3 Ways to Read

Every day students are working on building their stamina during independent reading time.  During this time that we call, "Read to Self," students are situated around the classroom with their 'book boxes'.  In these handy cases are a variety of texts.  Students have practiced reading these texts three different ways.  They can choose to read the pictures, read the words, or retell a familiar story.  During read to self time, students stay in one spot, reading independently to themselves with no distractions.  Today we read and then re-read Eric Carle's famous story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Because many children are familiar with this story, we practiced 'retelling' the story as the 3rd way of reading.  Children continue to be introduced to texts that are repetitive and easy to read (such as Chester Loves School).  Each student also has a book called, "I See My Class."  This book is filled with actual photocopied photos of each child, with the text, "I See ____" on each page.  INQUIRE with your child the three ways that we can all read books.  Can they name 10 classmates?