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Sabrina’s BookLexile: 500-600 (2nd-3rd grade reading level) Mean Log Word Frequency: 3.77Mean Sentence Length: 12.3 Word Count: 246Thank you for listening to me, today. I am Dr. Sabrina Runyon. I have been involved with Beta since 1979, when I was in 7th grade. I have been a member, a Sr. High Sponsor, a member and Vice-Chair of the WV Council, and am now, the Council Chair for WV. I love Beta! I have been married for 31 years-to the same person! I have 2 sons, 2 daughters-in-law and a grandson. In March, I am getting a granddaughter and in April, another grandbaby-gender unknown at this time.I have been in education since 1990. I have taught math, science, computers, college science, the GED program, and special education. I was an assistant principal and a principal for a decade. Currently, I am a director at my county’s board of education. I am the PK director, director of curriculum for grades K-8, director of federal programs such as Title I and Title III. I am in charge of the Instructional Coaches at our schools, after-school, several grants, and all county, regional, and state competitions. And a host of other things.I am honored to have been asked to speak about my book, Sabrina’s Book. I actually told the publisher to use another name, but everyone liked Sabrina so here it is. How I got here today is a series of events that began when I started my doctoral program at the University of Phoenix. For our year-one residency, we were asked to come up with a unique way to introduce ourselves. I thought about it and said well, I guess I could write a poem. So I sat down at my computer and a few minutes later, I had written, Little Girl Who Had Only One Book. The little girl of course is me. Read back of book cover.Tell about my early childhood. Attending the reading conference in 2016, I attended a session by a WV author, Diana Pishner Walker. I bought one of each of her books, and we talked afterwards about how she started. Got her publisher’s and illustrator’s name. I forgot about all of this for a while. Submitted to Headline Books, solicited Ashley Teets. Got the contract to break the book into a series, and here we are. Let’s look at the book. I was surprised at the avenue that Ashley took with the dark colors. Sadly, my mom passed away in March, after battling strokes, open heart surgeries, chemo for kidney disease, blindness, brittle bones, etc.… My dedication of the book is to her. She was my first teacher. She taught me more than I could possibly share with anyone. As we look through the book, you can see parts without color and then parts with lots of color. Can you guess why the difference in color scheme? We see that when in my reality, the pictures are in black and white. When I am reading the book, the world opens up so we see vivid colors. I will read a few pages and give examples of some of the questions that you could ask your students or your own children. Who did Sabrina live with? Where did she live? Where do you live? Do you have hills where you live?What does it mean to graduate from school?What kind of games do you think Sabrina and her mommy played? What kind of games to you play at home? Wonder who could have given Sabrina’s mommy a book?What do you think is coming out of the book Sabrina is reading?What book do you like to read over and over? Do you have a favorite book at home?Lexile: 500-600 (2nd-3rd grade reading level) Mean Log Word Frequency: 3.77Mean Sentence Length: 12.3 Word Count: 246Getting the Most out of Reading a BookWhy do we read to children? We read to children for many reasons: for entertainment, to bond, to inform or explain, for inspiration, to arouse curiosity, to inspire. By reading aloud, we condition the child's brain to associate reading with pleasure, create background knowledge, build vocabulary, and provide a reading role model.Reading aloud builds many important foundational skills--introduces vocabulary, provides a model for fluency, for dramatic reading, and helps children discover reading for pleasure.When being read to, young children focus mostly on the illustrations. And when they're not enjoying the pictures, they are looking up at the adult reader. The children’s eyes almost never look at the print on the page, yet that's where children can learn the most about letters, sounds, and words. To get the most out of a shared reading, encourage your students to appreciate the pictures, and also guide their attention to printed words. Doing so may help your students’ reading, spelling, and comprehension skills down the road.To help direct your child's attention to the print in a book, you can focus on specific parts including:The meaning of the print.?This includes pointing out specific words within a book and drawing the children’s attention to the print. For example, “Sabrina listened to the book so many times she memorized it.”The organization of the book and print, which includes understanding the way pages are read, the role of the author, and print direction. For example, "I am going to read this page, first, and then this page, next." Or "This is the top of the page. This is where I begin reading." Some authors and illustrators are breaking rules, by having students turn the book sideways to read it. In my book, students have to turn the book sideways to see the many paths a book can take an imagination.The letters, which include helping your child know that letters come in uppercase and lowercase, and helping your child learn the names of each letter. For example, "This S in Sabrina’s name is an uppercase letter. See how this uppercase letter is bigger than these lowercase letters?"The words, which include helping your child recognize some written words, and the match between spoken words and written words. For example, "Let's point to each word as I read it. Are you ready?"Children with print awareness can begin to understand that written language is related to oral language. They see that, like spoken language, printed language carries messages and is a source of both enjoyment and information. Children who lack print awareness are unlikely to become successful readers. Indeed, children's performance on print awareness tasks is a very reliable predictor of their future reading achievement.Most children become aware of print long before they enter school. They see print all around them, on signs and billboards, in alphabet books and storybooks, and in labels, magazines, and newspapers. Seeing print and observing adults' reactions to print helps children recognize its various forms.The ability to understand how print works does not emerge magically and unaided. This understanding comes about through the active intervention of adults and other children who point out letters, words, and other features of the print that surrounds children. It is when children are read to regularly, when they play with letters and engage in word games, and later, when they receive formal reading instruction, that they begin to understand how the system of print functions; that is, print on a page is read from left to right and from top to bottom; that sentences start with capital letters and end with periods, and much, much more.As they participate in interactive reading with adults, children also learn about books – authors’ and illustrators’ names, titles, tables of content, page numbers, and so forth. They also learn about book handling – how to turn pages, how to find the top and bottom on a page, how to identify the front and back cover of a book, and so forth. As part of this learning, they begin to develop the very important concept "word" – that meaning is conveyed through words; that printed words are separated by spaces; and that some words in print look longer (because they have more letters) than other words.Most often, the illustrations in such books are tied closely to the text, in that the illustrations represent the content words that change from page to page.As they hear and participate in the reading of the simple stories found in predictable and patterned books, children become familiar with how print looks on a page. They develop book awareness and book-handling skills, and begin to become aware of print features such as capital letters, punctuation marks, word boundaries, and differences in word lengths.Awareness of print concepts provides the backdrop against which reading and writing are best learned.Excerpted from The Read-Aloud Handbook (2001). Jim Trelease.Prior to reading any story aloudIntroduce the story by stating the title, then the author's name, Sabrina Runyon, and asking students, "What does an author do?" (Students should respond, "Writes the story.").State the illustrator's name, Ashley Teets, and ask, "What does an illustrator do?" (Students should respond, "Draws the pictures.").Hold up the book and say, "This is the front of the book, (turn it sideways and state) and this is the spine." Turn the book to the back cover and state, "This is the back of the book." Then ask, "Do we begin reading from the front or the back of the book?" (Students should respond, "From the front.")."Let's look at the picture on the front." Hold up the book with the front cover facing the students. Ask: "What do you think will happen in this story? Remember, I want you to answer using complete sentences." What makes you think that will happen? What clues do you see on the front of the book?Before the readingSelect vocabulary words from the story that you need to discuss prior to reading the story. Write them on sentence strips or on the board. Discuss the words with students.-memorize-library-pretendPlease note the use of open-ended questions that will require the students to give responses that extend beyond Yes/No answers. Remember to use open-ended questions as you read the story and in your discussion after the reading.-what does memorize mean? What are some things you have memorized?-what does pretend mean?-where could Sabrina get more books?-what kind of games do you play with your family?Encourage students to draw upon what they know about the words from their personal lives. For example, if the word is pretend, perhaps some of the children have pretended to be a dancer, a fireman, etc. Encourage a brief telling of personal stories. Their personal stories allow students to make connections with the text.During the readingBriefly discuss the pictures on each page after reading that page.Intentionally, teach the words during the reading.Encourage students to guess/predict what will happen next.Wait time is very important!!After the readingReview and repeat the words to get children to remember the meaning during review or recap of the story.Ask students to tell you if they liked the story and why. Encourage responses in complete sentences. "I liked it when Sabrina got to go to school."Throughout the week, continue reviewing, recalling and retelling the story. You can follow the students’ lead and continue conversations in centers:-Block area: children can build houses, libraries, schools-Art: children can use many mediums to represent any of the pictures or concepts from the book. They could draw a map of WV-Dramatic play: children can act out parts of the story, pretend to be Sabrina, her mom, her dad, people listening to and cheering for her when she would pretend to read the book.-Writing center: children can write their own book, write about their favorite book, their favorite thing to do at school, about the school library, about their favorite game to play, etc.-Math center: students could guess how many books Sabrina got to read when she went to school. They could count the books in their room. Count how many they have read. -Gross motor: some of the same concepts as the block, art, and dramatic play centers. ................
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