Journeys Reading Series is a complete series meeting the literacy demands of the standards, while allowing for whole group and small group instruction on the instructional levels of the students. The thematic focus per unit carefully orchestrates material that is interesting and meaningful for the students. Each unit is comprised of 5 weeks of stories that are built around the skills in spelling, grammar, writing, fluency, and comprehension. The small directed reading groups give more time to focus on reading at an instructional level while building fluency, as well as the focus for the week. The systematic program will be more complete and cohesive for third grade reading/ELA instruction.
RtI (Response to Intervention)
RtI/AIS (Academic Intervention Services) is determined by previous test scores and/or teacher recommendation. The structure of the Math and Reading program varies year-to-year and student-to-student; therefore a more individualized approach is the goal focusing on specific needs of the student. Pull-out and push-in services may be utilized with the reading department. In third grade the NYS ELA test is in April or May (check district calendar) and this too helps determine if a child will need more support in 4th grade - it tests a variety of skills that are cumulative from previous years and 3rd grade as well.
Step-Up-to-Writing
The Step-Up-to-Writing method is used in all areas of the curriculum when writing is required; it uses a series or strategies to help the students come up with clear, organized writing pieces. CUPS! You may have heard your child mention this word, well we use it as a reminder for them to check for Capitalization, Usage (understanding the idea/sentence), Punctuation, and Spelling. Journeys Reading Series has writing built into each week's lessons, formal and informal writing lessons.
Grammar
Grammar/Conventions lessons are incorporated into the reading theme lessons for each week. The concepts of sentences, subjects and predicates, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, singular and plural nouns, possessives, verb tenses, capitalization, contractions, pronouns, conjunctions, compound sentences, subject-verb agreement, and punctuation are addressed in the third grade reading/language series.