Mr. DeSantis
"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." — Walt Disney
"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." — Walt Disney
In the Library we use the "5 Finger Rule" to choose "just right books".
EASY
* you can read the words fluently (smooth and with an interesting voice) *there often are not a lot of words on a page *you know how to say all the words *there are not a lot of pages in the book *you have a lot of background information on the subject *sometimes the book has a larger font *you totally understand the story *your reading rate may be quicker *your thinking comes easy as you read the words |
JUST RIGHT
*you can read most of the words *you can understand what you are reading *you enjoy the book *you may have some background information on the subject *you can read the book with smooth fluency but there are some choppy places *your reading rate is just right- not too slow and not too fast *you can figure out the tricky words and still get the meaning of the story |
CHALLENGING
*many of the words are too hard to decode (failed a five finger test) *you don't know what the tricky words MEAN *your reading becomes choppy more than it is fluent *you don't have any prior knowledge of the subject *there are often a lot of words on the page *often the font is small *you lose focus as you are reading *you are not enjoying the book because you have to do too much word work *your thinking is confused *your reading rate slows way down |
Source: http://ayearofmanyfirsts.blogspot.com/2012/11/five-finger-rule.html
Thanks to Beth Newingham's Third Grade Web Site
[http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/]
Navigating the Non-Fiction Section
Thanks to Beth Newingham's Third Grade Web Site
[http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/]
Navigating the Non-Fiction Section