Dear Parents/Guardians s29

Dear Parents/Guardians:

Hello. My name is Melissa Trimbach, and I have the pleasure of teaching your child for Reading Plus this year. I am honored to have your child in class and look forward to a great year. Thus far, we have been working on building fluency (how well they read), comprehension (how well they understand what they read), and confidence. Our class is very small, between 6 and 15 students, so I can focus on individual needs.

Each year, I get to meet with various parents and I generally get two questions, “How is my child doing?” and “What can I do to help them do better?” The first question is fairly individualized, but my answer to the second question is always the same. “Have them read every day for 20-30 minutes.” Reading is a life skill and the more you practice, the better you get. This could be reading from newspapers, books, magazines, comics, song lyrics, letters, video game cheat codes…the list goes on and on. Your child could read quietly or out loud to you or a sibling. Have you heard your child read lately?

I know what some of you may be thinking, “My child does not like to read.” I believe they have just been reading the wrong stuff. I do not love to read everything. Have them see me and I will help them find something tolerable. We have a wonderful library here at our school and I have well over 1000 books, comics, and magazines in my classroom that I have purchased based on student interests and requests.

We are reading out loud daily in class from a variety of sources such as the newspaper, comics, short stories, Scholastic Action magazine, and a novel picked from our library and I can already hear an improvement in fluency. I would love it if you could work on this one on one at home as well. I can give specific strategies for doing this.

If you can, one time each week, have your child read out loud to you a short passage that I will send home and then ask them to reread it. Rereading is key. The first read, kids are focusing so much on what is read, they may struggle with fluency and comprehension. The second read should go more smoothly and sound more like conversation. Discuss the passage when finished reading (I can send discussion questions). This process should take 5-10 minutes total. I know everyone is so busy and if you do not have time to sit down and read with them, maybe he or she could read to you while you are driving or cooking dinner. I will send the article and questions home on Monday.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. My goal is to help your child improve their reading and comprehension. This will empower them to be more critical readers and thinkers for life.

Sincerely, Melissa Trimbach