December 11, 2017

By Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources

WALNUT, CA--Collegewood Elementary offered an interactive literacy experience for about 50 students as parents attended workshops during a Family Reading Night on December 6.

The children gathered in the MPR to listen to a reading of “Snowflake Bentley” and then create their own one-of-a-kind snowflakes.

Meanwhile, parents had the opportunity to learn ways to help facilitate their child's growth in reading and reading comprehension.

The first session, Emergent Reading Skills, offered tips to help young readers decode and manipulate sounds by taking words apart and putting them back together again.

A Reading Comprehension session provided strategies for success including Schema, Questioning, Determining Importance, Visualizing, and Inferring, and Synthesizing along with Author’s Purpose and Theme.

“True reading isn’t just what the book says, it’s when our brain and thinking come together,” said teacher Mindy Martin while discussing schema, the data base of experiences that people carry with them.

The connections made during reading greatly increases the learning, she explained.

“When our students read through a question, they’ll be able to answer it if they can make a connection. It really helps us remember and makes it a richer experience”

After the workshop, parents joined children to practice strategies and decorate holiday cookies with frosting and sprinkles.

Shown:

Teacher Mindy Martin offers tips during Family Reading Night. 

Collegewood Elementary students create one-of-a-kind snowflakes during Family Reading Night. 

Collegewood families practice strategies during Family Reading Night.

Teacher Florence Yu reads “Snowflake Bentley” during Family Reading Night.