Reading

5 Areas of Reading Instruction

  • Phonemic Awareness - Breaking words up into their smallest parts, or sounds, and being able identify and manipulate sounds in spoken words
  • Phonics - The relationship between sounds and letters - Being able to decode unknown words based on the letters and combinations of letters in words
  • Vocabulary - Understanding the pronunciation and meaning of words and skills to learn the meaning of unknown words based on context clues, or clues in the text
  • Fluency - The ability to read words accurately and quickly using appropriate phrasing and expression
  • Comprehension - Understanding the meaning of the text - Some comprehension tasks include answering literal and deeper questions about the text, retelling, summarizing the most important details, and using the text to complete another task, such as a writing assignment or project

Assessment

DIBELS - DIBELS benchmark testing is given 3 times per year for grades K-3. We use DIBELS progress monitoring weekly in addition to the benchmark tests. DIBELS tests early reading skills such as:

  • First Sound Fluency: Identifying the first sounds in words
  • Phoneme Segmentation Fluency: Breaking words up into individual sounds
  • Nonsense Word Fluency: Reading nonsense words with short vowel sounds
  • Oral Reading Fluency: Reading grade level passages, scoring accuracy, rate, and retelling for comprehension
  • DAZE: Filling in the blank to test reading comprehension

Guided Reading - Students are tested every month to find their guided reading level, which is their instructional reading level. To see the district's suggested guided reading level by grade, see this chart.

SRI - Scholastic Reading Inventory is a test that shows independent reading levels. It is administered on a computer at the beginning of the year, middle of the year, and in the spring. This level is used by the middle schools to determine if a reading class is needed, in addition to the required language arts class.

Apps

  • MobyMax
  • Lexia
  • I See Sam - Decodable books we use in our classroom - Free app, then you can buy individual books or entire sets
  • Word Builder by Reading Doctor - Phonics tool to build words
  • Sight Words by Reading Doctor - Uses pictures and a multi-sensory method to learn and practice sight words - Choose your own sight words to practice or use pre-made lists