Literacy

Parents,
Check out the following website for information and activities related to our Houghton Mifflin reading curriculum.
www.eduplace.com

Reading...
more than just calling words...

FIVE "KEY" AREAS OF READING ARE:
PHONEMIC AWARENESS/PHONICS - letter/sound recognition & relationships
ACCURACY - correctly decoding
FLUENCY - reading rate, expression, intonation, pace
COMPREHENSION - understanding
VOCABULARY - understanding and expanding vocabulary

How to help your student unlock the
KEYS TO READING!

Phonemic Awareness/Phonics - Play rhyming games, such as looking for rhyming pairs in magazines; read poems or songs and talk about rhyming words or verses; help children listen for the beginning/ending sounds of words, then move on to middle sounds.

Accuracy - model reading for youngsters; point to words for very early readers so they grasp the concept of one-to-one correspondence; bring attention to what letters the words begin with/what would make sense in the particular sentence or story; help students look for sight words while reading a passage-not just when seeing the words on flash cards

Fluency - model reading aloud with correct pace, expression, intonation, attention to punctuation, etc.

Comprehension - pause at intervals and have your child retell the story or cite information they have learned up to that point.

Vocabulary - Read Aloud every day! This is the most critical means for children to expand their vocabularies. Read also from a variety of genres—fiction; non-fiction; poetry; chapter books...

Most importantly... enjoy this time together!