Hello everyone!
Today you will see your student bringing home a small packet
of work from our morning “literacy” time.
This is independent work that represents much thinking.
Although we tend to define literacy as reading and writing
in our culture, literacy consists of seven psychological processes: reading,
writing, thinking, speaking, listening, viewing, and calculating. Most facets of adulthood and life-long
learning consist of being able in effectively engage in all of these processes. In addition, reading and writing are highly
interconnected; one is reading while writing; those who can write a word
independently can also read it. So, the more writing we can overlap with
reading, the faster students learn to do both.
During our morning literacy hour, the students are engaging
in most of the psychological processes of literacy. Every day they will read, both teacher
selected and self-selected texts.
On Monday, we engage in shared (interactive) reading of a text where we
make predictions, learn expanded concept vocabulary, and think about author
intent (just to name a few). We also
will read and learn a poem each week.
These two whole class learnings become two of the four learning
activities your child will complete each week as they rotate through literacy
centers. One day, they will respond to
the poem, and locate key words within the poem; another day they will engage
with the story of the week (such as identifying problem/solution); another day
they will engage with non-fiction texts, (such as a Scholastic News or other
content book); and one day they will observe science artifacts or works of art
then write about them. They will also be
reading many different books during this time.
All of this work is independent – so it may not be absolutely perfect –
but we do expect the best from each child.
Also during this time, your child will receive small group instruction
in reading at their rate and level to help target in on their needs as a
learner. The goal is to meet 3-4 times a
week in small group. With this model,
your child will engage with a variety of texts, receive small group
instruction, and increase their stamina in both reading and writing. We also have
a 30 minute quiet reading time in the afternoon.
We also have buddy reading time with third grade! Take a peek:
So much learning is happening in first grade – thanks for
all of the support from home!
