Reading In Kindergarten
I am very proud of my kindergarten
students and the progress that they have made this year in reading. It
is
so exciting to be a part
of this very special time in their life.All of my students are reading
independently at their
own level. I give a lot of the credit to my home reading program.
I got the entire idea
for my home reading program from the wonderful Kinder
Korner website and adapted it just
a little to fit the needs
of my classroom. All of my students participate and by the end of the year
each child will have read
around 130 books.
I hope this will inspire
some of you to implement a program like this. As I said before, I
was
inspired by Victoria Smith
and her wonderful Kinder Korner website. This program
has made such an impact
on my students and their reading abilities. I started out with
no books,and no idea of
how to implement this type of program (how in the world
could I manage to have
them all read to me each day?)!. I got the book Guided Reading
called and ordered a Wright
Group catalog, and begin to organize in my head how
I would do this.
This has been my second year and I have perfected it so that
it now works for me instead
of me working for it. Please consider giving it a try, it is well
worth it!
Don't forget to visit the
KINDER
KORNER website for Victoria Smith's Home Reading Connection
this is copyright Victoria
Smith and where I got the idea for a home reading program
Victoria has her entire
parent letter/contract which she has generously placed
online for the benefit
of other teachers.
How my Home Reading Program works
In order to implement a
program of this type, you must first have a leveled set of books. What
is a
leveled set of books?
This is a collection of books that have been read by you and leveled according
to the guided reading levels
in the book Guided Reading.. Books for emergent readers must
be simple and
have repetitive, predictable
text. The book Guided Reading has taken books like this and categorized
them into reading levels,
with A being the easiest, and working all the way up to higher levels.
An example of an
A level book is The Birthday
Cake (Wright Group). In order for a program like this to work, the
children MUST be reading
books at their level.
How do you determine their
"level"? Each child starts out in level A. Do the kids
just pick up a level A
book and "know" how to read it ? Certainly not! We read all of the
level A books
during shared reading time
the first week of school. We read them over and over again all week.
The books
are also available in a
browsing box used during literacy center time. After a couple of
days,
they can all "read" these
books. The second week of school I begin sending home the books and
my
home reading program has
begun!
Advancing to a different
level
With the second week of
school beginning, so does my phonics program. I am so very
lucky to be in a system
that uses the Open Court phonics program which is AWESOME!
Classrooms are comprised
of children with varying ability levels. As we advance
through our phonics program,
some children catch on really quickly and some don't. Those who
do begin to advance through
the levels when they are ready; those who are not ready
stay right where they are.
The book guided reading explains how to do a running record
for reading. You
count the number of words in a book and have the child
read it to you and you
record the number of mistakes, self corrections, etc. and there is a
formula for determing the
percentage of accuracy the book was read with. This is a very formal
way to determine the correct
reading level for a student.
Implementation
The first week of school
I send home a contract and information letter explaining the program
with each student.
A really good example of a contract./letter
can be found at the Kinder
Korner website.
Organization/Sending Books
Home
I use large white envelopes
for sending the books home. On the top I put a cute sticker
with story book characters,
etc. Then I put their name . On the left side of the envelope
I
number to 20 going down.
I have one column for the name of the book and one for the parent
signature. The child checks
out their own book (self selection is an important part of the program).
They put it in the envelope
and take it home and read it to their parent. The next day at school
the envelope is placed
in a basket. The child will then read the book to me and I place
a sticker
beside the parent signature.
They will check out a new book to take home again.
My students check out books
Mon. - Thurs. When they have read 20 books, they get a free
book from me as a reward.
We turn the envelope over and repeat the procedure for 20
more books. The program
will continue until the day before school is out. Each time they
read 20 books they get
a free book from me. I also participate in the book-it program sponsored
by Pizza Hut. I set
their goal for the month and keep up with it on the envelope. When they
meet their goal they get
the pizza certificate.
