It has been a great week at Fisher! Boosterthon has kicked off and all the students and teachers are excited about the Fun Run next Wednesday, Oct. 6.

Please make sure to join us tomorrow (Friday) at 7:15 for Walk to School. We would love to see parents and students walking to school and wearing green to support the environment.

To continue with my reading theme, I wanted to share with you a few reading strategies that I borrowed from another Frisco principal.

Do You Know What Your Child Is Thinking About Their Reading?

Reading is the construction of meaning. Your child’s comprehension is the most important aspect of reading. Many times a child will bring home a book that is seemingly too easy for them because they are able to read each word accurately. This is called word call. To fully develop good readers, we can’t stop there! The conversations and questioning you have with your
child after they read is often the most important part!

There are different types of questions. There are questions that ask them to recall details from the story. Those are explicit questions. The most difficult questions are those that cannot be answered straight from the text. These are implicit questions. After reading a story, it’s important to ask both types of questions to see if your child truly comprehends what they have read.

Here are some question stems to get you started!
Ask questions about the characters, setting, problem, and solution.
“What did the story make you think about?”
“How would you have felt if you were ______?”
Choose an unfamiliar vocabulary word and ask, “Can you tell me what that word means based on the story?”
With any content word ask, “What words in the story help you know what that word means?”
“What happened before/after ______?”
“What is the story mainly about?”
“Why do you think the author gave this story that title?”
“How do you know this story is make-believe/factual?”
“How would you have solved the problem?”
“How could _____ have reacted differently?”

Here are a few hints from our Fisher first grade team:

Invite your child to read with you every day.
• Discuss new words. For example, "This big house is called a palace. Who do you think lives in a palace?"
• Stop and ask about the pictures and about what is happening in the story.
• Read from a variety of children's books, including fairy tales, song books, poems, and information books.

Conversations with your child about their reading can be the most exciting part! Try it tonight to learn what your child is thinking about their reading!