I Am a Fluent Reader! Yes, I Am!

Funded Jan 23, 2023

I cannot express enough gratitude to you for funding this project! From the moment the boxes arrived and my students laid eyes on them, they have been overjoyed to dive into all of the new books they now have the opportunity to read because of generous folks like yourselves! I introduced the three different series of books included in my project to students and read a sampling of titles to them as well. One aspect of these books that I particularly like is that they are multicultural in nature, with one series having a female as the main character. Additionally, students were given individual reading logs to record the title and number of pages each time they completed a book. Most of the books have around 25 pages. We are also counting the number of pages students will read cumulatively from the point in which they recorded their first book (around February 1) until the end of the school year! This motivates and excites them tremendously! Some students are already on their second reading log! As I noted in my proposal, these books provided an opportunity for my students to read chapter books, practice and reinforce phonics patterns we have learned in our reading program, as well as building a love of becoming a lifelong reader. All the while practicing reading in a safe environment and promoting fluency.

Because I am a Reading Specialist and see over 75 children per day, reading looks a little different in my classroom. The children who are accessing these books each have an individual book bag in which they keep the book they are currently reading inside. At the conclusion of each day's lesson from our reading program, students are given anywhere from 5-20 minutes to read their self-selected books depending on how much time we have before they need to return to their homeroom classes. About once a week, I listen to each child read from their book for 1 minute providing feedback and discussing the reading with them.

Overall, I would say all of my students are thoroughly enjoying and pleased to have access to all of these new titles of books! I see both my boys and girls equally excited about reading and looking forward to selecting their next book! The Katie Woo series is wildly popular with my girls and the boys are enthusiastic about the Pedro series as well as the Henry and Mudge series.

As Dr. Seuss once said, "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." Thank you once again for contributing to the literacy success of my students!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Thiakos