Welcome to Mrs. Lydon's webpage!  I am at Ascension on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. If you'd like to reach me please email me or call school at 636-532-1151 VM# 340.

I will be at school this Wednedsday during Open House. Come by and visit! I'll be happy to explain what we accomplish in the Resource Room!

The purpose of the resource room is to assist the classroom teacher in providing the best education possible for all students. The goal of the resource room is to provide assistance to students struggling with a specific skill or concept. It is not meant as a long-term, intensive remediation of a disability or disorder. This assistance will occur in small groups (2-4 students) based on teacher recommendation. Occasionally students will receive assistance on an individual basis. We try to have students come to the resource room during independent work time, NOT during instuctional time.  We don't want anybody missing out on their teacher's lesson!

I will be posting articles or websites that will be helpful to parents as they encourage and guide their kids to be successful in school.

Erasable gel pens are available!  'Pilot' brand pens makes an erasable pen called FRIXION. They even make an erasable highlighter~very cool! I've bought them at Target, Walgreens, and Office Max. They are on sale at Office Max this week. Thanks to Mrs. Callahan who made me aware of these smooth-writing/easily erasable pens. They're so much easier to write with than the stick-type erasables. Check them out fourth graders (and anyone else who likes erasable pens).

The Five Essential Components of Reading

Reading with children and helping them practice specific reading components can dramatically improve their ability to read. Scientific research shows that there are five essential components of reading that children must be taught in order to learn to read. Adults can help children learn to be good readers by systematically practicing these five components:

• Recognizing and using individual sounds to create words, or phonemic awareness. Children need to be taught to hear sounds in words and that words are made up of the smallest parts of sound, or phonemes.

• Understanding the relationships between written letters and spoken sounds, or phonics. Children need to be taught the sounds individual printed letters and groups of letters make. Knowing the relationships between letters and sounds helps children to recognize familiar words accurately and automatically, and "decode" new words.

• Developing the ability to read a text accurately and quickly, or reading fluency. Children must learn to read words rapidly and accurately in order to understand what is read. When fluent readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. When fluent readers read aloud, they read effortlessly and with expression. Readers who are weak in fluency read slowly, word by word, focusing on decoding words instead of comprehending meaning.

• Learning the meaning and pronunciation of words, or vocabulary development. Children need to actively build and expand their knowledge of written and spoken words, what they mean and how they are used.

• Acquiring strategies to understand, remember and communicate what is read, or reading comprehension strategies. Children need to be taught comprehension strategies, or the steps good readers use to make sure they understand text. Students who are in control of their own reading comprehension become purposeful, active readers.