Stone Elementary
Phone: (630) 628-4020
Fax: (630)
628-2546
Principal
Dear
Parents:
As part
of our ongoing process to keep parents as our partners in learning, we wanted to
share with you some literacy terms/phrases/skills we use at Stone. These phrases are from the Illinois State
Learning Standards. This information is
intended to give you more knowledge of how you can assist your child at home,
especially since many of these terms may be “new” to you.
Skills Needed for
Making connections: This is the ability of a reader
to make comparisons (connections) to what they are reading. Three kinds of connections good readers know
how to do are:
Text to Self - How does the story or
information in the book relate to your life?
Text to Text - Have you read other books that
remind you of this book?
Text to World - Have you heard or seen anything
that reminds you of this book?
Making Inferences: Good readers are like detectives
and can use clues from the pictures/text and what they already know to figure
out what the author is trying to say.
They can also answer questions about what they read by giving proof. For example, a student might infer that a
pirate is mean by reading that a pirate steals gold and makes every one else do
his work. Even though the author did not
explicitly state that the pirate is mean, strong readers can infer that by
using clues from the story.
Learning how to read a variety of
texts: Most people
believe that fiction or make believe reading is all that students do. Not true!
It is important for homes and schools to be filled with books of all
shapes, sizes and kinds. Include story
books, books filled with facts, poetry, songs, books about other people and
places, and texts like newspapers, magazines, or even recipes.
Reading Terms
Prefix: Word part added to the beginning
of a word. (Example: un is the prefix for unhappy)
Suffix: Word part added to the end of a
word. (Example: less is the suffix of
priceless)
Base word or root word:
The main word, which all other suffixes and prefixes are added. (For example, play is the root or base word
of replaying)
Writing Terms
When your
child comes home, he/she may say, “Today we did expository writing.” You may ask what exactly this type of writing
is. There are three basic types of
writing:
Once
again, we hope this information will be helpful when helping your child with
literacy. This information will also be
posted on our website. If you have any
questions about helping your child out in literacy or any subject, please
contact your child’s teacher.
Sincerely,
The