Learning to read is a hard but extremely rewarding journey. Students begin with letters and sounds, then develop fluency and comprehension and ideally end up as a lifelong readers who enjoy getting lost in a good book.

Collectively in first grade we are learning and practicing different strategies and skills to keep moving forward in our reading journey. Daily, we practice developing our reading ‘stamina’. Where we work on developing the length of time we can concentrate and read for. Another of the strategies in practice in class is ‘giving books a sneak peek’.
We know that there are millions of books out there and we also know that not every book is right for us.  By giving books sneak peeks, students can begin to think critically about a book before they even read the first page.
When we are having a sneak peak students are thinking about the content of the book and whether or not if fits their current needs. Is it something they are interested in? Is it based on a topic they are researching? Is it too hard, or too easy? Or is it just right for my current reading abilities?

There are several ways we can give a book a sneak peek:

• We can look at the title and front cover.  Does it spark your interest?
• Look at and read the blurb on the back. Is it about what you need? Are you still interested?
• Open to the table of contents. Is it still for you? Have you found a book to read?​