my first day of school. I also felt nervous and excited just like the character in this book.”

 

Text-to-Text

Text-to-text connections happen when the reader is reminded of another text they have previously read. During a text-to-text connection, the reader thinks about how the information they are presently reading is similar to or different from a book they have read in the past. Text-to-text connections often occur when reading books by the same author, in the same series, on a similar topic, or within a similar genre. An example of a text-to-text connection would be “In the book Tom, Tomie dePaola named the grandfather character Tom and the grandson character Tommy. In the book One Foot, Then the Other, he named the grandfather character Bob and the grandson character Bobby.”

 

Text-to-World

Text-to-world connections are connections between the text and events that are happening or have happened in the world. These connections go beyond our personal experiences. They often related to worldwide events which we have learned about, but have not experienced personally. If a student was reading a nonfiction book about earthquakes, an example of a text-to-world connection could be “I remember hearing that Japan recently had an earthquake. It didn’t cause a tsunami this time, but sometimes earthquakes can cause a tsunami.” 

 

Making Connections at Home

You can support your child in making connections, when reading at home, through using the prompts listed below.

Text-to-self prompts: 

• Has something like this happened to me in my life?
• How is this similar to my life?
• How is this different from my life?
• What does this remind me of in my life?

Text-to-text prompts: 

• Does this remind me of another book I have read?
• How is this similar to other books I have read?
• How is this different from other books I have read? 

• Have I read a book about this topic before?

Text-to-world prompts: 

• What does this remind me of in the world?
• How does this book relate to the world around me?
• How is this book similar to events happening in the world?
• How is this book different from events happening in the world?

 
It is important to note that connections made during reading must be meaningful in order to support students in deepening their comprehension of the text. Making a surface connection such as “This character is named Annie, and I know a girl named Annie.” is not going to deepen the reader’s understanding. The connection should involve critical thinking to be meaningful. 

Questioning

Questioning before, during, and after reading supports students in actively processing the text, which aids their comprehension. Asking and answering questions when reading helps to clarify and deepen understanding of the text. Good readers are actively involved in the reading process; strategically asking and answering questions when reading causes students to engage with the text.

Some questions which you can use to help your child engage with the text at home include:

• Is this a fiction or nonfiction book?
• Why am I reading this book?
• What is this story mostly about?
• Who is telling the story?
• Who are the characters?
• What is the setting?

Summarizing 

Summarizing is when we take the most important information in a text and put it into our own words, while omitting the nonessential information.

Summarizing is a crucial skill which supports our students in learning how to identify and differentiate between the important and nonessential ideas in a text and how to integrate these central ideas in a meaningful, concise way.

Summarizing benefits students by building comprehension and reducing confusion. As well, summarizing supports vocabulary development as students paraphrase the important information in the text. It also supports the development of critical thinking skills as they differentiate between the important and nonessential information.

The strategy which we have been using to summarize our fiction texts is Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then. This strategy provides a framework that helps the students to identify the important information in a fiction text. 

• Somebody: Who is the main character?
• Wanted: What did the character want?
• But: What was the problem?
• So: How did the character try to solve the problem?
• Then: What was the conclusion of the story?

You can help your child to develop their summarizing skills by asking them to summarize fiction texts after reading, at home.  

Please see the summarizing example from the text Oliver Button is a Sissy below.

Oliver wanted to jump rope, play with dolls, and play dress up. But his father and the boys, at his school, teased him and told him he should do activities that boys are “supposed to do”. So, Oliver Button joined a tap dancing class and ignored the teasing while doing what he enjoyed. Then, Oliver Button was in a talent show and everyone was impressed with his amazing dancing skills.