180 Days of Reading
So, you'd like to use "real" books in your reading program, but are a little concerned about missing those core reading skills lessons that are part of most basal reading programs. Here's a great remedy offering short, easy lessons that you can use in tandem with reading those classic children's books. Like its math counterpart (180 Days of Math), each book provides diagnostics, practice and assessments for all common core reading skills by grade.
Exercises are in 5-day groups. The first three days present a brief fiction or nonfiction passage followed by four or five questions (depending on grade). These are very short to read and complete. The fourth day has a longer selection with more questions to answer. On the fifth day, your student will re-read the final selection and respond to it using the provided prompt. Answers to all exercises are in the back of the book. Since questions are presented in a predictable pattern of skills, you can quickly diagnose any reading skill deficiencies by noting the number of the question(s) missed. Reading skills practiced are:
- reading comprehension
- identifying main idea and theme
- interpreting meanings and tone of words and phrases
- determining author's purpose and point of view
- applying phonics and word-analysis skills
- making inferences
- responding to literature
Recording form masters are included and also available in Excel and Word format on the included CD. Also included on the CD are a Standards Correlations Chart, reproducible PDFs for each practice page, instructions for completing diagnostic forms, fluency assessment directions and rubric for scoring reading responses.