Your child will receive a Take-Home Reading Log every Friday. It is important that your child reads for at least 20 minutes each night. The goal is to read at least 100 minutes per week. On the sheet, your child will record the book read, the book genre (refer to the "Genres at a Glance" sheet for more information), and how many pages were read. In order to monitor your child’s understanding of what was read, please ask your child to RETELL what he/she read. Please return the Take-Home Reading Log to school every Friday.

Your child will also be receiving a Reading A-Z paper book. Some stories are fiction and others are nonfiction. The books will be sent home in a plastic bag labeled with your child's name. Your child should read this book MORE THAN ONCE in order to increase fluency. This book is at his/her reading level. A book will be given to students on Monday. The students should return the book on Wednesday.

WHY CAN'T I SKIP THE 20 MINUTES OF READING TONIGHT?

Let's figure it out - -mathematically!

Student A reading 20 minutes, five nights of each week.

Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!

Step 1:     Multiply minutes per night x 5 times each week.

Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times per week = 100 min./week

Student B reads 4 min. x 5 times per week = 20 min./week

Step 2:     Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.

Student A reads 400 minutes per month.

Student B reads 80 minutes per month.

Step 3:     Multiply minutes per month x 9 months/school year.

Student A reads 3,600 minutes in a school year.

Student B reads 720 minutes in a school year

Student A preactices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.   Student B gets an equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

By the end of 6th grade, if student A and student B maintain these same reading habits, Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days and student B will have read only 12 school days.

One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:

Which student would you expect to read better?

Which student would you expect to know more?

Which student would you expect to write better?

Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?

Which student would you expect to be more successful in school...and in life?