This session was sorta like Ready to Read 2.0. The spotlight was on 5,6 and 7 year olds and the session focused on reading acquisition skills and the strategies kids have to learn in order to actually read. They have to use Meaning cues, Structure cues and Visual cues. More details on these later...
When a child knows and understands these 3 strategies and is able to use them quickly, cross checking one against the other, they are reading. We all do this, even as adults.
The second half focused on how they divided their readers into levels. They did this in order to help parents better help their children. Since there are so many levels used in education, the ones they settled on were:
- Pre-emergent,
- Emergent
- Early Fluent
- Fluent
They also then incorporated these levels into their library catalog!!! See more info here.
My final highlight deals with how we can help parents choose books that will support reading acquisition. She said it simply: Keep it easy for the child. Why? This builds fluency and confidence. She also said the five finger method leaves too many hard words. If a child struggles with more than 2 words the book is too hard.
Like I said, I'll have more info later. I am trying to keep this short and sweet and I see I have already rambled on for a good long while...
