Ready, Set…Read! Creating a Successful First Reading of the New Book

1. Ready, Set…Read!Creating a Successful First Reading of the New Book Presented by Ann Fry Michelle Young

2. Set the Mood for Success • Invite them into the book. • Use a friendly, excited voice.

3. Give the Gist • It is important to give them the main idea or the main problem in the story to help them be able to anticipate what is coming as they read. • Somebody, Wants, But, So…* Macon, Bewell, & Vogt (1991) *This is used as a great comprehension activity for students, but it is also an easy way for us to get to the gist of the story in many books When giving this brief introduction, you determine if you want to reveal the ending (the “so…”), or let it be a surprise.

4. Book Orientation • Give them a purpose for looking at the pictures/reading the story. • Get the children to talk about the book. • Our goal is to teach them to orient themselves and become independent.

5. Set the Students up for Success with Structure • Make the children familiar with: • phrases of language that he might never have heard. • Unusual names and new words. • Familiar words used in an unusual way.

6. Setting them up for Success with Structure (continued) • Give the children opportunities to hear and say new words and structures that he will need to use in the reading. • It is important for struggling readers (and those that do not have good control of the language) that we take the “bugs” out of the book before they try to read it. • The first reading of the new book is not a test. It needs to be a successful reading. (Marie Clay, Literacy Lessons II, p.91)

7. Predict and Locate Procedure for Predict and Locate: • Have the student say the word. • Say “What letter would you expect to see at the beginning of ___ ? • Have them find it and frame it with their fingers. • Have the child read the word and run their finger under the word as they say it.

8. Choosing Predict and Locate Words In lower level books, • Select a word they cannot get to by using the picture and the first letter. • Select a word at the beginning of the sentence (where there are no context clues to help).

9. Choosing Predict and Locate Words (continued) In higher level books, • Select a word or even a phrase you anticipate will be hard to get to (e.g. “exclaimed, wondered, replied.”) • As they become more competent readers, you may not need to have a predict and locate word.

10. How to choose the strategy to teach during the new book • Our teaching points need to be for strategic behaviors that can help them on any book at any level. • The strategic behaviors on the graph build on one another. As they gain control of one behavior, teach the next one and prompt to that as your focus—this is working in their zone of proximal development. credit to Jan Henderson, Reading Recovery Teacher Leader, 2007

11. Questions to consider when determining what word work will be most beneficial: • What does this group need in order to move forward in text level, or to problem solve at this level? • What principle of print (see “Some Principles of Print” handout) does this group need to understand and be able to use in order to move forward? • What can I demonstrate during and after reading the new book to support and develop an understanding of this principle? Credit to Jan Henderson, Reading Recovery Teacher Leader, 2007