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It is essential that students
practice reading at home in order to become more proficient at reading.
“In order to become good at anything, one must continually practice.”
The primary instructional
textbook for reading is the Open Court Reading Program (OCR). In
addition to OCR, teachers utilize novels, little readers by Wright Group
and Rigby, and Images magazine published by Houghton Mifflin.
Instruction in the Language Arts content is based upon standards,
indicators, and objectives as defined in the Maryland State Voluntary
State Curriculum. Our teachers also utilize a County Language Arts
Pacing Guide, which is aligned with the Voluntary State Curriculum, to
implement instruction.
There are five main areas of emphasis in
the reading program: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary,
comprehension, and fluency. The goal of our reading program is to
develop confident and fluent readers utilizing print and phonemic
awareness activities. We also want to develop readers who are
constructing meaning by teaching comprehension skills and strategies and
by instructing students on the importance of applying these skills and
strategies independently in oral discussions and in writing.
Our language arts program incorporates writing, language arts skills,
vocabulary, spelling, and penmanship through explicit instruction
providing modeling, then guided practice, leading to independent
application. The high quality of the literature utilized provides the
opportunity for students to explore, research, discuss, and creatively
apply the skills and strategies learned in a thought provoking and
effective manner. Students will be given the tools to decode and
comprehend a variety of literature.
Themes in the Open Court Reading Program include: Universal themes
which encourage in-depth and critical thinking, and research themes
which develop inquiry and research. Our goal is to give students the
tools needed to transfer the skills and strategies learned into all
content areas. Students are required to ask questions as they read,
discuss, research, write about, and think about the topics, concepts,
and ideas introduced in the units they read.
In grades kindergarten through second grade, students are assessed
utilizing Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)
three times during the year. This assessment measures each student’s
ability and progress in the areas of initial sound fluency, letter
naming fluency, phoneme segmentation fluency, nonsense word fluency,
oral reading fluency, retelling fluency, and word use fluency.
In grades two through five, students are assessed utilizing three county
and two school assessments during the year. These assessments are used
to measure progress and to determine the effectiveness of instruction,
as well as prepare our students for the state assessment and life-long
language skills needed to become an effective, life-long reader.
In addition to the above
assessments, periodically students will be given lesson assessments to
determine what areas of a lesson need to be re-taught or need to be
taught utilizing a different mode of instruction.
Instruction in language arts includes
emphasis in the areas of phonics, phonemic awareness, sounds and
letters, word knowledge through the use of authentic literature while
utilizing comprehension skills and strategies, inquiry and
investigation, and practical reading applications. Other areas of
instruction include: spelling, vocabulary, writing process strategies,
writer’s craft, GUM (grammar, usage, and mechanics), listening,
speaking, penmanship, and basic computer skills.
We would also like to invite our school families to attend our Family
Reading Night, which is planned and coordinated by our county reading
resource teacher each year. This fun event is held in October each
year. Parents are given ideas for fun activities which they may use at
home to assist their children with practicing reading skills.
Mary Jo Young
Reading Specialist
County Reading Resource Teacher
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