Moving On Up!!

Moving On Up...

Students have been working hard on the Lexia Reading Core 5 program. When they finish a level, they receive a certificate which highlights the skills they've worked on in that level.  

Congratulations!

Poem of the Week ~ March Wind

Fluency

from Imagine It!

Fluency:  A Definition

• Fluency is the effortless reading of words. Fluent readers group words into meaningful phrases and use expression appropriately.

• Fluency involves both reading speed and accuracy of word identification.

• Fluency is critical for but not sufficient for comprehension.

Why is fluency critical?

• Fluent readers are able to focus their attention on understanding the text. Fluency frees the reader's attention so the reader is better able to focus on constructing meaning and interpreting the text.

• Nonfluent readers focus their cognitive energies on decoding and accessing individual words.  There is little available for comprehension.

Poem of the Week ~ I'm Glad I'm Me

I’M GLAD I’M ME

by Jack Prelutsky

I’m glad I’m me, I’m glad I’m me.

There’s no one else I want to be.

I’m happy I’m the person who

Can do the things that I can do.

If I were someone else, then I

Would feel so strange, I’d wonder why.

I’m positive that I’d be sad -

But I am me, and I am glad.

Poem of the Week ~ Winter is Warmest

Winter is Warmest

Author Unknown

Winter is the warmest season

Oh, you say you want a reason?

Is it warm when snow piles high and wide?         

It is if you're bundled up inside

When it's storming, when it's raining

I stay inside without complaining

Other people like to ski

Or sled down a hill, but not me

While you're bundling up in your jacket

I'm tearing open a hot cocoa packet

I don't mind summer, I'll make that clear

But winter's my favorite time of the year

Poem of the Week: Snowmen at Night

Snowmen at Night

by Caralyn Buehner

illustrated by Mark Buehner

One wintry day I made a snowman,

very round and tall.

The next day when I saw him,

he was not the same at all.

His hat had slipped, his arms drooped down,

he really looked a fright-

it made me start to wonder:

What do snowmen do at night?

I think that snowmen start to slide

(when it gets really dark),

off the lawn and down the street-
right into the park.

They gather in a circle

while they wait for all the others,

sipping cups of ice-cold cocoa,

made by snowman mothers.

Then the snowman games begin:

They line up in their places,

each one anxious for his turn

in the snoman races.

After everyone has had a chance

at racing once or twice,

they go on over to the pond

to do skating tricks on ice.

Sometimes they start giggling,

and then they act like clowns-

they bump into each other,

‘til they all fall down.

They gather up their snowballs,

the pitcher takes his aim,

and underneath the moonlit sky

they play a baseball game.

No one knows just how it started,

but soon it’s quite a sight-

with snowmen throwing snowballs in the world’s best snowball fight!

Then it’s time for sledding!

It’s a wild ride down the hill!

“WAAHOOOOOOOOO!” they yell.

This is, by far, the snowmen’s biggest thrill!

Finally they’re tuckered out,

and getting sleepy, so

they slowly gather up their things,

and one by one they go.

So if your snowman’s grin is crooked,

or he’s lost a little height,

you’ll know he’s just been doing

what snowmen do at night!

       

"Why Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?"

“Why Can’t I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?”

Let’s figure it out - mathematically!

• Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week.
• Student B reads only 4 minutes a night....or not at all!

Step 1:  Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.

  Student A reads 20 minutes x 5 times a week = 100 minutes per week.

  Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes.

Step 2:  Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.

  Student A reads 400 minutes a month.

  Student B reads 80 minutes a month.

Step 3:  Multiply minutes a month x 9 months per school year.

  Student A reads 3,600 minutes in a school year.

  Student B reads 720 minutes in a school year.

Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.

Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

By the end of 6th grade, if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits, Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days.  Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days.  One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance.  How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:

• Which student would you expect to read better?
• Which student would you expect to know more?
• Which student would you expect to write better?
• Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
• Which student would you expect to be more successful in school….and in life?

http://classroom.jc-school.net/read/skpread.html