Reading Components
Overview: Students work in small groups with their teacher, reading specialist or special educator two to three times per week for RTI. Small groups are seen other times throughout the week as well. Students work on word work, comprehension strategies and fluency at this time based on their needs.
Word Level Skills: Based upon their needs, students follow a scope and sequence of phonics instruction building upon their prior skills. They learn and apply rules for encoding (spelling) and decoding (reading) words. Students practice their word attack skills with the Lexia software program and apply those skills in their independent reading work and fluency practice. This year students in kindergarten and first grade are using a new phonics program that is Wilson based. It is called Fundations. Fundations is a systematic and comprehensive program that includes letter id, sounds, sight words, handwriting, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency. We are excited to begin this year! If you would like more information on the program, you can find it at Wilson Curriculum. We will also send home family letters that will help you and your child get to know this new program.
Grades two through 5 currently use a word study program that incorporates both spelling and words study to improve vocabulary. This program is called Words Their Way. It follows kids through multiple levels of word study.
Reading Fluency: This portion of the reading lesson involves the use of short text for fluency instruction through repeated readings with text and/or computer assisted technology. Lessons may include a preview, building background knowledge, discussion of new vocabulary, teacher modeling and guided practice. Students are directly taught the use of phrasing, intonation, and oral expression in order to build fluency. Students may practice with poetry, short passages, or use programs such as Read Naturally, or One Minute Reader. Most importantly, students apply these skills in independent reading.
Comprehension: Students receive direct instruction in the following strategies:
Monitor Comprehension
Activate and Connecting
Asking Questions
Infer and Visualize
Determine Importance
Summarize and Synthesize
Students are encouraged to self-select books of their own interest that are just right for independent reading. They also read some teacher selected texts for close reading and guided reading of complex texts. We use novels, guided reading books, poems and songs to accomplish these goal. Fountas and Pinnell's Leveled Literacy Intervention is a a program we often use for small group instruction. This program has students reading a new book every time they meet with a teacher. These books are read and reread at home for practice. This program has students read their "just right" books, and then a reach book, followed by an independent book. This allows students to be successful, confident and stretch their skill levels. More information can be found at www.fountasandpinnell.com/lli/
Last year, as a district, we adopted the Comprehension Toolkit as a resource for our elementary school teachers. We were fortunate to have the Wayland Public School Foundation fund this initiative and have done a lot of work tweaking the lessons for each grade level. You can find more information at Comprehension Toolkit.
Writing: Writing in response to reading is an expectation for all students. This takes practice.
Entries may be written at each reading session, either before, during or after reading.
Assignments will vary as the year goes on, based upon the comprehension strategies they learn.
Ultimately, our goal is that students will apply the comprehension strategies to synthesize and respond to text.
As you can see, we use a wide range of programs to match individual student needs. Our Wayland teachers work extremely hard to figure out how to meet each student where they are, make them feel confident, and stretch their skill levels. If you ever have any questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected]
Overview: Students work in small groups with their teacher, reading specialist or special educator two to three times per week for RTI. Small groups are seen other times throughout the week as well. Students work on word work, comprehension strategies and fluency at this time based on their needs.
Word Level Skills: Based upon their needs, students follow a scope and sequence of phonics instruction building upon their prior skills. They learn and apply rules for encoding (spelling) and decoding (reading) words. Students practice their word attack skills with the Lexia software program and apply those skills in their independent reading work and fluency practice. This year students in kindergarten and first grade are using a new phonics program that is Wilson based. It is called Fundations. Fundations is a systematic and comprehensive program that includes letter id, sounds, sight words, handwriting, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency. We are excited to begin this year! If you would like more information on the program, you can find it at Wilson Curriculum. We will also send home family letters that will help you and your child get to know this new program.
Grades two through 5 currently use a word study program that incorporates both spelling and words study to improve vocabulary. This program is called Words Their Way. It follows kids through multiple levels of word study.
Reading Fluency: This portion of the reading lesson involves the use of short text for fluency instruction through repeated readings with text and/or computer assisted technology. Lessons may include a preview, building background knowledge, discussion of new vocabulary, teacher modeling and guided practice. Students are directly taught the use of phrasing, intonation, and oral expression in order to build fluency. Students may practice with poetry, short passages, or use programs such as Read Naturally, or One Minute Reader. Most importantly, students apply these skills in independent reading.
Comprehension: Students receive direct instruction in the following strategies:
Monitor Comprehension
Activate and Connecting
Asking Questions
Infer and Visualize
Determine Importance
Summarize and Synthesize
Students are encouraged to self-select books of their own interest that are just right for independent reading. They also read some teacher selected texts for close reading and guided reading of complex texts. We use novels, guided reading books, poems and songs to accomplish these goal. Fountas and Pinnell's Leveled Literacy Intervention is a a program we often use for small group instruction. This program has students reading a new book every time they meet with a teacher. These books are read and reread at home for practice. This program has students read their "just right" books, and then a reach book, followed by an independent book. This allows students to be successful, confident and stretch their skill levels. More information can be found at www.fountasandpinnell.com/lli/
Last year, as a district, we adopted the Comprehension Toolkit as a resource for our elementary school teachers. We were fortunate to have the Wayland Public School Foundation fund this initiative and have done a lot of work tweaking the lessons for each grade level. You can find more information at Comprehension Toolkit.
Writing: Writing in response to reading is an expectation for all students. This takes practice.
Entries may be written at each reading session, either before, during or after reading.
Assignments will vary as the year goes on, based upon the comprehension strategies they learn.
Ultimately, our goal is that students will apply the comprehension strategies to synthesize and respond to text.
As you can see, we use a wide range of programs to match individual student needs. Our Wayland teachers work extremely hard to figure out how to meet each student where they are, make them feel confident, and stretch their skill levels. If you ever have any questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected]