Our Reading Philosophy

Alright mom and dad, it's time to step it up, we've got some reading to do! Please don't leave learning to read completely up to your child's teacher. Trust me, he/she can only do so much! You know your child best. You know what your child needs. DO take your child's teacher's advice (if you respect his/her ideas and philosophies). If your child's teacher says to read a harder book - help your child find one. Learn what that means. It DOESN'T mean a longer book! Just more difficult concepts, harder vocabulary, more complex character interactions and subplots. If your child's teacher recommends your child read an easier book - please, help your child find one! Your child needs more practice at this level. Without practice at this level, your child cannot move on to harder levels. Reading is NOT about decoding words (that's boring and none of us read just for decoding's sake, do we?). It's about comprehending the story. Connecting with the characters in the story. Yearning to solve a mystery! Help your child fall in love with reading, allow him or her to read what he/she is interested in and is a proper level for him/her at the present moment (I don't care if her best friend is reading Shakespeare already! I don't even care if the whole class is reading it. Your child needs to practice at the level they are at right now before she can join her classmates in reading Shakespeare!). We want our children to desire to read so much that they are sneaking flashlights under the covers instead of going to sleep. What are you waiting for? Let's enter into this magical adventure together.......

 

Stages of Reading - Defined

For the purposes of this website, I will refer to readers using the following titles.  Because reading is a multi-level skill, a child may be fluent in one part of one stage, but not in other parts.  In most cases, this means that they would not be ready to move on to the next stage of reading.  Another rule of thumb: most children need to read for many hours with various genres at each stage of reading before they have practiced enough to move on to the next level.

 

Stages of reading:

 

non-reader: may listen to stories being read, isn't sure how to properly hold a book, is unfamiliar with letter sounds, may or may not verbalize his/her thoughts

 

pre-reader: holds a book properly, turns pages, listens to stories read aloud, may know some letter sounds

 

emerging reader: knows majority of letter sounds, uses pictures to help 'read' a story, may know some sight words

 

fluent reader: knows all letter sounds and most letter blends, knows most sight words - including those with strange/unpredictable spelling patterns, can create a picture of a story in head, characters 'come alive' in child's brain

 

advanced reader: reads for information, understands and makes personal 'connections' with books, converses with others about elements of book (such as: plot, main idea, main characters, author's message)