Rainbow Reading Programme for Students - Reciprocal Teaching Before Reciprocal Teaching can be used successfully by your students, they need to have been taught and had time to practice the four strategies that are used in reciprocal teaching (summarizing, questioning, predicting, clarifying). One way to get students prepared to use reciprocal teaching: (from Donna Dyer of the North West Regional Education Service Agency in North Carolina) Put students in groups of four. Distribute one note card to each member of the group identifying each person's unique role: Summarizer Questioner Clarifier Predictor Have students read a few paragraphs of the assigned text selection. Encourage them to use note-taking strategies such as selective underlining or sticky-notes to help them better prepare for their role in the discussion. For more information, see the article Reciprocal Teaching for the Primary Grades: "We Can Do It, Too!". Download blank templates
The Best Children’s Books of 2014 by Maria Popova Intelligent and imaginative tales of love, loneliness, loyalty, loss, friendship, and everything in between. “I don’t write for children,” Maurice Sendak scoffed in his final interview. “It is an error,” wrote J.R.R. This is certainly the case with the most intelligent and imaginative “children’s” and picture-books published this year. Once in a long while, a children’s book comes by that is so gorgeous in sight and spirit, so timelessly and agelessly enchanting, that it takes my breath away. Dubuc’s warm and generous illustrations are not only magical in that singular way that only someone who understands both childhood and loneliness can afford, but also lend a mesmerizing musical quality to the story. As an endless winter descends upon Lion and Bird, they share a world of warmth and playful fellowship. Dubuc’s eloquent pictures advance the nearly wordless story, true to those moments in life that render words unnecessary. “Yes,” says Lion. Summer passes slowly, softly.
Running Record Assesment Tips Assessment Tips Running Records You can do leveled reading assessment by taking a running record using a book that you believe is close to the child’s developmental level. The running record allows you to record a child’s reading behavior as he or she reads from the book. Running records can be taken on a book that has never been seen by the reader or one that has been read once or twice. You can analyze the results of your running record assessment to gain insights into a child’s reading and to assign children to the appropriate developmental level for their leveled reading sessions. Taking a running record improves with experience. Before using the running record form, familiarize yourself with the following terms: Errors (E) Errors are tallied during the reading whenever a child does any of the following: Substitutes another word for a word in the text Omits a word Inserts a word Has to be told a word by the person administering the running record How to Take a Running Record
The guided reading colour wheel / Guided reading texts / The Ready to Read series / Ready to Read / Instructional Series Ready to Read levelled texts Ready to Read student texts are carefully crafted and levelled to ensure that students are presented with continual and appropriate challenges in their learning. The series uses a colour wheel to indicate the level of each student text. There is a colour wheel on the back of every guided reading text to indicate its level of difficulty. All of the levels, except Magenta, are further divided into sub-levels to allow for a flatter gradient of text difficulty. Some classroom teachers may use the Reading Recovery numbering system, rather than colours, to refer to the Ready to Read text levels. The zone of proximal development The level of difficulty in Ready to Read texts increases gradually in aspects such as vocabulary, text length, complexity of text structure, students' familiarity with the content, and how explicitly the content is stated. This zone is the gap between what a student can do independently and what they can do with help. The colour wheel levels
Ready levels - Learning media In this book, students are cooks. There are simple recipes for treats like crispy cookies, mini-pizzas, and chocolate pudding. Following the recipes will help students understand how heat cooks food in different ways. Features of the Book – Recipe book format, – Specialised language – digest, convection, broil, – … [more] In this book, students are cooks. [less] Who wrote answers for the book? Bear Grylls – Is it OK to eat a worm?Alain de Botton – How are dreams made?Jessica Ennis – How do you get into the Olympics? Plus: jokes from some of our favourite comedians including Stephen Fry, Sarah Millican, Robert Webb, Jack Whitehall and Sandi Toksvig. Reading Without Tears: Use the iPad to Encourage Reluctant Readers By Emily | October 18, 2012 | 2 comments If your child has a meltdown when it’s time to “drop everything and read,” consider using the iPad to build good reading habits and to help your child find content that interest him. Of course parents can tell a child that “there’s no iPad until you’ve done your reading.” And, there are many, many high-quality kids book appsavailable that encourage children to read, for some kids reading remains a chore. Look for apps which, while they aren’t books, still require reading. Make reading more like a game. Work more reading into a child’s play time. Track a child’s progress. Do you have a reluctant reader at home? Photo courtesy of Flickr user Creative Donkey.
Interview with Adele Broadbent Name: Adele Broadbent Date of birth: 17 April 1968 Place of birth: Napier Now living in: Napier What is your favourite food? I love anything caramel! Do you have a nickname and, if so, what is it? I have had several nicknames — some good — some bad — but thankfully, none that have stuck. What was your most embarrassing moment? I have lots and lots of those, but my most embarrassing ‘stage’ was turning from a tomboy into a girl. How do you relax? I enjoy watching movies when I get the time. Who inspired you when you were little? My parents gave me my love of books and reading and I had some really cool teachers at Intermediate. What were you like at school? I was always the smallest in my class, but probably talked the most! What was your favourite/most hated subject at school? My favourite subjects were English and Art and I was hopeless at Maths and Science. What was the book you most loved as a child? Which person from the past would you most like to meet? Why did you want to be a writer?