My Reading Program
Balanced Literacy
Reading consist of the following components:
*Read to or Read Aloud- I always read to my class right after lunch recess.
At the last workshop that I went to, the instructor suggested that you should try to
sing most of the books to the children.
*Shared Reading - Each week, I select a big book. I use the same book all week.
Monday-Critical Thinking-Predicting
Tuesday-Vocabulary
Wednesday-Print Conventions
Thursday- Phonological Patterns
Friday- Processing - The children love Fridays. Processing is a way to give closure to the shared book. It can consist of art projects, plays, writing, etc. Whenever I have the children make an art project that goes with the book, I go around and write what they want their picture to say on a sticky note. Then over the weekend I type their quote and glue it to their art work. I always read their processing before I hang them on the wall.
*Guided Reading- Our school has over 100 titles of emergent books. (6 books of each title.) A lot of these titles came from the Wright Group. I have about 4 kids in a reading group, the other kids are reading quietly and then hey go to a learning center. I go over the sight words that we learned. We recite an alphabet card or blend card. (The kids say the sound of the letter first, then the picture. e.g. a a apple, b b bird, c c cat, s s circle, etc.) Then I have one child read yesterday's book and the rest of the kids follow along. (This is a perfect time for me to do an unnofficial running record.) Then I introduce the new book. I read it to the group first, pointing to the words. I have the kids guess the ending. Then I pass out the books and they read it to me. They take it home and read it to their parents.
*Independent Reading - The kindergarten kids read books that they have already read.
Other things I teach with Reading:
Alphabet- I still do a letter of the week in alphabetical order. When I get to letter Tt, I start teaching two letters a week. I go over the sound the letter makes, I show them how to write the letter, and the class makes several art projects that start with that letter. Since I teach a full day of Kindergarten, I have time to do Phonics in the afternoon. I teach reading and writing in the morning and I do my letter of the week activities in the afternoon.
Sight words - I teach the children a new sight word each week. I learned in order for the children to be able to read the emergent books, that they needed to memorize many of the sight words. I write the new sight word on the white board and I leave all the words on the board all year. We go over these words each day. Last year my students learned over 32 sight words. They were very excited to learn a new word each week.
Graphics provided by Grandma George.