The Learning Zone

The Balanced Reader

At St Xavier's we pride ourselves on being a balanced reader.

We ask that you and your child spend 15-20 minutes reading and talking about the book. Your child should be reading the book with fluency and phrasing. This means that they will not be regularly stopping on unknown words and will be reading with the punctuation within the book (ie. stopping at full stops, pausing at commas, etc). If your child is stopping on many unknown words, please let your child’s teacher know so an appropriate level of text can be found. The easy level of the text is most important, as we want the Home Reading experience to be as positive as possible for you and your child. Praise your child regularly as they read.

Your child’s Home Reader is two to three levels below the level of the book that they are using in the classroom. 

The classroom book is used by the teacher to give explicit instruction in reading during Guided Reading groups. Home reading enables your child to practice and consolidate their learning. This practice is important in ensuring that your child continues to gather reading strategies. Revisiting a particular book over a couple of nights can be very beneficial in developing reading confidence and consolidating reading strategies.

When your child has read to you, consider the following:

• Ask a few simple questions based on the characters in the text or the setting of the book.
• Focus on an illustration and ask your child to retell what is happening within the illustration. Ask your child- what happened before this? and what happened after this?
• Ask your child to retell the story.
• Encourage your child to talk about any similar experiences that are relevant to the book.
• Ask your child to locate words that begin or end with a particular sound.
• Identify words that are repeated throughout the book.