With Reading Bingo, your
success is completely in your hands! You are in charge of your life as a
reader, so it's all up to you!
As you've seen already,
Reading Bingo is a little different from traditional Bingo, and many of you
have questions about the "rules of the game". I'll do my best
in this post to help clear up any confusion, but if you still have questions
after reading this, please feel free to let me know!
Is
Reading Bingo required?
Yes. Reading at
least six books per nine weeks is required for third graders. However, it
is up to the reader if they want to try to achieve a Bingo by reading five
books in a straight line or not. (Remember, the sixth book can be
anywhere else on the card.) In order to receive the prize, you have to
"read a Bingo" (complete a whole row, column, or diagonal).
Why do
we have to read six books each nine weeks?
Each year, readers
throughout Chets Creek are challenged to meet a reading volume goal.. We call
this reading incentive program at Chets Creek "Readers to Leaders".
The third grade goal is to read 25 chapter books each year. In order to
make the goal easier to manage and pace, we've divided that into six books per
quarter. (We count all the miscellaneous magazines, articles, short stories,
picture books, and more that we read in class all year as the 25th chapter
book.) Meeting this quarterly goal is how readers earn their Readers
to Leaders award.
How do
I receive credit for reading a book?
After a reader completes
a book, they should refer to their Reader's Notebook folder for a list of
options. The Reading Bingo response options are listed in the second page
protector. MANY different choices for responding to a book. Choices
range from sitting down one-on-one with me in class to have a conversation
about the book, illustrating a favorite scene or chapter, creating a newspaper
highlighting the text, or even to a variety of digital projects. Really,
the possibilities are endless!
Do I
have to respond to every book I read?
Readers must respond to
any book they read in order to get credit on their Bingo cards for reading the
book. Six books for each nine weeks is the minimum requirement.
Some readers are challenging themselves to reach a "Double
Bingo" or even a Blackout! Other readers just want to meet the Bingo
goal and then read for the love of reading without responding after their sixth
book. These are all acceptable goals and choices.
Will
this be graded?
Since independent reading
is such a large part of our work in reading workshop, yes. Reading Bingo
is graded. Students receive a grade based on the percent of the six book
goal they complete. This is a small portion of their ELA grade.
When is
Bingo due?
Responses are due at
varying dates throughout a nine week period. These dates can be found on
labeled page protectors in your child's Reader's Notebook. As your child
completes their responses, they can place them in the appropriate page
protector and submit their folder on or before the due date. These dates
have been chosen to help students stay on track for their reading goal of six
chapter books per nine weeks.
How can
I support my reader in this process?
You can support your
reader at home in a variety of ways.
·
Provide a good 30 minutes or so in their evenings (Monday
through Friday) of uninterrupted, devoted reading time.
·
Whenever life gets hectic (sports schedules, dance classes,
special projects, family needs), be sure to encourage reading on
Saturdays and Sundays to make up for the lack of time on other days.
Reading can be a great downtime activity for everyone in the family!
·
Make a habit of asking your child how they're doing on book
completion. Some readers have bad habits of frequently
abandoning books before completion. These readers have difficulty
reaching the six book goal.
·
Help them track the titles of the books they've
completed on their blue Bingo sheet and their actual Bingo card.
·
Encourage your reader to choose good fit books
for them. If your reader usually reads books
that over 200 pages in length within a few days, and you find them returning to
series books from years gone by so they can read more books faster, remind them
that reading books that are TOO easy is not what reading is all about. (Remember
what makes reading the best and the worst?) At the same time, if
they're stuck in a book for days and days, are making very slow progress as
they're reading, or appear to be reading the same page forever, perhaps this
book is too challenging. Ask them to read a page out loud and do the
"three finger check" to see if it is a good fit for them. Students
should be able to read a whole page of text without missing more than 3 words
on the page.
·
If they've been itching to read a longer book and you're worried
they won't have time to finish it, be careful not to discourage them!
Rather, remind them to request a conference with me so we can discuss
making this work for them as a reader.
·
Encourage your child to read one book at a time. They should be
reading a chapter book that they bring to and from school each day, just like
grown-up readers do. Once they finish reading for the night, be sure they
put the book straight into their backpacks so they'll have it all day at school
the next day.
Students,
what questions do you still have? How are you doing in your personal game
of Reading Bingo? Are you enjoying it so far?
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