Lit Group News and Reading Advice

Sterling House teachers have met during the past weeks with Cara Medved, our WCS Literacy Intervention Teacher, and Jackie Parks, our Building Principal, to brainstorm ways to support Sterling students in reading.  The new reading assessment that we use, The Star Assessment, includes a fluency component, and this has been challenging for some students.  In a concerted effort to help students with reading fluency and comprehension, and with a true desire to instill a love of reading in our students, we are making some adjustments to our Literature Group format for some students during the third trimester. 

Beginning March 25, Amy Durant and Cara Medved will be co-teaching a literature group, with a focus on reading strategies.  Joy Peterson will be leading a "choice" lit group, where students will choose a book (either self-choice or with help from Ms. Peterson and Ms Arapakos).  This group will have weekly comprehension activities, fluency check-ins, and a choice of book projects.  In addition, Dan Johnson will run a small lit group with a focus on targeted basic reading skills.  Other Sterling teachers will continue to lead our more traditional lit groups. 

The Learning Target for Lit Groups for all Sterling students this trimester is "Relationships," where students will "identify main and supporting ideas, patterns, trends, clues and relationships in my literature group book."  In addition, we will continue working on our year-long literature group Learning Target of "Self-Direction," where students are expected to "participate and contribute positively to the learning community."

Below, you can find links for working on fluency at home, and a link to Common Sense Media (a great site with all kinds of other information about age-appropriate books, movies, tv shows, and video games) with book lists.

Please contact Joy Peterson or your child's core teacher if you have any questions!

And, don't forget to read!

Fluency Practice at Home

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

The Importance of Reading for Pleasure