Home
Teaching/Learning
Resource Info
Mission Families
ForumsWebsite Login
|
By Vanessa Caldwell. Dip.Tch. Only the best for our children….. We are excited to be able to put into the hands of our children what we consider to be, from our teaching experience, the best educational reading material available. The publishing company of our levelled readers won Australian Publishers Association Publisher of the Year in both 2004 and 2005. They have worked with universities trialling new book lines and continue to win awards. In an unprecedented move on issuing resources we have brought across as many of their book lines as possible and are putting the books out in complete sets. This maintains the integrity of the careful grading system they use to introduce beginning and developing readers to new and increasingly difficult vocabulary and structure. At the present time all of these resources are going out where they should be- into our homes to be circulated between ourselves…. A new way…1,2,3 In order to track the resources families names are recorded on the data base beside book sets… Eventually when you exchange sets with other families you will need to…. 1. Check that the material you are exchanging with is the correct level and that the set is complete (see the inside cover of the books for the number of books in that particular set… it can range from 6, 10, 12 or even 16 in some cases..) 2. Quickly check the condition of the books to ensure that the resources are being well maintained before you take responsibility…. 3. Notify us via Email so the database can be updated as to who now has the resource. Keeping the resources in mint condition…. In order to be able to direct future spending into other resource areas and so that your children continue to have nice material to work with it is vital that we all work together to maintain the readers in good condition…. Please organise for your children’s readers to be kept in book boxes, encourage your children to handle the books with reasonable care and protect them from food, markers and younger children and babies!!! How to Successfully Introduce an unknown text to a developing reader 1. Preview the story together…..( Introduce the title and discuss the pictures/ ask questions about what you can see / when you are talking use the words yourself that you see appearing in the story.. eg. Parent- “What can you see…? Child - “He is playing with his toys” Parent-“Yes that’s right. The boy is putting the blocks on the table.” Text-“The blocks are on the table” 2. “Let’s begin reading….” The reader should initially use a “pointy finger” as they read. (The early graded readers rely heavily on repeated text and picture cues in order to ensure the reader’s success. The “pointy finger” ensures that the child learns reading direction, left to right, and one to one matching of words while developing a base of sight words.) The pointy finger focuses the child’s eyes so that they look at the text rather than at the picture as they memorise the story line. Note reading the story from memory is not “cheating”. When a student is reading from memory it is good to make sure they are matching the words they are pointing to with what they are saying. You can also ask then to find words within the text to encourage word recognition rather than simply reading from memory. Later as the readers become increasingly more complex you need to encourage the developing reader to “just use your eyes”… Revisiting texts It is important that developing readers consolidate their knowledge. As they become familiar with a story you will build them up as a successful reader by revisiting the book at different times. In the early stages students need to read 2-3 readers per day, one that you are supporting them through (2-3 books per week) and two books that they are already familiar with and can read independently or to a younger student. It is envisaged that your book sets should last you quite a while before you seek to exchange them… Refer to |