New Column: Literacy Corner

As Literacy Coach at Oxford, it is my pleasure to begin sharing information with families via The Oxford News to help your child’s experience reading at home. This week, I want to discuss reading level. We determine reading level by 3 traits: accuracy (ability to read a word or sound out), fluency (the speed and flow of their voice when they read out loud) and comprehension (the ability to understand what they read). If all of these characteristics work together when reading a passage, that is the child’s independent level. Level is important because it helps us to provide instruction and independent reading in a book that is “just right” for the child.

If your child has already reached the end of the next grade level in his/her reading, that doesn’t necessarily mean they should just keep going up in level. We also want students to “read wide.” Reading wide means reading a variety of books from different genres, as well as reading a mix of fiction and nonfiction. In school and at home, they will have the opportunity to read many books at their just-right level, but it’s also important to expose them to higher-level books, perhaps by reading aloud to them from a more challenging book at bedtime. We must remember that the most important thing is your child’s love of reading and engagement with books.