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Holiday Reading

November 03, 2018

I want to take this opportunity to stress the importance of keeping your child reading even when school is on a holiday break. Most young readers need to practice reading every day to keep their reading level at or above grade level. For students who may be below grade level reading, it is very important that those students continue reading over all holiday breaks. Elementary students need to read every day to practice good reading habits and to use the strategies they have been taught in the classroom. It takes many, many times of a reader using strategies for the strategies to become automatic. At the elementary age, students are still learning many words that we call “sight words.” These words must be used multiple times in context to become a normal part of our learned knowledge. The more we practice reading, the more it becomes automatic.

A holiday break at the elementary level sets a struggling reader back several months of progress, so please make sure your child reads even over holiday breaks. Just reading 15 minutes a day can make a huge difference in the reading progress of a student. They could read a book, magazine, ebook, toy instructions, holiday cards, newspaper, comic books, joke books, recipes, library book, menu, etc. Anything that gets the student reading to stimulate their brain.