Reading is a complex act involving meaning, oral language, word knowledge, sounds and symbols --- at all reading levels. Comprehension and the study of phonics and grammar are NOT separate from the act of reading, but rather part of it.
A reader must pay attention to whether what they're reading makes sense, sounds grammatically correct, and looks visually correct. From the earliest levels of reading we ask children:
- Does it make sense?
- Does it look right?
- Does it sound right? (like talking)
Students now need to be asking these questions of their own reading. When the answer is “no”, students, themselves, need to try to correct the reading so that it does “make sense, sound right, and look right”. When a student can “self-monitor” and “self-correct their own reading, they have become strategic readers. At that point, the more they read, the more they improve.
As students’ reading levels progress, the stories and nonfiction become more complex. The increased number of details and/or events make it necessary for students to be able to shift more attention to thinking about what is happening in the story or to what they are learning in the nonfiction text. In order to do this sight words need to be automatic so they can read with expression and fluency. They also need to be able to problem solve new words (word attack skills). Being able to make comparisons to words they know that are similar and being able to quickly find and use larger 'chunks' of sound in words is critical. Their attempt at the new word then must be quickly put back into the whole sentence to determine if it makes sense.
To help develop memory and understanding, we analyze the different story elements (character, setting, plot) in fiction and the different characteristics of nonfiction texts (graphs, insets, captions, headings, glossary, index, table of contents).
Writing is a complex process. Students choose their topics, develop and write their own stories, learn to revise and edit their writing, and publish books. First graders usually begin by writing about their own lives.
Students spell words many ways:
- remembering the word;
- writing the sounds they hear in a word;
- thinking of another word that sounds like it;
- finding the word in text, such as in a dictionary or on a word wall.
Reading aloud to children, even after they have begun reading themselves, is so important because it can provide models for different kinds of writing and increase their vocabulary. One of our activities is to study the writing of a particular author. By making webs or charts we compare the author’s different books and discuss a characteristic of his or her writing style that we can try in our own writing.
Speaking publicly, listening critically, and developing research and technology skills are integrated throughout our activities.
