THE IMPORTANCE

OF

READING

Making the

Grade

The new Student Accountability Standards require that students demonstrate grade-level proficiency in reading at the end of grades 3,5,8 and high school. Thus, it is more important than ever that students become proficient readers who read widely and deeply. Schools are giving students who need extra help intervention such as tutoring, summer school or other assistance. Schools also are involving parents in helping their children develop reading proficiency. This publication cites the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, a parent guide from the Public Schools of North Carolina entitled In A WordREAD, and activities from Newspapers in Education to illustrate reading proficiencies and how parents can use newspapers to promote good reading skills.

ELEMENTARY: GRADES K-2

Kindergarten: Emergent Reading
You can expect your kindergarten child to
Know the parts of books and the function of each part. Know that print is read from left to right and top to bottom of a page. Recognize and name lower and upper case letters of the alphabet. Show an understanding of the sounds of most letters (i.e., how the letter "b" represents the sound /b/). Begin to blend letter-sounds in one-syllable words (i.e., the sounds /s/ /i/ /t/ make the word "sit"). Use new vocabulary and language in speech. Enjoy listening to stories. Talk about his or her favorite books or stories. Hear and learn rhymes, songs, poems, and word games.

First Grade: Developing Reading

You can expect your first grade child to
Use phonics knowledge to read one-syllable words. Recognize many common words that can't be sounded out with phonics (i.e., have, said, where, and two). Read first-grade books aloud, with fluency and understanding. Segment and blend the phonemes (smallest sounds) of one-syllable words. Read and understand simple written instructions. Participate in discussions of stories and short informational text. Begin writing about personal experiences, stories, or information learned from books.

Second Grade: Early Independent Reading

You can expect your second grade child to
Use phonics knowledge to decode multi-syllable words. (Decoding is using knowledge of lettersound relationships to convert the printed word into its spoken form.) Read second-grade books aloud with fluency and understanding. Read a variety of different types of text in different content areas. Read longer passages of text. Ask how...? why...? and what-if...? questions after reading. Remember and retell facts and details from a book. Begin to develop "favorites" - favorite topics, favorite authors, favorite books. Be assigned independent reading for homework.

Newspaper Activities For Children in Kindergarten, First, & Second Grade

Use the newspaper, especially the large print in headlines and advertisements, to point out and name individual letters (both upper and lower case). You can also use the newspaper to talk about the top and bottom of the page and how print is read from left to right. Find short, easy to understand articles about local events or people or select special articles written for children. Read these aloud to your child, and discuss what you have just read. Ask them about the main ideas of the article, what they learned, and what else they are interested in knowing. Have your children create an ABC, vowel, blend, or other type of book in which they cut out and display examples from the newspaper. They may choose just the letters, or they may choose words and photos that start with the letters, sounds or blends. The books can be as comprehensive as an individual child chooses. Have your children look for photos that show facial expressions and emotions. Ask questions: "Does the person look happy? Sad? Angry? Concerned? " Read the article aloud and discuss with your children how accurate their predictions were. Make a game of creating new words. Have your children cut out words that have prefixes and suffixes and put them in an envelope. They should take the collection from the envelope and make as many new words as they can. Find comic strips that your children may like and read them aloud. Discuss the pictures and why the characters act the way they do. Ask your child about unseen events that occur between panels. Encourage your child to write dialogue that may extend the story.

MIDDLE SCHOO
Expect middle school students to read for many different purposes, including entertainment, and to read in all content areas. In their reading, they should become more insightful and they should develop increasing control of how to use good reading strategies. For a grade-by-grade list of what to expect in middle school, you may go to http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ or ask your childs teacher for a list of grade level goals and objectives. In general, however, you can expect your middle school child to:
Read to comprehend literal information and to draw conclusions. Extend ideas by making connections to their own experiences and other readings. Use multiple sources of print in researching and developing informational materials. Read and understand texts that have the following purposes: exploring personal insights and experiences (autobiographies, diaries, journals, letters). giving information (definitions, instructions, reports, news articles, research). persuading (speeches, letters to the editor, debates, editorials). interpreting and judging ideas or information (media or book reviews, essays). Read and interpret a wide range of literature to: Integrate personal experiences with ideas and draw conclusions. Appreciate the world and how it is depicted. Study the characteristics of literature (fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry). Identify and examine literary elements such as style, mood and tone. Identify and examine literary devices such as figurative language and flashback. Use effective reading strategies to match the type of text being read.

ELEMENTARY: GRADES 3-5

Third Grade: Independent Reading
You can expect your third grader to...
Have mastery of phonics. Read at grade level with fluency, accuracy and understanding. Understand cause and effect. Recognize the difference between fact and opinion. Read for a variety of reasons and read a variety of text. Use details in the text to check for understanding. Have an opinion about favorite books and authors. Know when text makes no sense to them and take corrective actions such as re-reading. Use titles, graphics, captions, and charts to support comprehension.

Fourth Grade
You can expect your fourth grader to
Read a wide range of texts, including fiction (legends, novels, folklore, science fiction), nonfiction (autobiographies, informational books, diaries, journals), poetry (such as concrete poems and haiku), and drama (skits and plays). Apply comprehension strategies such as rereading text, paraphrasing, and questioning what has been read. Identify and analyze elements of fiction and nonfiction, such as plot, theme, main idea, supporting details, and authors choice of words. Expand vocabulary through wide reading, word study, and discussion. Use media and technological resources for research and as tools for learning. Read daily from self-selected and assigned materials.

Fifth Grade
You can expect your fifth grader to
Read a variety of texts, including fiction (novels, tall tales, myths), nonfiction (books of true experiences, newspaper and magazine articles, schedules), poetry (such as narrative, lyric, cinquains), and drama (skits and plays). Use appropriate reading strategies such as skimming, scanning, rereading, questioning, making predictions, drawing on personal, literary, or cultural understandings. Use reading to learn about and understand their world and other cultures. Evaluate text to determine the authors purpose and point of view. Increase vocabulary through wide reading, word study, discussion, and content area study. Research multiple sources to deepen understanding and integrate information and ideas across varied sources and content areas. Read daily from self-selected materials.

L:

GRADES 6-8
Newspaper Activities For Middle School Students:
Have your children cut out to save, or simply to share, stories about interesting and famous people, athletes, performers, politicians or others. Discuss what makes these people interesting and why they became famous. Ask about positive role models. Point out someone who interests you and ask your children to name people in the news who interest them. Ask them to think of questions they would ask those people if they were able to interview them. Encourage your children to read sports stories, particularly ones about local teams or teams that interest them. Focus on the language of sports. Have them search headlines for ways of saying a team "won" (smash, sneak by) or "lost" (fall, sink). Have fun making up new headlines for the stories. Examine other perspectives by thinking of words that the losing team would have used to describe the game. Point out letters to the editor. Look for familiar names and topics. Discuss with your child what does or does not make the letter persuasive. Identify the authors tone; for example, does the author sound angry or worried? Look through advertisements in the newspaper. Identify key words and phrases meant to persuade the buyer. Discuss which products and which advertising approaches are appealing and explain why. Compare the persuasiveness of an advertisement to that of a letter to the editor. Read and discuss movies and movie reviews. Choose a movie that interests both you and your son or daughter. After seeing the movie, compare your viewpoints with those of a reviewer.

Newspaper Activities For Children in Grades Three, Four, and Five

Encourage your children to think on their own. Offer open-ended sentences in response to newspaper reading. Two simple ones are "I agree with... I disagree with...." Have them fill in with something that they have read and thought about from the newspaper. Read selected newspaper articles aloud to your child and discuss how headlines, graphics, captions, and charts support comprehension. Find examples in the news of neighbors helping each other. Also find stories about people who need help and discuss what local people can do to assist them. Encourage your children to read a favorite section of the newspaper every day. They may follow their favorite comic and talk about what is happening in each episode, follow their favorite team, or read the news to learn as much as they can about an issue affecting their community. Have your children second-guess the newspaper's editor and decide which story they would give the most attention on the front page. Ask them to explain why they thought the story was important. Almost every question in conversation, in school assignments and on tests begins with question words such as "who, what, why, where, or when." Newspapers can help your children understand the cues offered by question words. Use an interesting photo without the caption or the opening of the story and ask questions such as: "What is happening? Who is committing the action? Where and when did the action take place? Why or how did the action take place?" Explain that "why" and "how" are harder questions that require more thinking and reading. This practice, which helps children of all ages, will come in handy when your children face questions that test their knowledge of things they have read and studied.

HIGH SCHOOL: GRADES 9-12

Expect high school students to read widely and deeply in all content areas and to read increasingly complex text. In English classes, students will learn literary analysis and real world, United States, and British literature. For a grade-by-grade list of what to expect in high school, you may go to http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ or ask your childs teacher for a list of course goals and objectives. In general, you can expect high school students to:
Read and understand complex text, drawing conclusions and making connections to personal experiences and other readings. Read, understand, and analyze texts that have the following purposes: Exploring personal insights and experiences (memoirs, narratives, reflections). Giving information (news articles, historical documents, research). Persuading (speeches, letters to the editor, debates, editorials). Interpreting and evaluating ideas or information (media or book reviews, essays). Read, interpret and analyze a wide range of world, United States, and British literature to: Analyze the characteristics of literary genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama). Interpret literary devices such as symbolism, dramatic irony and imagery. Understand the importance of cultural and historical impact on literature. Understand the significance of literary movements. Make thematic connections among literary texts and media and contemporary issues.

Newspaper Activities for High School Students:

Encourage your teenagers to read the newspaper daily. Ask them what articles they found interesting and read and discuss those articles with them. Read newspaper coverage of a major news story and watch the same story presented on television. Talk about the differences between reading newspapers and watching television news. Read the newspaper for issues that have some direct effect on your family. Locate news stories and opinions in editorials, letters to the editor and editorial columns. Ask your teens which facts are most important and which opinions are closest to theirs. Review TV and movie schedules, discussing which shows and movies are appealing and why. Compare your reviews with those written by media critics. Ask your teenagers to find persuasive letters to the editor. Identify and discuss the authors style and tone. Encourage your teenagers to respond with their own letters to the editor when they encounter ideas with which they disagree. In conversations, point out decisions made by government. Talk about decisions that have affected you. Identify public officials and the things that they do. Develop your teenagers interests in current events. Encourage them to stay informed. As they approach voting age, encourage them to register to vote.

Making the Grade: The Importance of Reading is one in a series of publications produced by North Carolina
Newspapers in Education with support from the North Carolina Press Association and the Public Schools of North Carolina (State Board of Education/Department of Public Instruction). Watch for other tips for helping your child during the coming months.
Public Schools of North Carolina 301 N. Wilmington Street Raleigh, NC 27601-2825 phone: 919-807-3300 www.ncpublicschools.org

NC Press Foundation 5171 Glenwood Ave., Ste. 364 Raleigh, NC 27612 www.ncpress.com