Reading
Below you will find several of the components of our reading and literacy work. Our days are structured to maximize exposure and work with all aspects of literacy. We also strive to integrate all the subject areas throughout the day.
Exploring Books and Morning Discovery
We start each day with an hour of one of our favorite literacy activities: Exploring Books! Exploring books is broken into three parts: Choice Reading, Sharing on the Oval, and Daily Discovery Writing. This block of time is where the foundation for much of our learning takes place and is where students learn about a variety of topics and subjects that they are interested in.
Choice Reading
What: Students self-select texts to explore and read. Teachers support learning and vocabulary and concept development by engaging students in inquiry. Students learn to use questioning to find answers to questions and wonderings they have about the texts. This time of our day is all about developing language, concepts and a love of reading and learning. Why: Empower children to self-select books of interest to them on their developmental level. Purpose: Develop students’ oracy with a focus on academic language. |
Sharing on the Oval
What: After students have engaged in texts during choice reading we gather on our oval to share our discoveries of the day. Students who wish to share what they discovered bring the text to the oval and further develop their language and understanding of new concepts by sharing with their peers. Several students share each morning and many of the concepts are dramitized to help futher cement their understanding of the new concepts and vocabulary. Why: Oracy is the path to literacy Purpose: Build language/concepts for the community. |
Daily Discovery Shared Writing
What: After we share on the oval our new learnings and discoveries, students gather together to create a shared writing piece that highlights one of the new concepts/ vocabulary. Students help select the topic and craft the sentence(s) that will be written to demonstrate their new learning. Students help with all aspects of the writing including illustrating. Why: Connects talk to print to further develop language and concepts. Purpose: It captures children’s discoveries in print and celebrates learning. |
Reading Block
Independent Learning Choices
Focus: Students practice a variety of literacy-based activities to further develop their independent skills. Students have several different choices during this time including:
Reading Response, Listen to Reading, Word Work, Retell, Independent Reading, Writing, Math, and Exploring SS, Science and Health.
Reading Response, Listen to Reading, Word Work, Retell, Independent Reading, Writing, Math, and Exploring SS, Science and Health.