Reading
Accelerated Reader is available online at home.
Visit https://hosted147.renlearn.com/705097/ and type in your student id and password.
You can take tests and check book levels at any time.
Weekly Reading Activities
Listed are the different reading activities you will be asked to do on a weekly basis. The teacher will choose your activities for each week. Please follow the directions for each activity and make sure your work is neat and readable. If you do not follow the directions, the work will be re-done correctly during recess and/or at home. Label each reading activity at the top of the page when you turn it in with the rest of your homework.
# 1. 5+ sentence summary: Write a 5 or more sentence summary from your nightly reading. Be sure to write complete sentences and use adjectives to describe what you read.
# 2. Common and Proper Nouns: Identify 10 common and 10 proper nouns from your reading. Be sure to list the page number the noun was on.
# 3. Character Summary: Choose a character from your book to write 5 or more sentences about. What do you like or dislike about the character? How is the character like or not like you? Be specific.
# 4. Describe the Setting: Write 4 or more sentences describing the setting of the book you are reading. Be sure to include details like year and location.
# 5. Prediction: Predict what will happen next in the story. Be sure to write 5 or more sentences and be specific.
# 6. Author Questions: If you could meet the author, what are 4 or more questions you would ask the author if you met them.
# 7. Fact or Fiction: Give 4 or more examples from the book stating why the story could really happen or could not really happen.
# 8. Illustration: Draw an illustration of what you read. Be sure to fill the full sheet of paper with your colored drawing.
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Ideas for reading:
* Read out loud to a parent, sibling, or friend.
* Occasionally have a parent, sibling, or friend read to you as you follow along. Pause every 3-5 pages and have them ask you questions, relate to the story, or predict what will happen next.
For example; I wonder why the character Angelina from the story wanted to...,
or I think the character Gavin will ____________________ next,
or I remember something like what happened to Natalia from the story, happen in my life.
Try to answer those questions before you continue reading. See if what you answered was correct by reading on. You will get better at it as you practice more and more.
What book should your child be reading? Let them choose a book and have them read aloud to you. If on any one page they make a combination of more than 3 mistakes, or don't know what words mean, then the book is too hard. Choosing a book at their ability, but not too easy, helps improve their reading skills. The more books they read at the upper end of their level, the more their reading improves. Just because they are in fourth grade, does not mean they can read and understand books written at a fourth grade level. Some students need practice at lower level books, and other students comprehend books beyond a fourth grade level.
Reading every day for 20 - 30 minutes is like working out your brain instead of your muscles. Pick up a good book and start working out today!
To practice reading and test your comprehension, you can visit: http://www.mrnussbaum.com/readingpassageindex.htm
If the 4th grade passages you select are too difficult, try some of the 3rd grade passages. If they are too easy, try some of the 5th grade passages.
According to time4learning.com:
How Can Reading Comprehension be Taught at Home?
If you are like most parents, you have forgotten that you had to develop reading comprehension skill. Much like learning to drive, reading comprehension becomes automatic and skilled readers forget that they had to develop their reading comprehension skill. The key to teaching reading comprehension is developing the habit of "interacting" with the text and monitoring one's understanding.
By "learning to read", most parents mean that the child is decoding words. But understanding what you read, "reading comprehension," comes from developing a set of skills distinct from phonics "word decoding" skills. In fact, children should start building comprehension skills when they are still having others read to them.
Learning reading comprehension requires a strategy where lesson plans progressively develop and reinforce reading comprehension skill.
Today, the standardized high-stakes tests, such as the Florida FCAT, the Texas TAKS, the Ohio OGT, and the California Stanford 9 and SABE/2, to name a few, have focused attention by parents and educators on systematic mastering of reading skills. And learning to read online using animated, engaging, and student-paced programs have proven effective for thousands of families.
What is reading comprehension?
Reading comprehension skills separates the "passive" unskilled reader from the "active" readers. Skilled readers don't just read, they interact with the text. To help a beginning reader understand this concept, you might make them privy to the dialogue readers have with themselves while reading.
Skilled readers, for instance:
- Predict what will happen next in a story using clues presented in text
- Create questions about the main idea, message, or plot of the text
- Monitor understanding of the sequence, context, or characters
- Clarify parts of the text which have confused them
- Connect the events in the text to prior knowledge or experience
Reading comprehension skills increase the pleasure and effectiveness of reading. Strong reading comprehension skills help in all the other subjects and in the personal and professional lives. The high stake tests that control advancement through elementary, middle, and high school and that determine entrance to college are in large parts, a measure of reading comprehension skills. And while there are test preparation courses which will provide a few short-cuts to improve test-taking strategies, these standardized tests tend to be very effective in measuring a readers reading comprehension skills. In short, building reading comprehension skills requires a long term strategy in which all the reading skills areas (phonics, fluency, vocabulary) will contribute to success.
You can visit Eduplace.com to play games or read more on our reading selections each week.
To find out more about Akiak, visit: http://www.iditarod.com/
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/iditarod/
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/iditarod/iditarod.html
To find out more about Grandfather's Journey, visit: http://www.eduplace.com/kids/tnc/gr4/gr4_th1_sel2.html
http://www.swsd.k12.pa.us/~michelle_krill/PowerPoints/Grandfathers_journey.ppt
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/quizzes32/drcmg/GrandfathersJourne.html
Boss of the Plains : http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/gr4/gr4_th2_sel3.html
A Very Important Day : http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/gr4/gr4_th2_sel4.html
The Stranger : http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/gr4/gr4_th3_sel1.html
Cendrillon : http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/gr4/gr4_th3_sel2.html
Heat Wave : http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/gr4/gr4_th3_sel3.html
My Name is Maria Isabel : http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/gr4/gr4_th4_sel1.html
Marven of the Great North Woods : http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/gr4/gr4_th4_sel2.html
The Last Dragon : http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/gr4/gr4_th4_sel3.html
Sing to the Stars : http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/gr4/gr4_th4_sel4.html
Happy Birthday, Dr. King : http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/gr4/gr4_th5_sel1.html
Gloria Estefan : http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/gr4/gr4_th5_sel2.html
Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man : http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/gr4/gr4_th5_sel3.html
