Reading to Learn in Third Grade

Your child isn’t just learning to read anymore. In third grade she’s reading to learn.

What You Need to Know

Reading takes on new dimensions in third grade, as students are increasingly expected to read on their own and to use reading to expand their learning. According to teacher and curriculum expert Amy James, at the beginning of third grade, your child should be able to—

• read with understanding and fluency,
• figure out unknown words in context,
• retell stories accurately,
• spell lots of words, and
• read for reasons other than pleasure.

By the end of the year, students will be also able to—

• use punctuation to help in understanding,
• identify the main idea of passages,
• summarize what they read, and
• have a larger vocabulary.

How You Can Help

Help your child along the path to becoming a fluent reader. Here are a couple of ways to encourage this.

• Read it out loud. To be sure your child is reading fluently and reading books of the right level, have him or her read out loud to you. Riding to or from school is a good time for this. Encourage him or her to sound out unfamiliar words and work out mistakes without your correcting them.
• Set aside time each day for reading and join your child. This book time should be separate from bedtime stories. While your child reads independently, you can read a book, paper, magazine, or paperwork. Make this a special, relaxing time in a comfortable spot.
• Before bedtime stories, ask your child to tell you about something she read that day.

For more information about your child’s reading, please see the full article:

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/third_grade_reading/