Reading Beyond the Primary Grades
What Parents Need To Know by Sarah Kiphart
Reading Practices
Reading Strategies
- Activating prior knowledge
- Making predictions
- Inferring
- Visualizing
- Asking and answering questions
- Attending to the text structure
- Monitoring the developing meaning
- Engaging "fix-up" stategies if needed
The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan
Minutes before she died, Grace Cahill changed her will, leaving her decendants an impossible decision: "You have a choice: one million dollars or a clue."
Grace was the last matriarch of the Cahills, the world's most powerful family. Everyone from Napoleon to Houdini is related to the Cahills, yet the source of the family power is lost. 39 clues hidden around the world will reveal the family's secret, but no one has been able to assemble them. Now the clues race is on, and young Amy and Dan must decide what's important: hunting clues or uncovering what really happened to their parents.
Great book for your third grader! It helps them use the strategies listed above.
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
When a book of unexplainable occurences brings Petra and Calder together, strange things start to happen: Seemingly unrelated events connect; an eccentric old woman seeks their company; an invaluable Vermeer painting disappears. Before they know it, the two find themselves at the center of an international art scandal, where no one is spared from suspicion. As Petra and Calder are drawn clue by clue into a mysterious labyrinth, they must draw on their powers of intuition, their problem solving skills, and their knowledge of Vermeer. Can they decipher a crime that has stumped even the FBI?
The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett
Spring semester at the Lab School in Hyde Park finds Petra and Calder drawn into another mystery when unexplainable accidents and ghostly happenings throw a spotlight on Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, and it's up to the two junior sleuths to piece together the clues.
Stir in the return of Calder's friend Tommy (which creates a tense triangle), H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man, 3D pentominoes, and the hunt for a coded message left behind by Wright, and the kids become tangled in a dangerous web in which life and art intermingle with death, deception, and surprise.
How Can Students Be Encouraged to Read for Literary Purposes?
Reading is apart of everyday life. I make it my goal to incorporate reading into different subject areas. When your child brings home a textbook, help them by making sure they understand the basics of the book. I.E. locating the glossary, index, headings, etc. I go over this during class, but extra help outside of class goes a long way.