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

2. 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)

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

11. 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?

13. 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

15. 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

17. 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

19. “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.

20. 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 !!!

21. 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!

22. 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?