• Reading
    The Miracle of the Beginning Reader
    I wriggle and I jiggle, and I rock upon my chair.
    I wiggle my loose tooth, and I twirl a strand of hair.
    I chew on several fingers, and sometimes suck my thumb.
    I tap the reading table, like I'd play upon the drum.
    I kick my foot in rhythm; lose the place where I should look.
    I rub my nose and clear my throat, and sometimes drop my book.
    I look outside the window, and I look down at the floor.
    I pay very close attention, when someone's at the door.
    I close my eyes and rest my head; my teacher's heart must bleed.
    But in spite of all of this, I'm learning how to read.
    -Jane Miller
    Reading Facts
    • "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children."
    • "The more children read, the better they comprehend what they read."
    • "The more children read outside of school and for fun, the better they do in school."
    • "Seventy -five percent of children who read poorly at the end of third grade never become successful readers."
    Language Arts Curriculum
    Reading is the priority in second grade. Students will be immersed in a print-rich environment to develop oral language skills, phonetic skills, vocabulary, comprehension, and an awareness of print materials as sources of information and enjoyment.
    • Students will use listening and speaking skills to participate in classroom discussions.
    • Students will use a variety of strategies to read new words and will read familiar selections with fluency and expression.
    • Students will continue to develop an understanding of character, setting, main idea, and story sequence in a variety of texts.
    • Students will increase vocabulary and comprehension strategies by reading age-appropriate materials across the curriculum, with emphasis on materials that reflect the State and School District Learnings in mathematics, science, and social studies.
    • The students will also demonstrate comprehension of fiction and nonfiction selections through classroom discussion and will begin to communicate ideas in writing.
    • Students will become independent readers by the end of first grade and will continue to improve these skills throughout second grade!
    Language Arts Components
    Phonemic Awareness:
    • The ability to hear the sounds embedded within words accurately and analyze their order and sequence. It requires the blending and segmenting of sounds. Students who are given the opportunity to learn to segment, blend and sound out words correctly will be able to tackle difficult reading selections with strong comprehension.
    • An example of phonemic awareness drills done in the classroom are:
    Say "armchair" (clap the parts)
    Say "armchair", NOW say "armchair" again, but don't say "arm" (students say "chair")
    Say "hat" (clap parts)
    Say "hat", NOW say "hat" again, but don't say "h" say "m" (students sat "mat")
    Phonics and Word Study:
    • Students will develop an understanding of what sounds particular letters, groups of letters and letter relations make.
    • Word Families: A word family is 2 or more letters that when put together make a certain sound. For example, the first word family our class will be learning is the "at" family. After learning the "at" family, students will be learning different words which contain that family:
    hat
    bat
    cat
    mat
    rat
    sat
    that
    flat
           
    Notice that the word family in each word is underlined. Throughout the year, we  
           
    will be learning many new word families. Below you will find a list of word families, 
           
    please review these word families and the letters that make up the word family, as
           
    well as thinking of new words that contain the word family. This will help your child
           
    learn the word families that are part of new words and will help your child with
           
    their reading.
     
    List of Word Families
          

    at

    ad

    am

    al

    ag

    an

    ap

    and

    ack

    ash

    ab

    ask

    all

    ax

    et

    ed

    eg

    en

    em

    ell

    es

    est

    it

    id

    im

    ip

    ib

    ick

    ish

    in

    ig

    ing

    ill

    ix

    ot

    on

    od

    om

    op

    ock

    osh

    ob

    og

    ox

    ook

    ut

    un

    us

    ud

    um

    ug

    uch

    ush

    ub

    up

    uck
    Fluency and Independent Reading
    • Reader’s Workshop
    • Guided Reading
    Vocabulary
     
    Comprehension
    • Teacher Interactive Read-Aloud and Reader’s Workshop will emphasize the importance of being strategic readers not simply decoders of words
    Writing
    • Writer’s Workshop
    What Good Readers Do:
    Before reading I think about...
    • the title
    • the pictures
    • what I already know about the topic (schema)
    • my purpose for reading
    • my predictions about the text
    • my questions
    While I am reading...
    • ask myslef, Does this make sence?
    • ask myself, Does this sound right?
    • focus on beginning sounds, "chunks" within words, and endings to figure out unknown words
    • backtrack when the meaning isn't clear
    • read on past difficult words or groups of words to get more information
    • confirm or correct my predictions
    After reading I...
    • think about the author's message
    • reflect on how the text matched or didn't match my predictions
    • think about how the text relates to real life
    Helpful Websites for Families
     
    Starfall
     
     
    Fun Brain - This website offers games for language arts and math concepts. One of my personal favorites is the "Mad Libs Junior" game that offers practice in parts of speech, while creating a funny story to read when you are finished.
    Scholastic Book Wizard - This site allows to you to type in a book title and find out if it is at your reading level. Make sure you pick "Guided Reading Level," as the option under the search window. It does not show every book, but it gives you a good idea of some books at your level.
    Spelling City