Home Practice
Children need a lot of practice and support in order to achieve fluency in children’s novels. This program’s home practice sessions helps students develop the skills and reading habits that build solid fluency and comprehension.
The Program Guide that parents receive at the first class contains general guidance for home practice as well as specific week-by-week directions. Each week’s home practice is broken up into four sessions spread out over four days, and includes the activities explained below.
Independent Reading
Students read independently during each home practice session. In the first class, they receive two books to get them started: a selection from the Transition to Chapter Books list, Nate the Great and the Pillowcase, and one from the Chapter Books 1 list, The Chalk Box Kid. Students use both books for independent reading during the first week of home practice. In later weeks, parents help children choose books for independent reading using the book selection guidance provided in each week’s home practice instructions. Once parents receive a Book-Level Recommendation in Week 4, they’ll select books from the section of the booklist that the teacher recommends.
As students read, parents provide assistance as needed. For example, it can be very helpful for weaker readers to hear an entire book read aloud before they try it on their own. For other children, listening to just a few pages of the book read aloud is enough of a boost to get them started. More confident readers usually prefer to read a book independently from start to finish. Each of these scenarios is productive; parents should do whatever is most comfortable for the child.
Completing the Homework Questionnaire
In the first week of the program parents fill out an online homework questionnaire about their child’s reading experience. The information they provide helps the teacher assess the child’s reading level. In the fourth week of class, the teacher gives parents a Book-Level Recommendation to guide their selection of books for their son or daughter’s independent reading.
Long-Word Decoding Workbook
Each week, students learn skills and strategies for reading multisyllabic words and complete a six-page unit in the Long-Word Decoding for Third Graders workbook. The teacher instructs students in class and gets them started on the unit. At home, students complete the rest of the unit during two home practice sessions.
Fluency Training
Each week in class, the teacher provides fluency training in a passage from The Chalk Box Kid. Students then read this same passage aloud twice during each home practice session. They can read it aloud to a parent, or on their own.
Reading Aloud from a Children’s Novel
Twice a week, parents read aloud to their child from a children’s novel. They select a book from the Reading Development Booklist. Parents and children can choose books from the Children’s Novels 1 list, which is the first list of children’s novels recommended for independent reading, or from one of the Children’s Novels for Reading Aloud lists. If listening to longer books read aloud is new to the child, parents may want to begin with a shorter novel. In addition to the Children’s Novels for Reading Aloud list, the booklist includes a Specialty Children’s Novels list. Books from the fairy and folk tales section of this list are especially engaging for third graders.