November 18

Mr. Heidebrecht caught a perfect moment in our classroom and I thought you'd like to peek through the lens of his camera to see one of the things we are doing right now.

We're working on the idea that the best readers always guess and check. We look at pictures, think about what the book is about, examine words around the word we are going to read next, and make a guess about what the word should be.

Then we check. We start by looking at the first letter. That's what the kids are doing in the picture. They are showing me, using American sign language, which letter they expect to see on the page. I've covered the words with a post-it note so they can't see it until we've all had a chance to show our guess.

Your children are getting really good at this.

You can try this at home, with or without the post-it notes, and with or without the sign language. But asking what a child guesses will be next is helping your child to read like you and I do.

When we guess and check well, we read with fluency. That's the part of reading that is often missing in Grade One where children focus on each letter so long that they forget what the first sound was before they get to the third sound.

Miss Owen