One of the most important back to school routines I teach my students on the 1st week of school is How to Read a Book. First, I introduce the 3 ways to read a book poster.
Read the Pictures
I model for my students how to “read the pictures” by telling myself what I see in the picture and what I think it’s happening in the story. Then I give my students time to practice reading the pictures on their own.
At this time, I walk around and listen to students as they read the pictures. There is usually 1 or 2 students who believe that they can’t read. I approach those students and prompt them to tell me what they see and I ask what and why questions.
After they tell me their answers, I praise them by saying, “You sure are a good picture reader.” Their smile tells me that they are starting to build their confidence as readers.
Read the Words
The next day, I review how to read a book using pictures. Then I use a big book to model for my students how to read words in books. I show my students how to use pictures and initial sounds to figure out words that I don’t know. Again, I give my students a chance to practice how to read the words in a book.
I let students choose to how they want to read a book for the first couple weeks of school. I often refer back to the poster every day as I send my students to read books on their own.
Retelling a book
During those 2 weeks, I model for my students how to retell a story of a book that I read aloud to my students. I don’t have my students practice this skill until after the second week of school. This gives them plenty of opportunities to see the process of retelling stories. At this point I have my students practice how to read a book by retelling a story I’ve read aloud to them.
I print this poster and enlarge it to fit in 4 pages, so that it is big enough for my students to see it across the room and we can refer to it during the year. Feel free to download this poster. Make sure to follow my blog, as I will be posting more #backtoschool routines and procedures for a successful year.
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