Reading with your upper elementary child
A guide to what kids should know and how newspapers can help in teaching it
You can expect your third-grader to...
Have mastery of phonics.
Read at grade level with fluency, accuracy and understanding.
Understand cause and effect.
Recognize the difference between fact and opinion.
Read for a variety of reasons and read a variety of text.
Use details in the text to check for understanding.
Have an opinion about favorite books and authors.
Know when text makes no sense to them and take corrective actions such as re-reading.
Use titles, graphics, captions and charts to support comprehension.
You can expect your fourth-grader to
Read a wide range of texts, including fiction (legends, novels, folklore, science fiction), nonfiction (autobiographies, informational books, diaries, journals), poetry (such as concrete poems and haiku) and drama (skits and plays).
Apply comprehension strategies such as rereading text, paraphrasing and questioning what has been read.
Identify and analyze elements of fiction and nonfiction, such as plot, theme, main idea, supporting details and author's choice of words.
Expand vocabulary through wide reading, word study and discussion.
Use media and technological resources for research and as tools for learning.
Read daily from self-selected and assigned materials.
You can expect your fifth-grader to
Read a variety of texts, including fiction (novels, tall tales, myths), nonfiction (books of true experiences, newspaper and magazine articles, schedules), poetry (such as narrative, lyric, cinquains) and drama (skits and plays).
Use appropriate reading strategies such as skimming, scanning, rereading, questioning and making predictions, drawing on personal, literary or cultural understandings.
Use reading to learn about and understand their world and other cultures.
Evaluate text to determine the author's purpose and point of view.
Increase vocabulary through wide reading, word study, discussion and content area study.
Research multiple sources to deepen understanding and integrate information and ideas across varied sources and content areas.
Read daily from self-selected materials.
Newspaper Activities For Kids in Third, Fourth and Fifth Grade
- Encourage your children to think on their own. Offer open-ended sentences in response to newspaper reading. Two simple ones are "I agree with... I disagree with...." Have them fill in with something that they have read and thought about from the newspaper.
- Read selected newspaper articles aloud to your child and discuss how headlines, graphics, captions, and charts support comprehension.
- Find examples in the news of neighbors helping each other. Also find stories about people who need help and discuss what local people can do to assist them.
- Encourage your children to read a favorite section of the newspaper every week. They may follow their favorite team, examine political cartoons, or read the news to learn as much as they can about an issue affecting their community.
- Have your children second-guess the newspaper's editor and decide which story they would give the most attention on the front page. Ask them to explain why they thought the story was important.
- Almost every question in conversation, in school assignments and on tests, begins with question words such as "who," "what," "why," "where" or "when." Newspapers can help your children understand the cues offered by question words. Use an interesting photo without the caption or the opening of the story and ask questions such as: "What is happening? Who is committing the action? Where and when did the action take place? Why or how did the action take place?" Explain that "why" and "how" are harder questions that require more thinking and reading. This practice, which helps children of all ages, will come in handy when your children face questions that test their knowledge of things they have read and studied.
Source: N.C. Department of Public Instruction and the N.C. Press Association
Look for Reading with your middle elementary child in coming weeks
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