Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, and Word Work

During "Read to Self", students pick "Just-Right-Books", using the I-Pick Protoco,l to select high-interest books that are in their individual Range of Proximal Development (the space between what a learner can do without assistance and what a learner can do with adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers). Students work on building their reading stamina during this time, while also practicing explicitly taught reading comprehension strategies and working on individually selected reading goals.

During "Read to Someone", students select a classmate to practicing fluently reading their book aloud to.  While partner reading, students sit EEKK (elbow to elbow and Knee to Knee) and can either alternate reading and following along in the same story or take turns reading aloud different text, where they will practice reading fluently and listening attentively so they can then retell what was read aloud.  Students practice fluent reading, listening, retelling, and discussion main idea and details in their stories with classmates.

During "Listen to Reading", students will be hearing adult readers model fluent reading of text that may be above their individual reading level.  This allows students to be exposed to and expand their vocabulary and hear appropriate reading phrasing, inflection, and tone.  Students may listen to a teacher/adult read aloud to them in person, from a video, or an audiobook.

During "Word Work", students experiment with spelling patterns, memorize high-frequency words, and develop a genuine curiosity for and interest in new and unique words. By playing with words, word patterns, word families, prefixes, suffixes, and so on, students hone their knowledge of words and increase their speaking and writing skills.  

During "Work on Writing", students enjoy doing sustained choice writing in many forms and growing as writers, while teachers come alongside to provide just-in-time instruction to meet their individual needs. Teachers use student writing as an informal assessment tool to determine what word students may need to work on during their Word Work time or to form small group mini lessons for students needing support throughout the writing process.