Reading Workshop

Several great questions have been raised during conferences about what kinds of reading children should be doing at home.  Are comics okay?  Should a 5th grader be reading picture books?  What if there are too many unknown words in a book?  I'm hoping the following advice from Nancie Atwell, author of The Reading Zone, will address some of these questions. 

Atwell describes three kinds of books (p. 133):

1)  Holidays ~ these are easy reads or old favorites and can be used as a break from a more difficult text

2)  Just Rights ~ new books that help a reader practice and gain experience, usually contain a few words per page that the reader doesn't know

3)  Challenges ~ books that a child would like to read independently, but that are too difficult right now (for several reasons including:  too many unknown words, multiple main characters, concepts that a child can't grasp, or too dense with information)

What should a child be reading at home?  Atwell recommends that children spend some time with all three categories, but MOST of their time should be spent with Just Rights.  Atwell also recommends reading aloud to your child from all three categories - not just challenges or chapter books.  So dig out those old favorite bed-time stories and enjoy some leisurely reading once in a while!

For more on reading, check out Ms. Castelluccio's blog. 

Are you looking for ways to start talking about books with your child?  The following attachment has been modified from the CMT Language Arts Handbook and provides us with good questions to ask readers (some are more open ended than others).   Reading Comprehension Questions.pdf