At a staff meeting, Goodrich teachers brainstormed ways to increase student engagement and excitement about reading. One thing which was brought up was that students do not have a lot of time during the school day choose the book they are reading and "just read for fun". That is when the idea of Stop Drop and Read came in! When Stop, drop, and read is called over the intercom all students and staff members stop what they are doing and spend 10 minutes just reading for fun. That's right, the teachers are reading their own books too! This is an important part to model for the students that as teachers we read and appreciate books as well. Before beginning there were some logistics to figure out like what would happen if students were at gym or music or other places. As a preschool teacher I also had to figure out how this would fit into my classroom and I have to admit I was apprehensive at first! My preschoolers never cease to amaze me and have been rockstars when stop drop and read is called!
Most students in preschool are not yet reading words in books, but that doesn't me they aren't reading! Preschoolers learn they can "read the pictures" and tell a story about what is happening. They can also read by retelling familiar stories. Pete the Cat is one of their favorite to retell!
When preschoolers are "reading books" they are practicing and learning a ton of necessary skills to get ready to read words such as:
- Retelling stories
- Using pictures to create their own story
- Letters and words hold meaning
- Print is what we read
- Reading goes from left to right, return sweep, and top to bottom
- Books have a front and back cover and how to correctly hold the book
- One-to-one correspondence: each spoken word matches a word in print
- Building stamina for the amount of time they are able to look at and read books
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