SMART Home Reading Program

LANGUAGE ARTS

SMART Home Reading Program

What is SMART?

SMART is an acronym for Start Making A Reader Today. SMART has several purposes: namely, to get students in the habit of reading daily and to improve their reading every day, for at least 25 minutes. Journal writing builds on the give-and-take relationship between reading and writing. As students read more, the more and better they write. Like wise, comprehension skills are also improved since reading and writing require readers to understand, to interpret and to evaluate what they read.

What should parents do?

First step: Help your child get a book he/she likes. Ask the teacher for suggestions.

Second step: Journaling. Have a notebook for journaling activities. After your child has read for

at least 25 minutes each day, let him/her use this notebook to respond to his/her reading.

These responses should be his/her thoughts, reactions, connections, and questions about what he/she is reading. The key here is to let him/her think about what he/she read.

These notebooks will be used for all reading responses and class work. The journals should be a reflection of the student as a reader and a thinker.

Guide your child in choosing a journaling activity from the attached form on 55 Ways to Respond to a Book.

Third step: Recording. Keep a record of your child’s daily reading. Use the form below. This form is due for teacher’s inspection weekly. Reading log forms are available upon request. Use one (1 ) form for each book read

SMART Reading Log

Name: Date:
Title of Book:

Date	Time Started-Time Stopped	Pages Read	Parent Signature

55 and Some Journal Entries or Ways to Guide the Students’ Reading

(adapted from 55 Ways to Respond to a Book; age appropriate discretion needed )

1. Write about it to a friend.
2. Make an annotated map of where it takes place.
3. Make a story map of its main events.
4. Create a crossword puzzle, using its setting and plot.
5. Tell why it would (or not) make a great movie.
6. Explain its funniest (or most exciting) incident.
7. Make a poster about it.
8. Pick five to 10 adjectives that describe it. Tell why.
9. Describe an incident from it as though you were an

on-the-scene TV reporter.
10. Choose an idea or scene from it as the subject of a collage. Use old magazine pictures.
11. Make up a limerick or haiku about it.
12. Illustrate it with objects found at home or handmade, or with photographs you have taken of people, places and events.
13. Compare it to the movie or TV version.
14. Make a time-line of its events.
15. Create a new ending for it.
16. Make a mosaic to illustrate one of its settings or events.

17. Make up a lost or found advertisement for something in it.

18. Rewrite one of its incidents for a younger reader.
19. Use sketches or photographs to recreate one of its action sequences.

20. Create paper dolls of the main characters.

21. Write a poem about a character.

22. The Indonesian President has learned that you have read this book and wants to know one thing

a main character discovered about life that you think all Indonesians should know. What would you tell him? Why?

23. Describe the main character in 64 or more words.
24. Choose a character you would like (or not like) to have as a friend. Tell why.
25. Make believe you were one of the minor characters. How would you describe a main character?
26. Role-play one of the characters.
27. Plan an appropriate meal for a main character.
28. Do a cartoon strip based on a character.
29. Write a few pages in a diary as if you were a character.
30. Design costumes for some of the characters.

31. For stories that took place in another time, tell how one of the characters would act today, or would respond to a present day situation.

32. Tell why one of the characters should have a different role.

33. Tell what your home would be like if it belonged to one of the main characters.

34. Write a biography of one of the characters.
35. Write an interview between a character and the author, or between two characters.

36. If your book could talk, what would it say? Let the book tell what it holds within.

37. Pick a book you think each of the main characters would enjoy reading. Tell why.
38. Guess what would have happened if a character had made an important decision differently.

39. Make a list of facts you learned from it.
40. Persuade an audience to read (or not read) it.
41. Tell why you would (or would not) recommend it to your principal, a parent, or another student.
42. Tell what the book would say about itself if it could talk.
43. List its five most interesting or critical sentences. Tell why.
44. Use its theme or setting to create a postcard or greeting card.

45. Compare it to another book the author has written. Describe common elements, style, theme, and so forth.

46. Write a song about it.

47. Demonstrate something you learned from it.

48. Prepare a list of its most unusual, difficult, or exciting words. Explain why.

49. Use its title and theme to write your own story.
50. Compare it with a book of similar theme.
51. Prepare a book jacket for it.
52. Become the author & tell why you wrote this book.
53. Plan the questions you would use in a conference call interview with the author.
54. The author has written to you and wants to know how this book would have been improved. How would you answer?
55. Write a letter of appreciation to the author, asking questions and sharing thoughts.

…and more journal entries

REACT: Why do you love/hate this book? Why should someone else read it?

What would make the story better? What would you have done in the same situations?

QUESTION: What confuses you? Ask the author or main character 3-5 questions.

EVALUATE: How does this book compare with other books you’ve read? What is the author’s point?

PREDICT: What will happen next? What makes you think so? What "should" happen next?

Write a new ending.

QUOTE OR POINT OUT: Quote an interesting or important part of the book. Why

is this important? Why is it cool? What is the point?