Reader's Workshop
During Reader's Workshop, students will learn how to build reading stamina during read to self and partner read. Students will learn various reading strategies to help them become super readers. Students will also learn 3 ways to read a book: read the pictures, read the words, retell the story. As we go through the reading units students will build their reading skills and reading super powers. Students have "Book Boxes" that contain books of their interest as well as books at their individual reading level. When students read these books they can read the words or read the pictures. These books will also be used during 1:1 lessons or small group lessons with the teacher or another adult. Books will be sent home at your child's reading level each week. It is very important your child is practicing using their super powers when reading.
· In unit 1 we will talk about environmental print and reading about the world. Students will learn about the different parts of a book - front cover, back cover, title page, author and illustrator. Readers learn how reading old favorite story books help them learn the words, put the pages together and make their voice sound like the characters. We use several old favorites and introduce some new favorites. One of our favorites is Three Billy Goats Gruff. We will even make puppets and act out the story in small groups!
· In unit 2 we will talk about looking, pointing and reading everything we can. We introduce the super powers - point to each word once and only once, read sight words in a snap, make the first sound match the printed first letter, don't give up, change your voice to match the character and reading the punctuation. We are going to put all these super powers together to become super readers.
· In unit 3 we will talk about tackling more challenging books by using our super powers. New super powers introduced include - using the pattern, check your reading, letter-sound knowledge, look at the end of words, picture power, making predictions and rereading. All of these super powers give students a great foundation for beginning reading. We practice and use all of these super powers on a daily basis.
· In unit 4 we will talk about finding just-right books. These are books that the student can read mostly on their own but still have a few things to work on throughout the story - not too easy, not too hard but just right. We will also explore nonfiction texts as well as poetry in this unit.
