Introduction
The goal of this book is to help children improve their skills in both reading and comprehension on a
daily basis. The more experience a child has with reading, the stronger his or her reading and problemsolving skills will become. Daily Warm Ups: Reading (Grade 2) is composed of short passages which
provide both factual and fictional material. Questions which follow are based on Bloom’s Taxonomy,
higher-level thinking skills, and national standards which are required for grade two learners. Using
this book in your daily routine will boost children’s reading and comprehension scores significantly.
Nonfiction and Fiction
Daily Warm Ups: Reading is divided into two sections: fiction (narrative) and nonfiction (expository).
Each of the two sections is divided into five categories. The nonfiction section includes the following:
animals, biographies, American history, science, and current events. The fiction section includes the
following: fairy tales and folklore, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, mystery/adventure/suspense,
and fantasy.
Because understanding both types of literature is extremely important to our student’s success, exposure
to both fiction and nonfiction reading is essential. Questions which follow the passages are strategically
written to address concepts and strategies which are required nationwide.
Comprehension Questions
Comprehension is the most important goal of any reading assignment. Students who comprehend what
they read perform better in class, score higher on tests, and perform tasks in life more confidently.
Questions that follow the reading passages are written to encourage students to recognize structure of
the text, visualize, summarize, learn new vocabulary, and implement strategies for breaking words into
parts for better comprehension. Reading skills used in Daily Warm-Ups: Reading can also be found in
scope and sequence charts across the nation. Different types of questions are written to help students
become more confident in the following:
Readability
Each of the reading passages in Daily Warm-Ups: Reading (Grade 2) varies in difficulty to meet the
various reading levels of your students. The passages have been categorized as follows: below grade
level, at grade level, and above grade level.
Record Keeping
Use the tracking sheet on page 6 to record which warm-up exercises you have given to your students.
Or, distribute copies of the sheet for students to keep their own records. Use the certificate on page
176 as you see fit. You can use the certificate as a reward for students completing a certain number
of warm-up exercises. Or, you may choose to distribute the certificates to students who complete the
warm-up exercises with 100% accuracy.
How to Make the Most of This Book
Here are some simple tips, which you may have already thought of, already implemented, or may be
new to you. They are only suggestions to help you make your students as successful in reading as
possible.
- Read through the book ahead of time so you are familiar with each portion. The better you understand how the book works, the easier it will be to answer students’ questions.
- Set aside a regular time each day to incorporate Daily Warm-Ups into your routine. Once the routine is established, students will look forward to and expect to work on reading strategies at that particular time.
- Make sure that any amount of time spent on Daily Warm-Ups is positive and constructive. This should be a time of practicing for success and recognizing it as it is achieved.
- Allot only about five minutes to Daily Warm-Ups. Too much time will not be useful, too little time will create additional stress.
- Be sure to model the reading and question answering process at the beginning of the year before students attempt to do the passages on their own. Modeling for about five days in a row seems to be a good start. Model pre-reading questions, reading the passage, highlighting information which refers to the questions, and eliminating answers which are obviously wrong. Finally, refer back to the text once again, to make sure the answers chosen are the best ones.
- Create and store overheads of each lesson so that you can review student work, concepts, and strategies as quickly as possible.
- Utilize peer tutors which have strong skills for peer interaction to assist with struggling students.
- Offer small group time to students which need extra enrichment or opportunities for questions regarding the text. Small groups will allow many of these students, once they are comfortable with the format, to achieve success independently.
- Adjust the procedures, as you see fit, to meet the needs of all your students.
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