Good Fit Books

“Good Fit”,  “I-Pick”, “Just Right”,  These are all phrases that educators use to identify the collection of books that are at the right level for kids to be able to read. The concept is the same, can your child read the words on the page AND understand what is happening in the story. Both the small sections, chapters and entire book.  You can use the ideas below to help your child decide if the book they’ve picked out is a good book for them or not.

• Can your child read most of the words on the page?
• Are they using their strategies to figure words out? (chunking, using picture clues, getting the mouth ready with the first sound,)
• Can your child identify the characters and the big idea after reading a small section? (one or two paragraphs or a short page) This can be demonstrated by saying something like “While you were reading I heard that… Would you agree? What do you think will happen next?”

If the answer is no to these questions the book is too challenging and it would be better to find another book.

This said it is important to challenge your student. If you love reading to your child consider stopping at the end of each page and ask questions about who was in the story and what they did. Can you identify plausible predictions based on what has happened so far in the book? What kind of personal connections could be made to help children relate in some way to the story.

It is very common for emerging readers to learn how to say the words printed on the page but not know what they read. Comprehension is a large focus in upcoming grades so setting the framework now is very beneficial.