Collin, a kindergartner, and literacy expert Michèe Dufresne read and write together one or two times a week. We hope that as we share Collin’s progress with you, you are able to take bits of learning to use with your own students.
As Collin’s reading improves, I have started to change my book introductions to new books. With early level books, I explain the whole story and don’t leave much to be worked out. I usually practice the language structure with the student. With Collin, I am starting to leave things to solve on his own, but I am still starting with a synopsis of the story. I don’t want Collin to guess what the story is about. I want him to know and therefore successfully anticipate the story. After the book introduction, Collin and I look at the illustrations and discuss what is happening in the text. In this video, I introduce Collin to a Level E book called The Lost Money. Collin has read some other stories about the same characters in the text, Georgie Giraffe and Monkey. I like to use books that have recurring characters. I think it builds the interest of the student in the text and increases reading comprehension. I wish I hadn’t mucked up calling it a handstand, though (it’s a headstand!). Oh well!
In this next video, Collin reads the story. He has a nice pace with new books, and I think he sounds good. He is monitoring his errors well. See what you think!
The Lost Money provides good teaching opportunities for learning how to take words apart (the-n, and a-round). I used that as a teaching point after the reading.
Michèle Dufresne is author of many Pioneer Valley Books early readers (including the Bella and Rosie series), Word Solvers (Heinemann), and an early literacy and literacy intervention consultant.
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