I hope you had a great weekend! Right off the bat, don't forget that tomorrow is individual picture day (no class pictures, so we only have to worry about looking good from the waist up)!
At curriculum night, I explained how our Borrow-a-Book program works. Today I explained it to the kids. Grade 1s will wait another month until we learn some more French sounds, but grade 2s are starting today!
In particular, we discussed that it is each individual student's job to remember to exchange their books when ready - not yours or mine (although do feel free to email me if your reader keeps forgetting and I can remind). It is a care giver's job to manage this program at home, listen to their student read for at least a few minutes a day and sign off in the tracking log when a student has "mastered" a book - this means they can read it fluidly, with no mistakes.
We also discussed that is is absolutely not a race, nor does it matter how far each student gets in the different colour levels. It is more important to spend time reading books that are too easy vs. too challenging. We will celebrate each student's accomplishments but not brag about how we are doing. There is no reward for reading the fastest or getting the farthest, and it is not counted for a mark. However, participating in this program by reading a few minutes a day does contribute tremendously to each child's reading success over the year. Thanks so much in advance for being the at-home teacher!
Grade 2s brought home the following outline with their first book today, and grade 1s will have it in a month. Here it is in case you missed it:
Borrow-a-Book
How it
works
Your child
now has a small tracking log in their communication pocket containing a list of
books. We are beginning with simple books that usually have a pattern to them,
making them easier for beginning readers to read and understand. Your child is
responsible for bringing home books from this list, which are kept in colour-coded
drawers in our class.
Once you’ve
worked on a book at home (see suggestions
for reading), please initial beside the title in the tracking log. Then,
your child is responsible for bringing the book back and exchanging it for
another from the list.
A good
guideline is to read 2 books a week, but some children will need more or less
time on each book and that’s ok. I will suggest that children exchange their
books in the morning as they unpack their pochette.
Please help your child keep track of the book
they have taken. It should stay in their pocket or other very safe place in
your home. We have a very limited number of books!
Once your
child has worked with every book on this list (indicated by your initials), I
will add the next list of slightly harder books and we continue in the same
way.
Suggestions
for reading
-Start
by looking at the pictures to make sense of what’s happening. Ask your child to
predict what the book is about. This will contribute greatly to your child’s
understanding of the text, and that’s very important since the words themselves
may be new.
- Looking
at the pictures can also help us guess a word that we do not recognize.
- Refer to the blog to review the sounds we have
learned and search for them, or other familiar words (such as the words of the
week), in the text.
- Have
your child point to each word as he/she sounds it out. Cover parts of words to
isolate sounds that you know we should know!
- After
reading, ask questions like What patterns
can you see in this book?, What do
you like/not like about the book?, Does
this remind you of anything you did?, Does
it make you think of anything/another book?
- Make
sure your child has understood what the book was about – this is just as
important as being able to say the words correctly!
- Make
it fun by having your child read to their teddy in bed, or over the phone to
grandma.
- Record
(or video) your child reading it, and then let him/her listen to the recording
over and over!
- You
or your child can make a simple word search using words from the book. Ask your
child to read each word that they find.
- Play
hangman using words from the book.
- Read
the book using different voices (in a whisper, with a fun accent…)
- Read
the book to your child and let them
correct you (they love this!)
The
important thing is to read the book many times so that your child is building
their vocabulary and developing confidence as a reader. These are just some
ways that you can keep it interesting when you have to read the same book 27
times, but feel free to think of other cool ideas as well!
Reminders
- Please
keep the tracking log in the communication pocket.
- While
it is ok to colour a page or two in pencil crayon, please make sure that
your children do NOT use markers or pens
in the books. Many hours from patient parent volunteers went into copying,
folding, stapling and labeling each book and we need to treat them carefully.
- Again,
please help your child take responsibility for returning their book once they
are through with it. We can’t afford to lose them!
Thank you
for your time in progressing your child’s French reading and comprehension
skills.
Tamara Mitchell
Words of the Week
This week we are reviewing the sound ‘i’. In French, this letter makes our English ‘e’ sound. Think “see”. Again, for each new sound that we
learn, I love the idea of using 3-D letters or flashcards to experiment with
the vowel combined with different consonants. We won’t be looking at each
consonant in depth the way we are vowels, so this is a great way to make sure
your child has a good grasp of the whole alphabet. Don’t worry if your combos
aren’t real words, we’re just working on combining sounds in this game!
Grade 1: il, ici, si, avion, ami
Bonus words: lit, rit
Grade 2: merci, petit, bicyclette,
crayon, s’il-vous-plaît