Welcome!

2024-2025 School Year

Hello Jefferson Families!

It’s a great time to establish routines at home, including setting up a nightly reading time.

Reading stamina results from developing a simple reading routine at home and sticking with it! Find a consistent time, like right after dinner or before bed, and start with a goal of 5 minutes of distraction-free reading. Add one minute on each night, and soon your child will be at the goal of reading for 20 minutes each day. With this increased focus, your child will begin to enjoy reading, develop reading independence, and read for longer periods of time.

Here are a few tips to help your child develop reading stamina:

• Allow for variety in how the reading is done. New or struggling readers benefit from listening to reading and reading with or to someone. Try reading in different ways on different evenings or even asking your child to read independently for a couple of minutes followed by listening to a story read aloud. 

• Choose appropriate books based on your child’s ability. For reading on their own, help your child choose books in which they can decode nearly every word in the book correctly. If your child is reading with you, choose books that are highly engaging. 

• Recognize your child’s reading success! Celebrate your child’s time spent reading each night, share progress with other family members and friends, discuss favorite books and consider trips to the library to find new and exciting books. 

If you’d like help choosing appropriate books for your student, or help with creating reading habits with your child, please contact me.

Winter Graham, Instructional Coach, wgraham@everettsd.org, 425-385-7423