Reading
We believe that students need daily opportunities to independently read books of their choice, to read more challenging instructional materials with teachers' guidance, and to hear teacher-selected texts read aloud.
In the classroom, reading is taught in a workshop setting with an emphasis on comprehension, fluency and developing critical thinking skills. To that end, students participate in interactive read-alouds and literature discussions, shared and performance reading, independent and guided reading activities, phonics, spelling, vocabulary and word study. Formal and informal reading assessments are conducted throughout the school year. We want all children to read and hear a wide variety of works including fiction, non-fiction, historical fiction, classic and contemporary literature, folk tales and poetry.
Students are taught to 'think about their own thinking' as they read through the skills of predicting, making inferences, identifying the main idea, connecting to the text, and recognizing character, plot and setting. Students read for information for science, technology, global studies and other disciplines.
Reading is a developmental process and a child's reading ability or reading level is not necessarily determined by grade level. Students move through the developmental stages of reading as they gain fluency and become more proficient readers. For a description of these various stages, please reference our Developmental Reading Continuum.