Reading Development Program for Entering 2nd Graders
BOOK-LEVEL RECOMMENDATION
AND READING DEVELOPMENT BOOKLIST
Reading books at the appropriate level of difficulty allows young readers to take manageable steps up in challenge. The success children experience builds on itself, as they strengthen decoding skills, achieve fluency and develop confidence. This program provides parents with two tools to help them guide their child’s independent reading in books at the right level.
Book-Level Recommendation
In class, the teacher works with each child individually to determine his or her reading level. Parents also receive two Easy Readers (an Easy Reader 1 and an Easy Reader 2) for home practice. During the first week of the program, they complete a brief questionnaire that provides feedback about their child’s experience reading each book. The teacher then provides parents with an individual Book-Level Recommendation stating which book level is best for their child’s independent reading.
Reading Development Booklist
The Book-Level Recommendation works with the Reading Development Booklist, which organizes books into five levels of difficulty:
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Easy Readers 1 are written for children learning to read. They feature simple words in short sentences, and are heavily illustrated, with relatively few words on each page.
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Easy Readers 2 are more challenging than Easy Readers 1. While still heavily illustrated, they are longer, and contain more text per page, more complex sentences, and harder vocabulary.
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Transition to Chapter Books serve as a bridge from Easy Readers to longer chapter books. They are longer (1,700 – 4,000 words), with fewer illustrations and more complex sentences than Easy Readers. Transition books are usually divided into chapters, with text arranged in paragraphs.
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Chapter Books are more challenging than Transition books, with longer sentences and paragraphs, fewer illustrations, and more pages. They feature richer characters and more exciting and complex story lines. The booklist includes two levels of chapter books:
Chapter Books 1 range from 4,000 – 9,000 words.
Chapter Books 2 range 9,000 – 18,000 words.
The Reading Development Booklist is a resource for parents to use both during the program and throughout the upcoming school year. Parents begin selecting books from the section recommended by the teacher, and then the child takes gradual steps up in difficulty through the other sections.
The booklist also includes a list of children’s novels for parents to read aloud to their child. Classic works of children’s literature, such as Charlotte’s Web or The Mouse and the Motorcycle, feature richly drawn characters and exciting plots that children easily become absorbed in. Listening to longer books read aloud allows a child to imaginatively experience wonderful stories beyond the level of his or her independent reading. It builds a child’s love of reading and the motivation to learn to read books like these independently. During the program, parents read aloud to their child from a children’s novel as part of home practice.