Reading Responses are a great way for children to show their understanding of reading. If you are unfamiliar with responses, the students have been using strategies learned in the classroom to do responses in journals.  The strategies that we have focused on are predicting and making connections. 

Predicting:  When a child makes a prediction, they should base the prediction on what they have read and what they think will happen next in the text.  These predictions are adjusted throughout the novel.  It's a great way for a child to do a "check" on their understanding and to dig deeper into the novel.  Predictions can be based on characters, setting, and events throughout the book.

Connections:

• Text to Self (T-S):  A child reads something in the novel that they can make a personal connection to their own life.  For example, we read a book by Seymour Simon called Big Cats.  Several students made connections about visiting Brookfield or Milwaukee Zoo and what big cats they saw at the zoo - information learned.

• Text to Text (T-T):  These connections are great because students make connections between different novels and even different authors. They gain insight into reading by thinking about how the information they are reading connects to another text.  I was impressed with the responses I read this week regarding text to text connections. An example could be "That character has the same traits as the character in ....

• Text to World (T-W):  Students struggle the most with this form of connection. T-W connections are larger connections that a reader brings to a reading situation.  We all have ideas about how the world works that goes far beyond our own personal experiences.  We learn about things through television, movies, magazines, and newspapers.  An example would be a connection made with the book Printer's Apprentice and how the children lives were so different than how children today live.  In today's world, children my age do not have to work and learn a skill so young.  This type of connection is great because it often can be cross-curricular and tie into subjects like social studies and science.

Questioning: Good readers ask many different questions while they read to help them understand the text.  Students should ask questions, immediately answer their questions, and monitor the answers, adjusting as they go.

• Clarifying Questions: What does ________ mean?  Students would find an unfamiliar vocabulary word and then use strategies to try to decipher the meaning.  For example, context clues, word decoding, synonyms, substituting words, or dictionary.  In the response, they would state what strategy they use and provide textual information so we know what part of the text is being discussed. They would also explain the meaning of the word and how it is being used in the text.

• Predicting:  Students want to make predictions that will really help them think about the text.  Types of Questions: 

      Will _____________ happen next?  Will the text tell me _____________________?     In the response, students should discuss the text and make a prediction based on what they are reading.

• I wonder questions - again text support must be given.    

In reading, the focus continues with expository text. Books will be available in the classroom and from the library for students to work with different informational text. They have been doing great on quizzes found on AR.

Task:

• Can your child create a question based on the information read in a section.  Can that question be answered in the text?
• What information does your child think is most important under that heading? Discuss.
• How do the text features help you better understand the information?  Can your child point out the many text features found in their book? (i.e., headings, graphs, maps, bold face words, key questions, interesting facts)