The Reading Program
"A book is good if it permits, invites or even impels a good reading... While good books can be read badly, bad books cannot be read well. The question is not whether it is a good book, but whether the book compelled a good reading." - C.S. Lewis
Reading is a vital element and the basic skill in building literacy and liberty within each student. Many components comprise our K4-12th grade program that build mastery of language skills and cultivate lifelong reading habits with which parents should be familiar. The program begins in preschool by building reading readiness. Children are taught to recognize the phonograms of the Writing Road to Reading Program (WRR) -- a whole, phonetic approach to reading, spelling, and writing. First grade children are tested and placed in readings groups commensurate with their skills. Throughout the primary grades the components of reading are taught daily. Basal readers are used in the classroom, while supplementary readers, at a reading level below ability, are sent home for oral reading practice with parents. Using the Bible as a reader has recently been added to the elementary reading program. Students are required to write answers to leading questions and complete vocabulary exercises pertaining to comprehension and conceptual thinking by second grade. Reading instruction continues through the eighth grade.
Independent reading is encouraged in the primary school through the Book Worm's Club, while independent library book reading with assigned book reviews begins in the elementary school and continues throughout high school in English. StoneBridge students traditionally score high on SAT tests in vocabulary, listening skills, and reading comprehension.
Reading Aloud
The student's ear for language and enriched vocabulary, as well as his reading tastes are cultivated through the French Reading Lesson (an exercise in English), choral reading, and the Reading Aloud method, whereby teachers read the Bible during morning devotions, as well as whole classics, Shakespearean drama, and poetry in literature class. This method encourages reading classics with a language above the child's ability to read and fully comprehend. This nurtures the love of language, literary classics, poetry, and ennobled characterizations. The sounds of language and the lyrical rhythms and imagery conveyed through this method enhance the child's vocabulary and writing ability and style. Parents are strongly encouraged to read classics aloud at home.
Consider giving classics and poetry books as gifts or rewards, investing in hard-backed copies of those studied in literature classes. Our students embrace each new classic they study as a "lifetime friend" and cherish having a fine copy of their own for reading during summertime. (See Appendix for Summer Re-Creation Ideas).
Required Summer Reading Program
StoneBridge has a required summer reading program. Three high quality books are to be read independently at all grade levels. Bookmarks placed in report cards are used to record titles. Special commendations are awarded in September to those who read beyond the minimum. Kindergarten parents are asked to read books aloud.