The level of instruction involves whole class instruction using grade level materials in various literary genres and in science and social studies texts. All children must be exposed to grade level materials and must see what fluent readers do during the reading of all kinds of texts. This block involves flexible small group instruction at the students' instructional reading levels. Our Reading Recovery teachers and our resource teachers go into our classrooms to assist teachers with Guided Reading groups. The groups are based on on-going informal and formal assessments.
Students read from leveled books.
The purpose of this block is to teach the necessary reading strategies for students to become fluent and independent readers. Once these strategies are in place, students are involved in literature circles where the focus shifts to more comprehension of texts using higher-order thinking questions and skills. The Working with Words block focuses on how words work and the importance of learning the structures of sounds and words. Students work in whole class and small groups to manipulate sounds and words at their grade level. Students in kindergarten are developing their phoneme awareness through rhymes, blending and segmenting syllables and sounds while first graders are connecting those soundss with letters and letter chunks.