"Time with Text"

It won’t surprise you to learn that I go to a lot of meetings and training sessions; it’s just the nature of the business of education. I really enjoy listening to other people at these meetings because, many times, they phrase big ideas in a way that seem to stick. Last week I went to a meeting about AIMSWEB. (As a reminder, AIMSWEB is a screening tool that we use for every student in the building, three times a year, to ensure that they are making growth in reading and math.) During the meeting the trainer told a story about how his own child learned to read, and he reminded us that “time with text” is critically important. Time with text…what does that mean for a middle level child? Well, I think it means that we want to create an environment, both here and at home, that encourages our students to READ– all kinds of text, all the time. In last month’s blog I talked about variety (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, opinion articles, newspapers, magazines, manuals, etc.), complexity (providing opportunities for challenging reading material) and amount (reading every single day). You will be receiving a letter in the mail in the next day or two with your child’s Lexile level, the directions for using lexile.com and a list of books generated from that site that your child selected. February Break would be the perfect time to put a few books on your child’s Kindle or head to the library to browse and select something from their shelves. If you are traveling this week consider a book on tape. Children of this age (although they would hateto admit it) still enjoy a good read-a-loud and this is a great way to introduce books that are a little more challenging but high interest. I hope that the week off provides you with some time to relax, get outside and enjoy a good book. We Celebrate Learning! Beth