I am currently using, with great success the most creative, exciting and simplest reading program ever.
Unfortunately I won't make any money off my invention because it's not really my idea.
I can't even re-package it into the latest thing. I wouldn't feel right even if I could because it's so simple that every teacher should do it yet it's only done in Kindergarten, in 1st and sometimes in 2nd. It's rarely done in 3rd or 4th and from 5th grade on up it's totally abandoned. It a program all parents can do yet most would rather spend hundreds even thousands of dollars sending their children to any of the tutoring services and/or to private school.
This ultra-creative program is reading aloud to my students and they in turn read to the Kindergarten ESL/ELL classes every Friday. I choose one book for them or I check out a class set of the same title and they choose one to read to their Kindergarten reading buddy.
What? Reading aloud? Where is the comprehension questions? The vocabulary? The predicting? The analogies? In short where are the worksheets?
I'll answer them from last to first.
1. There are no worksheets. 2. The analogies are in many stories and come from the vocabulary building we do. 3. That's an easy one, just ask them what is happening next and why they think so. 4. Vocab is all over in the books we read. I pick the some words I think they don't know and then add to the list or take away from the list as we read the books. Sometimes they know more vocab than I think they do and sometimes my list to too short. 5. I have them write comprehension questions to the books they are reading, they ask their book buddies the questions as they read to them.
Is it perfect? No. But it is the best thing I have found to help my ESL/ELL students learn how to read fluently and to increase their comprehension. And it teaches them the most important reason most people read; for the pleasure of it. The pictures are from my class reading to their book buddies.
2 comments:
That's really cool...It's often the simplist things that work the best.
Yes they are.
The best time of the day some days is reading to Boo, my 5 year-old. We call her Boo because when she started walking she was like a ghost. You'd look around and Boo there she was right next to you.
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