Poetry!

For the next few weeks, the 3^rd grade team will be focusing on improving students’ reading fluency through poetry. When children are able to read quickly and accurately with expression, they are reading with fluency. Research shows that when students read texts multiple times, their fluency increases. This in turn improves comprehension, or an understanding of what has been read. Because fluency leads to comprehension, fluent readers enjoy reading more than students who devote all their energy to sounding out words. 

Beginning Monday, May 8, your child will receive one poem each night. As a part of students’ daily Homefun, an adult will need listen to them read the poem three times. This strategy is called Repeated Reading. We encourage you to read the poem with them! Encourage your child to read with prosody, expression, and have fun with it! Sign and date the back of your child’s poem each night, and feel free to make a comment as well!

The week of May 22 – May 26, students will participate in The Great Poetry Race. Your child's challenge will be to read Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll, to as many adults as possible throughout the week. After your child reads the poem, his or her “audience” must sign the back of the poem. The goal of The Great Poetry Race is to read to as many different adults as possible. Therefore, only one signature per adult, per night will be allowed, as well as only one signature per reading. For example, in order to get a signature from two people listening at the same time, the student would need to read the poem twice. Feel free to call relatives or family friends, and have your child read to them over the phone! Just be sure to sign for that person. Students with the most signatures will receive special recognition for their achievement! 

On Friday, May 26, students will participate in an optional 3^rd Grade Poetry Slam. What is a poetry slam, you ask? Simply put, poetry slam is the competitive art of performance poetry. It puts a dual emphasis on writing and performance, encouraging poets to focus on what they're saying and how they're saying it. Please feel free to join us after the Awards Ceremony as we wrap up a rockin' year!