Hello Everyone!

I hope you had a great summer!  I spent some time cruising to San Juan Puerto Rico, Tortola, and the Dominican Republic.  During this time I had an opportunity to participate in some activities that took me out of my “comfort zone,” such as flying through the trees on a zip line and riding on an all-terrain vehicle.  Of course, I had plenty of time for my favorite activity:  reading!  I even had a chance to see one of my best-loved authors, Augusten Burroughs, at Yale University this summer.  (Imagine my joy when he autographed my copy of one of his books!)  I hope you all had a chance to do some reading over the summer amidst all of your busy activities.

The students at both Ryerson and Island Avenue School have been settling in nicely.  Their enthusiasm and developing love for reading is readily apparent.  Students in Grades 1 and 2 have “hit the ground running” as they engage in the many phonemic awareness and phonics activities provided by our Open Court program.  Phonological awareness is so important because it forms the basis for reading.  PA skills include rhyming, sound/symbol matching, segmentation, blending, and being able to manipulate sounds in many ways.  Students have had the advantage of this systematic, explicit instruction since kindergarten.  They are now being given the opportunity to reinforce and expand their skills in order to become more fluent readers, and to get beyond the distractions and mechanics of decoding words to focus on the goal of reading:  comprehension (Open Court Phonics, SRA/McGraw-Hill, 2004).

Of course, parents are their children’s greatest and most influential teachers, and are able to set the best examples for good reading habits.  Becky L. Spivey, M.Ed. (Super Duper Publications, 2007) offers the following suggestions to help provide opportunities at home that encourage children to read:

• Use your local and school libraries, as they are the most economical way to immerse your child in age-appropriate, current, and interest-related reading materials.  (Make sure everyone has a library card!)
• Along with regular visits to the library, check out story times, author visits (R.J. Julia has lots of these!) and book fairs.
• Allow your child to choose an “easy” book.  Reading books at a lower level or the same books over and over helps increase confidence and fluency.
• Read to your child often.  Find a special place and make it a regular way to spend time together.  To keep the momentum going, offer to read every other page, paragraph, or sentence.
• When shopping, encourage your child to help you by reading labels, food containers, signs, ads, billboards, and any other printed material.
• Investigate the vast supply of educational games and websites designed to strengthen early literacy skills.  Check out one of my favorites: www.starfall.com.

Well, that’s all for now.  I would like to wish everyone a happy, successful academic year.

Keep on Reading!         

   Mrs. Armor

P.S. If you can read this, thank a teacher.
                ~ Anonymous Teacher ~