Week 7 - Assignment 1

•What texts and materials do teachers have in their classrooms that support students' development of fluent reading?

We encourage the children to "read" class library books, labeled items in the classroom, cubby tags...anything that will make them realize that printed words contain information that will be of value to them when they can read. We use themed mini-books (seasons, opposites, counting etc) to support fluency. We focus on building a large sight word fund so that while reading, the child can "skim" the words he knows and not get
bogged down with decoding. 

•How do they select vocabulary to teach in all areas of your curriculum?

The reading series that our school uses has a curriculum that introduces specific, basic sight words that the students must master before they go to the next grade. In addition to those words, we add others that are relevant to their lives. (approximately 1 word per week) 

•How much time do they allocate to word study?

Word study is a central focus of our curriculum, however the time varies from day to day and unit to unit.

•What word study routines do they teach and encourage their students to use?

New words are introduced in a whole group setting with a picture clue, sometimes a chant/rhyme , sometimes a story or game - depending on the word and how concrete in can be made. The word card is then added to the word wall and reviewed daily during circle time.  I also encourage doing a picture walk before reading the text so that each child can get help from picture clues as he reads. 

•How do they differentiate instruction and tasks based on their students' needs?

During play time the children are asked on an individual basis to identify the sight words. Based on that, we can determine whether some require more 1;1 review, some require more of a multi-sensory approach (tracing, chunking), more clues or tricks to associate the word with its meaning etc. Additionally, our reading series does provide worksheets that offer additional practice and review. Now that we have Smartboards in the classroom, we have more options in multimedia that offer some interactive games for more review (starfall.com etc) that can be done 1:1, or in small groups, and differentiated based on each student's needs.