My students need guided reading books that will be used for explicit instruction in reading comprehension skills and strategies. The books would be used to promote oral reading/speaking skills, fluency and increase vocabulary/high frequency word recognition.
I am an elementary Reading Specialist, who serves students in grades first through fourth grade. Our students are from a variety of backgrounds. We have students who have recently immigrated from areas such as Burma, Russia, Spain and Mexico. Their academic levels range from non-English speaking, to fluent English speaking.
Our elementary is a blended population of two excellent school sites becoming one.
Our school is a diverse learning environment, with teachers who skillfully draw on student experiences to enrich the curriculum. My objective is to provide all students with the opportunity to choose text that they can relate to and text that reflects classroom demographics. The way to provide choice in book selection, is to have a variety of books that honor their experiences. These practices also open channels of understanding among students.
My Project
My bookshelves are anxiously waiting to receive more fiction and non-fiction books for my thirsty readers. The most rewarding aspect of teaching is seeing your students spark for learning increase as their confidence is boosted. The more variety students have to choose great quality books, the more their love for reading grows.
My students are moving from learning to read, to reading to learn so, receiving more non-fiction books for my students will allow me to directly teach the comprehension skills they need.
For example, one of the books from the collection called The Hoatzin Bird, captures the readers' attention instantly by the vivid illustrations on the cover. I will be able to focus on the table of contents and ask questions which allow the students to predict based on the title and the content. One section talks about Strange Names, like Flying Cow and Stink Bird. What kid doesn't want to read about that? The Hoatzin Bird also has interesting words so the students will be extending and enriching their vocabulary.
Additionally, the illustrations, photographs, diagrams and captions in the non-fiction book will surely capture their attention and imaginations. One illustration shows a picture of a cow's stomach and compares it to the Hoatzin Bird. The page heading is called, StinkBirds. The Hoatzin bird eats leaves but since it's stomach is like a cows, the food has to stay in the stomach to be digested. That makes for one Stinky Bird!
There are many book selections in the series I selected that are like the Hoatzin Bird. Kids will automatically be drawn to the interesting facts and illustrations. An added bonus is the extension activities Key Links provides with their book series. Every page gives key discussion questions and at the end of each book there are extension activities.
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