Pine Estates Elementary held the first of four Better Reader Workshops for parents with students in kindergarten, first- and second-grade to support Read It Forward Jax!
This workshop gave parents an opportunity to learn reading strategies and activities that can be used at home to reinforce what is being taught in the classroom. The workshop was led by a kindergarten and second-grade teacher. They began the workshop by introducing the parents to their "Fab Five" literacy skills. The "Fab Five" include phonetic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary development and comprehension.
During the hour-long session, the teachers broke down two of the five areas to better explain the importance of focusing on these skills when reading with their students. The others will be broken down in the second session of this workshop.
For both of these content areas, fluency and comprehension, the parents are given simple, fun activities for the students to practice the skills they learn in the classroom. The activities included sound and letter bingo, various expression exercises using the alphabet, sets of questions to ask before, during, and after reading, and also a timing exercise to help improve the rate at which a student reads aloud. The teachers expressed that as part of the testing assessments required by the state, students leaving second-grade should be reading approximately 90 correct words per minute.
The parents left the workshop with useful knowledge and resources that will help them work with their students on literacy and reading comprehension skills. Pine Estates Elementary feels that a strong partnership between a student and parent creates a positive experience for the student.
Pine Estates will be holding another workshop for session 1 on Tuesday, February 14 at 8 a.m. Session 2 will be held on Tuesday, February 21 at 8 a.m. or Tuesday, February 28 at 5 p.m.
For the parents that attend both sessions (during either time) they will receive a backpack with four to six books and activities to try at home. If a parent can't make the first session they are still welcome to attend session 2.
To see pictures from Pine Estates' Better Reader Workshop, visit the
DCPS' flickr photostream.
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