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    You may have heard the proverb "practice makes perfect." In learning to read it is true that reading practice, just reading, is a powerful contributor to the development of accurate, fluent, high- comprehension reading. (Allington, 2009)

    Just as you would take your child to sports practice or dance lessons, reading is a skill that needs to be practiced daily. Whether your child is reading to themselves or being read to, research supports that to develop the ability to read fluently requires the opportunity to read often. This means that children need to be read to or read every day to become better at reading.

    Reading can be enjoyable and children can learn new ideas. One of our goals at Apollo School is to encourage children to choose to read for pleasure and to develop a love for reading.  With your help, we can develop life- long readers. 

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    You can help your child get more out of reading when you talk to her or him before, during, and after reading. Children learn when they make connections between what they hear and what they know. One method you can use to help make these connections is called a "think aloud," this is where you talk through your thoughts as you read. Below are three examples of a "think aloud." I encourage you to try this type of thinking with your child to expand learning and to improve reading comprehension.

    1. Connect the book to your child's own experience:
    • "This book reminds me of the time when we had a picnic outside, but it started raining!"

    2. Connect the book to other books they have read:

    • "This story reminds me of the fable, The Three Little Pigs. Both stories had a big bad wolf.  Let's keep reading to find out other ways the stories may be similar."
    3. Connect the book to big ideas, themes, or lessons:
    • "This story helps me understand that we are all the same in many ways, but it is our differences that make us special."

    These are connections that good readers make naturally as they read.
    Modeling these types of connections will help readers know how to do it when they read independently. 

    Children learn to read by reading.
     
     Read for meaning!
    Reading is thinking!