Bigger Hearts and DITHOR

[birchbark]

I'm planning on using Bigger Hearts this coming year and possibly adding DITHOR. My questions are: How is DITHOR scheduled into Bigger's Teacher's Guide? And is it to be used in addition to "Storytime?" If so, do you then need a package of books for each?

[Kathleen]

DITHOR is one of the options for reading in the daily boxes of plans. So, your child could be finishing phonics, an "emerging reader", or beginning DITHOR. So, if your child is ready for DITHOR, there is a reminder to use it daily in the plans of Bigger. (If you need help figuring out what level your child is reading at, you could look at the list of emerging readers and check a couple out from the library to see how your child did. )

You are supposed to use it in addition to storytime. In storytime, you're reading to your child and they're the listener. These books are most likely above your child's reading level. In DITHOR, the child is reading aloud to you. They have a different set of skills to work on with reading fluently and with expression, comprehending what they're reading... Both storytime and DITHOR are genre based in Bigger. I know that Carrie has said it is planned this way to make sure the literature study is covered for a child that might not be reading well enough independently to do DITHOR yet.

They're both wonderful parts to the day! Storytime and science happened to be my ds's favorite this year. (Although at any given time, he added MANY other parts of the day to his favorite list. )

You will need a pack of books for storytime and DITHOR. For DITHOR you'll choose books that are at your child's reading level. For storytime, you have the Classic, Boy and Girl sets to choose from. You can pick one set...or you can mix and match. You'll just need one book per genre for storytime.

You're in for a great year! We thoroughly loved Bigger and DITHOR this past year!
Kathleen