What is Practickle?

Practickle is an educational opportunity for family, care-providers, and educators  interested in using story-time for comprehension practice  that is before and beyond the classroom.

Practickle realizes that not all parents and care providers are trained teachers and don’t have time to research both quality literature and Best Practices in comprehension for our three to five year olds. Practickle will provide a  well-reviewed book and an easy-to-follow reading guide to you. So, let’s use twenty minutes three times a week to teach our little ones how to  think  about and understand what they read.

 

How are books selected?

Our criteria for selection are:

• an equal balance of both fiction and informational books
• a balance between popular and notable books from previous years, new books, and past and present award winners
• appearances on numerous “recommended” reading lists: American Library Association (ALA) Notable Books lists (published each year), Caldecott Winners and Honor books, NY Times Recommended Children’s Books, and popular review sites such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

PracTickle wants to select books that are easy to find…..common titles that may already be in your home, in your public library, or easy to purchase.

 

What is a reading comprehension Best Practice?

A reading comprehension Best Practice is a strategy or method that helps the reader comprehend a text at multiple levels complexity. These strategies and methods continue to produce superior results over time.  Reading Comprehension Best Practices work whether you are five, fifteen, or fifty!

 

What if I have not completed the reading in twenty minutes?

Stop after twenty minutes whether you are done with the “read” or not. We must keep in mind the attention-span of the listener. Then, the next time that you sit down for a guided read begin where you left off.

 

Why should I follow this procedure instead of just having “fun” with my listeners?

Early childhood research show that the best step to help children be ready for the cognitive demands of kindergarten is to start with quality experiences before kindergarten. As you use these reading guides, you will realize that you are having more fun during your sessions than just reading a book to get a couple of stories done before bedtime……and your child will, too.

 

What will my child/children gain from this approach to reading books?

The single biggest indicator of success in school is how well a child understands the text being read. Schools know that teachers must develop multiple lessons on the  direct explicit instruction of Reading Comprehension Best Practices strategies. Let’s start early. Vocabulary building, done during the second reading, is another resource to help you strengthen your child’s comprehension. Research studies have shown strong links between having an extensive vocabulary and achieving school success.

 

Why must I read the story three times?

The cognitive load of our brains is about five new pieces of information at a time. Our brains lose their focus when we handle too many things at once. As the saying goes: “If everything is important, then nothing is important.” First, focus on all the levels of information that are in the illustrations/pictures. This opens up our brain to what connections to the book might already be in our prior knowledge. We practice making inferences, predictions,and conclusions. During the second reading, we introduce the text and specific vocabulary. Our brain has already opened its existing connections to the topic of the book and the other story elements introduced in the pictures/illustrations. There is only the new information that the text provides. The third reading is the part where the information from the first two reads is analyzed. The readers are asked to evaluate, create, and make additional connections. The increases in comprehension, involvement and retention of story elements will increase….and so will your enjoyment of your “story time!”