Reading
Reading Instruction
The reading program used here at Carrie Downie Elementary is called Storytown and is published by Harcourt. This program is a comprehensive learning experience for children. It focuses in the beginning on identifing beginning and ending sounds in words, high frequency words, reading comprehension, writing, and upper case and lower case letter identification. The program also is efficent in delivering differentiating instruction for children of all reading levels. The Storytown program contains 120 different books that are specially created for children in three different reading levels. Each book has specially created lessons and activities that correspond to specificly targeted skills. Each leveled reader reinforces what students are learning during their core reading instruction. Practice book pages offer childre on-level activities to strengthen reading and language skills.
Why is Phonemic Awareness Important?
“Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, focus on, and work with the individual sounds–or phonemes-in spoken language. Once students begin to understand how sounds work together to make spoken words, they can then relate the sounds to the letters in written words.” –Storytown Instructional Approach
Phonemic Awareness Activities
Phonemic Isolation: recognizing individual sounds in words. Example: What is the beginning sound in pan?”
Phoneme Identity: recognizing the same sound in different words. Example: “Which sound is the same in bat, bell, and bug?”
Phoneme categorization: recognizing the word in a group of words that has the odd sound in a word. Example: “Which of these words–man, met, mug, call– has a different beginning sound?”
Phoneme blending: listening to cand combining a sequence of sounds. Example: “What word is this /c/, /a/, /t/?”
Phoneme segmentation: breaking a word into sounds? Example: “How many sounds are there in slide?”
Phoneme Deletion: recognizing what remains when a phoneme is removed from a word. Example: “What is brake without the /b/?”
Phoneme Addition: adding a phoneme to a word. Example: “What word do you have if you add /s/ to the beginning of mile?”
Phoneme Substitution: substituting one phoneme to make a new word. Exmaple: “Change the /n/ in pan to /t/. What word did you make”?
What are Five Essential Components of Reading?
- Phonemic Awareness-the ability to hear, focus on, and work with the individual sounds in words.
- Phonics– the relationship of the sounds of spoken language to the letters in written words.
- Fluency–the ability to read text smoothly, accurately, and with expression.
- Vocabulary–words that students need to know to communicate. Vocabulary refers to knowing words, their definations and context.
- Comprehension– is the understanding of menaning in text. It is the goal of all reading and all reading instruction.
High Frequency Words
High frequency words are the vocabulary words children learn in kindergarten. They are the words that occur most often in text and help children begin to read fluently. It is good to work on these words with your child at home. Work on spelling them and reading them. Refer the the link below to download the words that are taught throughout the school year. The fist link is a list of the words and the second link is a document that contains flashcards you can print out to use at home.
Reading Comprehension Strategies
- Answer Questions
- Generate Questions
- Recognize Story Structure
- Summarize in your own words.
Centers
Each day children complete a different reading center that goes along with what is being taught during their core reading instruction time. Each center focuses on a specific skill and falls under one of the following five domains:
- Reading
- Listening
- Writing
- Word Work
- Letters and Sounds
Along with these centers children always have to complete an accountability sheet so that they have something that have to finish during the 30 minute center period. Children also have a weekly center contract that is signed by the teacher each day and sent home at the end of the week. This helps promote student responsibility for their own learning.
Extra practice
Some places children can go to obtain extra practice on reding skills taught in the classroom are websites. I have created a list of some websites I feel may be helpful throughout the year. This list of interactive websites can be found under the tab “Reading Websites” and a list is also distributed at open house.
