I will be setting up an event in Billings, Montana to promote World Read Aloud Day and do some fundraising. My goal is to raise at least $100 for Litworld. The ambassador who raises the most money will be honored at LitWorld's Gala in May of 2012. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
I ordered 250 bookmarks to celebrate World Read Aloud Day.
Helping this growing organization meet it's goals is very exciting.
What will LitWorld Accomplish?
By 2014: Help one million children learn to read.
By 2016: Equip ten thousand literacy leaders to effect change that will impact ten million children across the globe.
Parents don't have to leave testing reading levels to schools only. Parents now have a low cost option to test a child's reading level for an entire year with high quality fiction and non-fiction passages.
Total reader will give a child reading practice and provide a Lexile reading level to help in selecting books at or close to a child's reading ability. Children can get online from any computer and read passages of their choice to find out their Lexile reading levels as often as they like for an entire year for under $40. Total Reader makes this possible.
Parents can search for the Lexile reading level of books their children want to read at Lexile's Find a Book page. Scholastic Book Wizard helps parents and teachers search for books a child may want to read based on interests and similar books a child likes. Scholastic Book Wizard shows the Lexile level for books and lets you search by Lexile level. When you visit the Scholastic Book Wizard page you can select the Reading Level System by clicking on the arrow next to the words, Grade Level Equivalent.
Parents Can Test Reading Levels and Find Book Levels to Match
Hearing separate sounds in words is an important early reading skill. This skill can be taught even before letters of the alphabet are taught. Hearing separate sounds is words is called phonemic awareness.
One way to teach a child to hear separate sounds in words is to use objects for each sound in a word. Sometimes it is hard for an adult to separate sounds in words. Here's a resource from The Reading Genie to help adults working with children learn to separate sounds in words themselves before attempting to teach it.
Try separating and blending sounds in words with objects.
You can help a child practice taking words apart by using toys or objects. You may want to use something edible like cereal or candy. Give as much support as necessary. First think of a word. Decide how many sounds it has. Line up that number of objects. Say a word such as cat. Have your child push forward one object for each sound in the word while saying each sound aloud.
Say /k/ and push an object forward,
say /a/ and push an object forward,
say /t/ and push an object forward.
You can work on blending sounds together also. Separating sounds is needed for spelling. Blending sounds is needed for reading. Say a word that you think your child with be able separate the sounds. Ask your child to show you the sounds in a word by putting an object out for each sound. Help if needed. Ask him to count the sounds. Then have your child touch or move each object as each sound is made. Then have him slide his finger under the objects and stretch and hold out the sounds as he blends them.
The word no would be an easy word to use to start. The letter n and o are continuous sounds.
Here are some videos of a child separating and blending sounds.
