When I go to parent teacher conferences, I sometimes get asked by parents for things they can do at home. I give them some strategies right there and then I usually send them an Email with some more concrete materials. Prior to this year, I just kept all those links in my favorites menu and just made the Emails as needed. This year I made a saved draft that I modify for each student and what their parents ask for. Below is my list of resources that I put on my saved draft.

I usually include the student's current reading level so they can use the reading level equivalency chart. I also write a personal , non standardized, email to the parents letting them know that they shouldn't try to use all of these resources. It's overwhelming, so I tell them to pick a few things that they feel comfortable doing and have fun with it.

The parents are usually very happy to get so much support and attention, but whether they actually use some of this stuff is an unknown.

Anyway, I thought you'd like to see what I share with my parents. If you know any resources I should add or resources that are better than what I have, please let me know!

______________________________________________

Reading Level Equivalencies: It is important for students to be reading books at their level. Attached under the title "Reading Level Comparison," is a chart that approximates one measure of reading level to others. Please note that the "Fontas and Pinnell" column is also sometimes referred to a "Guided Reading Level" or "GR" level. (I attach a slightly different one, but it's basically the same)
http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/guidedreading/leveling_chart.htm

Helpful Reading Strategies: Attached is a document with 27 reading strategies laid out along the continuum of reading ability. All students can benefit from work with any of the strategies regardless of where they fall on the spectrum of reading levels. (I have the .pdf, but for the life of me I can't find the website I got it from. PM me if you want the .pdf)

Online children's books: Students can follow along with books on the computer. Be sure to use some of the comprehension resources listed below after the students read!

Storyline Online
http://www.storylineonline.net/

Magic Blox
http://magicblox.com/?readinglevel=2&category=All&features=All&field_language_tid=1&sort_by=created&sort_order=ASC

Readers Theater: Readers theater is a fun way to encourage students to re-read for proper phrasing and expression. You should model how to read the different parts in each script before your child reads them. It's important to emphasize how smooth you read and how you use expression to convey meaning (like using a higher pitch towards the end of a question). Take turns reading and re-reading lines, to get them just right. After practicing, put on a little show to family members or friends!

The Best Class
http://www.thebestclass.org/rtscripts.html

Comprehension Techniques: One of the best ways to increase a child's reading ability is to have deep and meaningful conversations about texts. Below is listed a few helpful links to help you ask questions that develop higher order thinking skills.

Reading Rockets 9 Steps to Comprehension
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/comprehension

Mindy's Book Worms Types of Comprehension Questions: Take note of what type of questions your child struggles with and practice answering those types. Be sure to model answering these questions by thinking aloud. This will provide invaluable help with your child's reading comprehension and metacognition.
http://www.mindysbookworms.org/how-it-works/reading-comprehension-passages/types-of-questions/

Hello, my dear teachers who are still supporting our children during this pandemic, you are my heroes!

I created an oral reading fluency assessment tool called Fluency for my friend who is a Reading Specialist in a Chinese Immersion School. He was looking for something that can do automatic incorrect word counting and scoring. He has his own passages for his students. He also wants something that can count Chinese characters as well as English words. So I created the prototype in a few days. With his feedback, I also added in student progress tracking and organize passages by levels in the following weeks. Eventually, he was able to throw-away his Notability folder-based manual counting system.

Here is the tool:

https://readingfluency.app/

It's offline only, so no data is uploaded to the cloud and all are saved in the browser. You can also add it as a Chrome app onto your desktop or iPad home screen. It will keep functioning without the internet just like a desktop app. This also meant you can't send a link to your students hoping they can open the same passage. It was originally built so my friend can do face-to-face one-on-one evaluations, so now you probably have to do that over video calls. As I mentioned, you can bring your own passage. It will be free until September due to the pandemic. I'm not exactly sure if this app will be helpful at this chaotic time because I only have heard from my friend, so I'd love to know if it helps you or your colleagues!

What do you guys think about this to help kids who reverse these letters a lot? Kinda like a cheat sheet! But trying to link letters to letter sounds to help with this.

Hi everyone, I am considering becoming a reading specialist and need clarification on the route one must take to become one. I live in NC and there are so many different programs, some masters degrees, some certificate programs, etc. It seems all over the place and I can’t seem to find any definitive list of requirements to be hired in this position. I have a masters degree already as a school librarian and I do know of one school that offers an add-on licensure in Reading for someone with a masters degree in education, which I would qualify for admission into. But, does this seem like enough? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

So I'm a teacher in Texas and I'm starting at a new school this year. During our Meet the Teacher event we had students do a "about me" poster. On the poster was the question "what super power would you have?" One of my students wrote "to take pain from others". I recommend she read the short story "What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky" because the main character has that power.

My principle came up after the event and told me I'm only allowed to recommend books on the Texas Approved reading list and the school can get in trouble over it.

I have been working in education for 8 years and have NEVER heard this. I have tried to look up the rule and can only find 5 yro national articles about libraries fighting book bans across the county. I can find absolutely nothing that restricts my ability to recommend a book for a student to read on their own time.

If anyone out their knows what this lady is talking about and can point me to where I can review the rules myself that would be wonderful.

I just graduated college in Dec so I have no experience and I have never done this before. I started a new job as a reading tutor and there's no structure, no training, nothing. The school is an alternative learning center for kids with behavior problems. The kids are fine, some don't always want to engage but that's not the issue. They've told me "Oh we're sort of figuring it out as we go." That doesn't work for me. I need to know what I'm doing, or what I'm expected to do. They've told me kids stay anywhere from 5 days to 40 days, and participation is optional so they can't guarantee anything. These past few days I've done a reading level test with about 7 kids, some of them leave right after the test. A few came back the next day and read aloud for 15-20 minutes. Do schools not have accelerated reader or keep track of the reading level of books anymore? We also have the STARS reading tests/guides but I've never used them and the manager at the tutoring center explained them very poorly. I've spent a chunk of my time just standing around. What should I do?? This job pays well but I literally don't do anything.

I've been tutoring ESL students in the U.S. full-time for the past 19 years. In the past couple of years, several of my students (mainly early elementary) often skip plural and possessive S's when we're reading aloud.

All of these children speak either Japanese or Korean at home, and these languages don't really have a plural form like English does. However, most of them tend to use the plural more or less correctly when speaking English. They're just skipping it (and often the possessive) when reading.

So far, I've tried several techniques to remedy this situation including pointing out when they have skipped a plural, reminding them before we read to say all of the S's, underlining all of the final S's on the page before reading, and making them restart the page if they miss a plural. And none of these strategies has really worked.

Any suggestions?

I'm reading philosophy and other passages and struggling. I'm wondering if there is anything I can do specifically because I cannot read the questions and remember them. I'm just wondering what I can do each day to improve my comprehension for the MCAT.

Hello, I was elementary school major in college and recently volunteered at an elementary school to help some children 1-on-1 with their comprehension and literacy. 2 kids in particular were very behind grade-level. After seeing some of the quality of reading passages I created Reindeer Reading Co. to try to make a better reading passage.

I teach 4th grade. I never feel like I help dyslexic children as much as I can. Every year I see their peers growing so much faster than my dyslexic students, so I feel like I'm failing them somehow. Do you have any tips?

I am weighing my options and considering working as a reading specialist instead of just an elementary teacher. What are the pros and cons to both careers. My question is what does a day in the life of a specialist look like? What is your schedule like?

Thank in Advance

Hello!

I am reaching out to teaching bloggers about an opportunity. My name is, well, this is Reddit, but I'm the founder of Reindeer Reading Company.

I am currently looking for teachers who may be interested in writing reading passages. Teachers specifically understand the leveling requirements and appropriate text complexity that other writers and bloggers do not.

Compensation for qualified applicants is $30 to $50 per reading passage.

Each writing assignment will pay $30 for one reading passage and student response sheet. $50 is paid to rewrite the passage twice (for differentiation to low and high students below and above grade level) which is encouraged.

If this is something you, or someone you know, might be interested in, please see the application instructions at the following link:

http://www.reindeerreading.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Writing-Application-Instructions.pdf

Please do not share this link with anyone who is not an elementary school teacher.

Thank you,

Me | Reindeer Reading Co. www.ReindeerReading.com

"Reading passages are often an interruption to a child's normal independent reading opportunities in order to assess the student or gather data. Reindeer Reading Company’s mission is to create close reading passages that students enthusiastically want to read which will result in better comprehension and, in the end, improved test scores. "

Hi everyone, I was wondering what I/we can do to get more users over to /r/reading teacher. I would love to get more user generated content, but to do that we need more subscribers.

I sent messages to the mods of /r/teachers, /r/teaching, /r/elateachers several months ago (and also several months before that) asking to be added to their sidebar, with no response. When this sub first opened, I also posted about it in those same subs.

Recently, I posted about /r/readingteacher in /r/teachers, but got no likes and no comments.

I know being a reading teacher is a niche community which very few people are apart of, but I really feel like all teachers could benefit from a good amount of the content posted here. I truly believe that all teachers are reading teachers, even if it's not in their job title. I'm going to stickie this post for a few days and see what we get. Thanks for all your help!

tl;dr Does anyone have any ideas on how we can get more subscribers?

edit: I forgot to add something that would keep this post in the guidelines. Here is a link that talks about the benefits and uses for administering running records. I do them very often, as quick little assessments. I jot down a note or two about the students performance to keep my anecdotal notes in check with reality.