Kindergarten Reading at PS 11 A parents guide to understanding the Reading Workshop Created by Megan Stein & Crystal Stewart, 2012

What is Reading Workshop? P.S. 11 uses a researched based reading and writing curriculum developed by Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University. Students gain a love of reading and appreciation of books through daily Reading Workshop. During this time, students learn the features of books, concepts of print, decoding, and comprehension skills to help them become successful, lifelong readers. There are many additional reading opportunities throughout the day, such as: read alouds, shared reading, word study. A typical Reading Workshop looks like this: Minilesson with Active Engagement (5-10 minutes) Independent Reading (10-25 minutes) Partner Reading (10-20 minutes) Share (5 minutes)

Differentiation During independent/partner reading time there are ample opportunities for individualized instruction Partner conferences Guided reading groups Strategy lessons Phonological awareness groups Individual conferences/check-ins Reading routines are also differentiated to meet the needs of each learner.

Units of Study Across the Year We Are Readers Exploring the Exciting World of Books Unit 2 Readers Read, Think, and Talk About Emergent Storybooks and Familiar Shared Texts Unit 3 Readers Use Superpowers to Read Everything in the Classroom and Beyond Unit 4 We Can Be Reading Teachers: Teach Yourself and Your Partner to Use All You Know to Read Unit 5 Learning About Ourselves and Our World: Reading for Information Unit 6 Readers Are Brave and Resourceful When We Encounter Hard Words and Tricky Parts in Our Books Unit 7 Readers Get to Know Characters by Pretending and by Performing Our Books

Why We Assess Teachers use many forms of assessment to ensure that they are constantly aware of where your child is performing and how they can best push them to become successful This helps us to identify your child’s strengths and needs and plan appropriate instruction to push them to the next level

Assessments We Use Concepts of print Letter sound identification Sight word identification Running records Conferences Performance tasks Teacher observation

Benchmarks Across the Year Reading Levels Letter Identification/ Sounds By January, students should be able to identify all upper and lowercase letters and most corresponding sounds for consonants By March, students should know all corresponding letter sounds By June, students should be consistently transferring this knowledge into their writing Sight Words By January, students should be able to identify 20 sight words By June, students should be able to identify 35 sight words and begin to spell them independently November January March May/June Emergent Story Books Shared Reading 1 = Emergent/Level A 2 = B with support 3 = B independently 4 = C or above 1 = Early Emergent 2 = A/B (with book intro) 3 = C (with book intro) 4 = D/E 1 = B or below 2 = C (with book intro) 3 = D/E 4 = F or above

Star Books Skills/Strategies Uses the pictures to tell the story Identifies characters and their feelings Develops vocabulary Understands that books tell a story Begins to understand how language sounds when written Uses character voice when reading

Levels A/B Skills/Strategies Uses cover/title/illustrations to get ready to read Uses illustrations as a source of information to figure out words Moves from left to right when reading Uses one to one matching Uses and locates known words Thinks about what makes sense Carries the pattern from one page to the next with prompting

Level C Skills/Strategies Follows multiple lines of print on a page Uses the beginning letters in a word along with meaning to solve an unknown word Independently follows more advanced patterns across pages Begins to read with fluency Retells/summarizes story with important details Begins to implement self monitoring strategies Does is look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?

Level D Skills/Strategies Begins to use eyes, rather than finger, to track print Uses the final and middle letters letters in a word along with meaning to solve an unknown word Continues to self monitor reading Uses more advanced decoding strategies (chunking, looking for a smaller word inside, skip it and go back) Retells and summarizes the story with more detail

Level E Skills/Strategies Notices errors and self corrects using all sources of information Makes inferences about the story Begins to read with even more fluency and phrasing Makes connections to the text Decoding strategies at this level may include: looking for familiar word patterns, changing the vowel sound

Level F Skills/Strategies Recognizes and reads more difficult sight words automatically Reads punctuation Retells and summarizes keeping story events in order Makes inferences about story content with a clear explanation Makes explicit connections to the text with supportive evidence Uses a multitude of decoding strategies

“But my child can read Harry Potter!” Reading is the of process making meaning of written text Decoding vs. Reading Word callers often focus so much on letters and decoding that they are unable to fully comprehend the text (therefore, they are not actually “reading”). In order to really be able to read higher level texts, students must clearly be able to identify plot, setting, key characters, complex themes, character relationships, etc.

The Importance of Rereading Each time we read, we can read with a different lens. Students can focus on: Fluency Word recognition Comprehension Building confidence as a reader Thinking about different characters Sharing ideas with partners Learning something new E N J O Y M E N T !!!

Supporting Your Child at Home Read every night—”Just Right” books and storybooks Practice reading sight words Work with your child on comprehending what they have read Coach your child to use “word tackling strategies” Read everything you see!

Comprehension Questions Sight Words Comprehension Questions Look at the cover and predict. What might this book be about? What happened in the story? Who are the characters in the story? How did this story make you feel? What was your favorite/least favorite part? Why? Who was your favorite character? Why?