Dear Parents,

Studies show that parental involvement in home reading

increases student’s behaviour and academic success (Reading

Rockets)

I will provide research based ideas for you so that you can read with your child to develop their reading skills, increase motivation to read, and increase the amount and breadth of their reading. These research based ideas will be taught at school and expected to be reinforced and practiced at home. I taught primary grades for many years and a home reading program was expected and very successful. So why does it have to stop in grade two? I am a mother of two boys that loved reading at a young age; however the love of reading seemed to stop during 4th-8th grade. I am not saying all children in the tween years don’t read at home for enjoyment, but often these are the years the passion dwindles. Explicit instruction of comprehension strategies during reading at school will take place daily but often there is not enough time to practice and be monitored by an adult. Your child with also learn strategies for decoding multisyllabic (big) words. Did you know from 5th grade on, the average student encounters about 10,000 new words, most multisyllabic, per year? Since the meaning of intermediate-grade content area reading is generally carried by multisyllabic words, without the ability to decode multisyllabic words, students are unable to understand vocabulary and understand the meaning of what they read. Taken from: http://www.leadteachers.com/1/post/2013/02/the-importance-of-multisyllabic-instruction.html Your child will take home a guided reading book or a short passage to practice reading fluency. Re-reading this text (or a portion of) will only take ten minutes. Please make it a part of your daily routine. The book MUST be returned each day. You may notice the same book coming home for 1-3 evenings. There was no mistake, rereading increases fluency, comprehension, and confidence.

The rubric on the left indicates skills and behaviours of a proficient grade 5 reader.