I hope you all had a relaxing winter break!  What a way to welcome us back to school-- hopefully the snow did not hit you too hard.  

This month's topic is Reading Comprehension Strategies.  In second grade, students are still learning how to read, but third grade is generally the pivotal year when students start to read to learn.  Here are some links and an article with tips for aiding your student in reading comprehension:

Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension (on the Reading Rockets website)
I LOVE the Reading Rockets website.  It offers very useful, easy-to-understand advice.  This particular article suggests study skills such as graphic organizers and summarizing to boost comprehension.

Comprehension Strategies (from the Busy Teachers Cafe website)
This website offers a list of six strategies along with MANY links to other resources for each strategy.  There is a ton of helpful information here, but it may take a while to explore it all.

Reading Strategies article
This article details critical reading strategies, as well as offers instructional strategies you can use in teaching your lessons.  Click the link below to download it.

This month's Parents' Corner topic is all about study skills.  The websites you will find here have tips for all age levels.  You might even find that some are relevant for yourself!

Study Skill Tips

http://www.how-to-study.com/  A wide variety of helpful study tips

http://www.teachersandfamilies.com/member/parent/homework1.cfm provides 4 basic principles to enhance study skills.

The following file also has a list of study tips, organized by the helpful acronym ASPIRE.

Relieving Test Anxiety

http://www.testtakingtips.com/anxiety/ Tips to reduce anxiety

http://www.how-to-study.com/study-skills/en/test-anxiety.asp  Reducing Test Anxiety