The Learning Commons is going to look slightly different this year for our staff and students. CBE has posted specific protocols for the Learning Commons and resources in the 2020/2021 re-entry guidelines. Based on these guidelines the Learning Commons will not be available for students to come in and browse for books. We have created a plan and schedule which follows the guidelines, but still gets the books into our students hands. Essentially instead of the students coming in to find books, the books will be sent to the classrooms. Each class will receive a bin of library books for the students to choose from. These books will remain at school and will not be shared amongst the students. At the end of each week the books will be collected and quarantined for three days before being redistributed.
Helpful Reading Tips
- Don’t rush your child. Respect your child’s individual rate of development.
- Encourage your child to read for 15 minutes every day. Pick a time of day that works best for your child and create a comfortable space to read.
- Let your child choose books he/she is interested in reading.
- Read to your child daily. Older siblings can be involved in reading to younger brothers or sisters. Talk about the books you read together.
- Have a quiet reading time when your whole family reads. It is good modelling for your child to see you read novels, newspapers and magazines.
- Use everyday activities to teach reading. For example, your child can help you read grocery lists, recipes, catalogues, food containers and mail.
- Take your child to visit the public library.
- Build a home library with your child.
- Make reading fun!
- Use the picture clues – Pictures support the story and provide the reader with important information.
- Think about what they are reading - Reading should make sense; it is not just sounding out the words. The words together should communicate an idea to the reader.
- Listen to how the words sound – Listen to the beginning, middle and ending sounds of the word and then guess the difficult word. Say the word in the sentence to see if it sounds right.
- Look for little words inside big words – Hidden words help the reader pronounce and identify the larger unfamiliar word.
- Search and listen for similarities – Do words rhyme or have similar letter patterns?
- Sound words out - Sound out the first letter of an unfamiliar word and then continue reading the rest of the sentence. The word will often pop into the reader’s head.
- Backtrack and read again when the words do not make sense – Rereading helps good readers to remember what they are reading and helps them to predict a word that could fit in the sentence. When good readers read the sentence again they may notice clues they missed the first time.
- Skip over a difficult word and read on – By reading to the end of the sentence a good reader can often figure out the unfamiliar word. It is a good idea to go back and read the whole sentence again to see that it makes sense and sounds right.
- Ask questions and make predictions – Good readers read to get answers to their questions and to find out if their predictions are right
Below is a list of resources that students may find helpful: