Transitional Reading and Writing Goals for Second Grade.

I was over on the Reading Rockets webpage and found a good article for second grade teachers.   The article discussed transitional reading and writing goals for second grade.  Most children spend the first grade year making all types of new connections with their learning.  They make amazing growth during that year.  Second grade is the time for that growth to really take root and grow.  Head on over to http://www.readingrockets.org/article/goals-second-grade-transitional-reading-and-writing and learn their suggestions for some second grade goals.  I know I learned a few new things!

Self-Esteem and Reading Difficulties | Helping Struggling Readers | Reading Rockets

Self-Esteem and Reading Difficulties | Helping Struggling Readers | Reading Rockets

Take a look at this great article on www.readingrockets.org about self-esteem and reading difficulties. Many of my students suffer from low self-esteem in regards to their ability to read. Let's look at how we can help them overcome this difficulty.

Critical Thinking Skills

Mission Critical: Reading Together to Build Critical Thinking Skills

As parents, we hope to develop many positive skills and traits in our children. Critical thinking, the ability to think deeply about a topic or a book, is an essential skill for children to develop.  Critical thinking doesn't develop overnight. It's something that develops and builds through conversations and experiences. It's also something parents can nurture by sharing quality books with their children.

Even though your elementary-aged child may now be able to read on their own, reading together remains just as important as it was when your child was younger. Family read-alouds provide great opportunities to tackle more challenging books together. These longer chapter books may have plots that are more complex and more demanding vocabulary. Working through these books chapter by chapter helps teach persistence. And by reading together, you are there as an important source of support and information.

Reading critically involves slowing down, and taking the time to help your child reflect on what you've just read. Depending on the book, discussions may involve talking about what a character's actions tell us about his personality, or how the book's setting is important to the overall message. It might mean helping your child recognize something about the plot and the conflict that exists. It also means asking more open-ended questions to which there can be

multiple correct answers.

Quality books enable you and your child to talk about the book in depth and with substance. All of this will help your reader develop critical thinking skills that will last a lifetime. Below are a

few recommended titles, by grade level, that you and your growing reader may enjoy reading together and talking about.

Books for second and third grades

• Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Florence and Richard Atwater

• Babe: The Gallant Pig, by Dick King-Smith

• Half Magic, by Edward Eager

• The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

• Recommended titles from Deconstructing Penguins: Parents, Kids and the Bond of Reading, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (HarperCollins, 2005)

For more information, read How to Increase Higher Order Thinking:  www.ReadingRockets.org/article/34655

Helpful information about learning brought to you by Reading Rockets, Colorin Colorado, and LD OnLine

Reading Rockets, Colorín Colorado, and LD OnLine are services of public television station WETA, Washington, D.C. Reading Rockets is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Offi ce of Special Education Programs. Colorín Colorado, a web service to help English language learners become better readers, receives major funding from the American Federation of Teachers. Additional funding is provided by the National Institute for Literacy and the U.S. Department of Education, Offi ce of Special Education Programs. LD OnLine is the world's leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD, with major funding from Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes. 

Reading Rockets: Identifying Risk Factors to Prevent Difficulties

I was looking at the Reading Rockets website today and found a wonderful archived article on identifying risk factors to prevent reading difficulties.  Please take a moment and read below:

By: Catherine Snow, Susan Burns, and Peg Griffin (1998)

There are certain characteristics of groups and individual children that increase their likelihood of struggling with reading. Find out how to use knowledge of these risk factors to help prevent reading problems for these children.

Our review of prediction studies indicates clearly that no single risk factor, on its own, is sufficiently accurate to be of practical use for predicting reading difficulties. In combination, however, measures of various kinds of risk – individual, familial, and demographic – can provide useful estimates of future achievement levels.
Although prediction accuracy is far from perfect, errors of prediction can be tolerated as long as children's progress is carefully monitored during kindergarten and beyond. As discussed below, how different school systems can best use the available information about risk indicators must be tailored to their particular needs, goals, and resources.

Group risk factors

It is abundantly clear that some groups of children are at risk for reading difficulties because they are affected by any or all of the following conditions:

• They are expected to attend schools in which achievement is chronically low
• they reside in low-income families and live in poor neighborhoods
• they have limited proficiency in spoken English
• they speak a dialect of English that differs substantially from the one used in school

Individual risk factors

The evidence also indicates that individual children, whether or not faced with the adverse conditions just mentioned, may be at greater risk than other otherwise-comparable children for reading difficulties for any or all of the following reasons:

• They are children of parents with histories of reading difficulty
• they have acquired less knowledge and skill pertaining to literacy during the preschool years, either through lack of appropriate home literacy experiences and/or as a result of some inherent cognitive limitations
• they lack age-appropriate skills in literacy-related cognitive-linguistic processing, especially phonological awareness, confrontational naming, sentence/story recall, and general language ability
• they have been diagnosed as having specific early language impairment
• they have a hearing impairment
• they have a primary medical diagnosis with which reading problems tend to occur as a secondary symptom

Practical use of this information

Detecting problems early, in order to avoid other problems later on, is the most practical course. The ease, cost, and reliability with which various risk factors can be measured are therefore a central concern.
Many of the group factors named above (e.g., a child is expected to attend a school in which achievement is chronically low, the child lives in a low-income family and neighborhood) are easily accessible measures. When they are present, effective preventions and early interventions can be provided throughout the age span we are addressing in this report – birth through grade three.
Pediatric screening tools are effective in identifying children who have severe sensory or developmental impairments (hearing impairment, specific language impairment). When these are present, preventions and early interventions can be provided.
There is less practical utility in conducting population-wide individual screening of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers who have acquired less knowledge and skills pertaining to literacy during the preschool years, either through lack of appropriate home literacy experiences or as a result of some inherent cognitive limitations, or of those who lack age-appropriate skill in literacy-related cognitive-linguistic processing, for the purpose of identifying those who are at greatest risk for reading difficulties.
Some screening (i.e., language milestones) is already part of regular well-baby visits; in this case the information could help to define risk, especially when aggregated with other risk factors.
Kindergarten screening, in contrast, has become reasonably accurate when a combination of skills is measured (although the optimal combination is not yet identified). Ideally, screening procedures should be quick and inexpensive; they should identify all or most children who have the specific problem; and they should mistakenly detect none or few children who do not have the problem.
To achieve the goal of preventing reading difficulties, it will not be feasible or appropriate to provide the same sort of intervention to all of these groups and individuals, although some kinds of programs may be of benefit to all.

Excerpted from: Snow, C. E., Burns, S. M., & Griffin, P. Editors. (1998). Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, Chapter 4: Predictors of Success and Failure in Reading.. National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences. Courtesy of National Academy Press. Reprinted with permission.

Reading Rockets: Helping Struggling Readers

Reading Rockets is a fantastic resource for parents and teachers for the area of reading. Below is an article I found under struggling readers. Please take a moment to take a look and check out some of the links.

Helping Struggling Readers

Did you know that learning to read is a challenge for almost 40 percent of kids? The good news is that with early help, most reading problems can be prevented. The bad news is that 44 percent of parents who notice their child having trouble wait a year or more before getting help.

Unfortunately, the older a child is, the more difficult it is to teach him or her to read. The window of opportunity closes early for most kids. If a child can't read well by the end of third grade, odds are that he or she will never catch up. And the effects of falling behind and feeling like a failure can be devastating.

Click below to find information on:

• FAQs – Find answers to real questions from real parents about reading and learning disabilities
• Q&A with nationally known experts – A new monthly feature covering topics such as assessment, cognition and learning, and educational technology
• Why They Struggle – Learn why some kids struggle with reading
• Target the Problem! – Pinpoint the problem a struggling reader is having and discover ways to help
• Assessment Process – Find out how to get your child evaluated
• Parent as Advocate – Why you need to toughen up and stand up for your child
• Finding Help – Where to get extra help for your struggling reader
• Self-Esteem and Reading Difficulties – What else suffers when kids struggle in school and what they can do to help themselves
• Struggling Readers – Find more Reading Rockets resources, including inside the classroom video, webcasts, articles, and related research

Early identification is crucial. Please, if you suspect a problem, don't hesitate. Learn about reading difficulties, get your child assessed, find out what you can do to help your struggling reader, and don't give up!

Related articles

Early Signs of a Reading Difficulty
By: Susan Hall (2009)

Parents are often the first to suspect their child has a reading problem. An expert alerts parents to some of the earliest indicators of a reading difficulty.

Seeking Help for a Struggling Reader: Seven Steps for Teachers
By: Joanne Meier and Karen Freck (2005)

Children come to our classrooms from so many different ability levels and backgrounds. As a teacher, it's important to recognize and know what to do to help a struggling reader.

About Reading Disabilities, Learning Disabilities, and Reading Difficulties
By: Kathryn Drummond (2005)

Reading difficulties likely occur on a continuum, meaning that there is a wide range of students who experience reading difficulties. There are those students who are diagnosed with a learning disability. There is also an even larger group of students who do not have diagnoses but who need targeted reading assistance.

Waiting Rarely Works: Late Bloomers Usually Just Wilt
By: American Federation of Teachers (2004)

A look at three pivotal longitudinal studies that clearly show: Late bloomers are rare; skill deficits are almost always what prevent children from blooming as readers.

Seeking Help for a Struggling Reader: 8 Steps for Parents
By: Reading Rockets (2004)

What should you do if you think your child is having trouble with reading? Sometimes children just need more time, but sometimes they need extra help. Trust your instincts! You know your child best. If you think there's a problem, there probably is.