Summer Reading Skills Programs Program 4

Program 4: Reading Fluency and Comprehension Skills for Entering 4th and 5th Graders

Comprehension - Fluency - Vocabulary - Study Skills - Love of Reading

Goals
This program is designed to help students read complex materials fluently, with strong comprehension. In this program, our average student gains more than one grade level in reading comprehension, while learning to read complex words and sentences more fluently. Your child will learn important study skills that help him or her to identify main ideas, take notes for book reports, study for tests, and improve concentration and recall. Finally, because the habit of reading for pleasure is crucial to long-term academic and personal development, this program is designed to foster a lifelong love of reading.

Instructor
Instructors are drawn from the faculty of the Institute of Reading Development. Curriculum design and instructor training are supervised by Paul Copperman, a Presidential appointee to the National Council on Educational Research, and the author of Taking Books to Heart: How to Develop a Love of Reading in Your Child.

Format
This lively and engaging class is conducted as a workshop, a format that facilitates full participation and allows the instructor to provide individual attention and the appropriate level of challenge and encouragement for each student. Class is divided into short segments, each devoted to a stimulating activity. During class, the teacher models activities and skills to the class as a group, and then coaches individual students as they practice and gain confidence with their new skills as applied to great children's literature. At home, students continue to practice these skills in workbooks and books they select based upon personal interest.

Class meets for two hours, once a week for five weeks. Your child will practice at home for 45-60 minutes, four times per week. Parents are invited to attend parent meetings at the end of the first and last lessons.

Skills

Reading Fluency:
Students improve word-attack skills, develop a larger vocabulary, and learn exercises designed to help them read complex sentences fluently and expressively. These exercises smooth out the reading process and make the process of getting through words less choppy, labored, and distracting. As a result, students are able to concentrate more clearly on the meaning and content of what they read.

Comprehension Skills:
Students learn to identify crucial story elements, such as setting, character, problem, and plot, in order to establish a strong foundation for comprehending the story and exploring the development of characters. Students also learn to pick out the main events and link them together. Finally, students master techniques that help them to visualize more clearly what is described by the author, to identify more completely with the thoughts and feelings of characters, and to actively anticipate what comes next in the story.

Vocabulary:
Students master the vocabulary skills necessary for reading long words. These include learning to determine the meaning of difficult words and to pronounce unfamiliar words correctly. By developing strong vocabulary skills, students gain the confidence to tackle difficult school reading and to choose more advanced literature for independent reading.

Study Skills:
Students master a step-by-step procedure that will improve their ability to understand and retain information in textbooks and other non-fiction books. Students learn to pick out the main ideas and to link them together. They also learn to take effective notes and to organize their understanding of the material. These skills are useful for book reports and school assignments.

Materials
All of the materials that we use are designed to build skills and reinforce a love of reading. Students receive a Word-Attack workbook that uses engaging games and puzzles to provide instruction in word-attack skills.

See sample pages from Word-Attack workbook (PDF document).

Participants also receive a Course Workbook and Parent Manual, which contains in-class exercises, homework activities for each week of the course, and, for parents, a detailed overview of all skills and activities taught in the program.

See sample pages from the Course Workbook and Parent Manual (PDF document).

You and your child will also receive the Reading Development Booklist, an important tool for building strong reading skills and the lifelong habit of reading for pleasure. The Reading Development Booklist summarizes hundreds of the very best children's books. By using the recommendations, which are organized by level of difficulty, you and your child will know what books to choose and what sequence to read them in. Your child's instructor will evaluate your child's stage of reading development and provide guidance on where your child should begin in the booklist.

See sample pages from Reading Development Booklist (PDF document).

Tuition is $299.

To register or receive more information, please call 1-800-964-8888,
8 a.m. - 9 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Saturday. Enroll Now