Language Arts & Reading

Every week we have whole group Language Arts time and small-group guided reading time. During Language Arts students learn important skills in grammar, phonemic awareness, listening to and reading literature, and writing. These skills are then practiced through interactive activities and extended to our thematic unit.

• Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

• Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

• Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

• Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

• Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.

• Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

• With guidance, demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.

• Recognize common types of texts.

Guided Reading Groups

In guided reading groups students learn foundational reading skills through word work activities and teacher-led practice. They are placed in groups based on their current reading abilities and what new concepts they are ready for. Age does not play a role in their groupings, this is based solely on the child and their own pace.

Writing

Most guided writing is done on Thursdays, although we do occasionally incorporate it into a thematic unit.

• Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts.

• Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.

• Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic.