Parents and Students,

I am so excited about starting a new year.  As the reading specialist at JHCS, I will be working with some of your students one on one or in a small group setting to help them develop and use good reading skills throughout their lives.  I will also be working with the teachers at JHCS to develp and use best reading practices in their classroom.

There are five steps to reading.  They include phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.  For the last few years, JHCS has been focusing on fluency in each classroom.  By doing this, we have seen our reading levels improve.  We will continue to work on this each day at school, however, we are adding a schoolwide comprehension program.  It is nicknamed "The Fabulous Four" because it focuses on four important comrehension strategies which are Predicting, Questioning, Clarifying, and Summarizing.  Comrehension strategies need to be learned just as beginning reading skills are learned.  Our teachers will help your children become critical thinkers as well as internalize that which they read. 

The whole purpose for reading is to gain and to retain information as well as understand what is being read.  We feel that by implementing this program your children's learning and understanding will greatly improve.  If you have any questions or need any ideas to help your children with reading at home, please feel free to contact me by e-mail or at school.  My hours are 8:30am-12:30pm each day.  I am here to serve you and your children. 

Thank you,

Mrs. Call