First Grade is widely recognized as “the reading year”, and for good reason. Six and seven year-olds are beginning to shift from reading pictures to noticing the text on the pages. Students learn to make meaning with text as they gradually become independent readers. Using the Fountas and Pinnell Continuum of Literacy Learning and the Columbia Teachers' College Reading Workshop models as guides for our instruction, our First Grade reading program includes many important components:
- Interactive read-alouds provide opportunities for deep discussion.
- Shared and performance reading experiences allow children to read together, using poems, songs, big books, and Readers’ Theater scripts. The re-reading of familiar texts fosters oral reading fluency. Performance reading provides an authentic reason for reading aloud.
- Through word work, including phonics and spelling, children learn about the relationships of letters to sounds and the patterns in word families.
- During small group guided reading instruction, the teacher provides explicit teaching and support for reading increasingly challenging texts.
- Children build reading stamina and focus during their silent reading time. Students have daily opportunities to curl up with a good "just right" book!