Reading cards to boost fluency and comprehension <p>Help your children to build their fluency and comprehension skills while accessing short texts suitable for Ages 7+ matched to their reading ability. Using these cards and accompanying teacher's guide, you can help children begin to develop the essential skills to become a reader for life.</p> <i>Short Reads</i>provides children with texts matched to their reading ability to dive deeper into. They read, re-read, discuss and respond in writing about topics, helping them to develop wider comprehension skills using close reading. <p>This box contains a teacher's guide and 40 non-fiction cards (six copies of each) covering: Reading Levels 19 to 24 | Lexile levels 410L - 600L | Colour Bands: Purple, Gold & Silver/White.</p> <ul> <li>Challenging high-interest topics for children to explore and explain</li> <li>Motivate the whole class with snappy, fast reads and high-interest topics</li> <li>Develop comprehension skills with close reading</li> <li>Build writing skills with 'Write about Reading' tasks</li> <li>Ideal for group reading sessions</li> </ul> <p>The Teacher's Guide covers 40 group reading sessions including discussion topics and independent writing tasks. This includes:</p> <ul> <li>a teacher's reference panel about the card;</li> <li>focus questions to help prepare the children for the first reading;</li> <li>detailed questions about the text features;</li> <li>content to help the teacher guide pupils back to the text for the second reading;</li> <li>discussion questions that encourage re-reading, summarising and synthesising;</li> <li>writing tasks that require re-reading and higher order thinking skills.</li> </ul> <p>All of which help develop close reading skills.</p> <p><b>What is close reading?</b></p> <p>Close Reading (sometimes called Repeated Reading) describes the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text. Research links the close reading of text to significant gains in reading. The careful study of a short text passage helps build a deep, critical understanding of the text. Children learn to comprehend text, analyse, synthesise and critically examine information.</p> <p><b>SERIES INFORMATION</b></p> <p><i>Short Reads</i>are deliberately short to focus children on purposeful reading, re-reading and responding. Children learn about the topic through rich vocabulary development and deep comprehension. Each box contains six copies of 40 different reading cards and a teacher's guide.</p> <p>Non-fiction text types covered: Description; Explanation; Procedure; Report; Discussion.</p> <p>Fiction genres covered: Humour; Poetry; Fantasy; Mystery; Greek Myths.</p> <b>Box</b> <b>Ages</b> <b>Reading Level</b> <b>Lexile Range</b> <b>Colour Band</b> Decodable Texts: Reception 4 to 5 phonic phases 2 to 4 n/a n/a Decodable Texts: Year 1 5 to 6 phonic phase 5 n/a n/a Box 1: Fiction / Box 1: Non-Fiction 5+ 1 to 8 BR to 200L Pink/Magenta, Red & Yellow Box 2: Fiction / Box 2: Non-Fiction 6+ 9 to 18 210L to 400L Blue, Green, Orange & Turquoise Box 3: Fiction / Box 3: Non-Fiction 7+ 19 to 24 410L to 600L Purple, Gold & Silver/White Box 4: Fiction / Box 4: Non-Fiction 8+ 25 to 28 610L to 800L Emerald/Lime & Ruby Box 5: Fiction / Box 5: Non-Fiction 9+ 29 to 30 710L to 1000L+ Sapphire <p>For more information on the <i>Short Reads</i>series please visit www.scholastic.co.uk/shortreads</p>