Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling

LETRS

 This year my ICDP focus is on reading instruction.  Our district goal is to have at least 80% of our students reading at grade level each year. Based on the spring benchmark data for first grade, all of my students entered second grade as “persistently at-risk” in reading.  I know that my core instruction must address phonological awareness (including phonemic awareness), decoding, and sight recognition with more intensity than in the past. 

 

I am currently enrolled in the LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) professional development course with several other teachers in our building.  I am excited to participate in a study group with them, and I look forward to going through the learning process together.   My research will focus on word recognition, which is the topic of the first four units of the course.  I am also using the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Program, Sounding Out Spelling Words, and Equipped for Reading Success as resources for instructional activities and strategies.

 

I am confident that by focusing on the word recognition skills of phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition, I will see improvement in reading accuracy and fluency.  As a participant of the LETRS training, I will complete a case study of three specific students in class, but as a classroom teacher, I am excited to help all of my students grow as readers.

Really Great Reading

 I am focusing on implementing the program “Really Great Reading” for my ICDP for this year. I chose this because it is something brand new that I have not used before. The school purchased this program over the summer and it was used during summer school.

I am excited to learn this program because it is “all there.” It will not require me to search for activities and lessons to help my struggling readers – the program is all laid out in sequential order.

I love that the program follows a scope and sequence so no aspect of acquiring reading skills will be missed. The lessons are fast-paced, have simple structure and are repetitive – perfect for the Title I reading setting.

I am excited to learn this program and hope I am successful in using it to help my students become better readers. Our school goal is to have 80% of students reading at grade level and I am hoping Really Great Reading will help achieve that.

Small Group Reading

Royalty Free Photo of a Teacher and Student Reading. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 01-09-2009, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=193745&tl=photos. Accessed 20-09-2021.

I have chosen to focus on small groups in reading...again!  This continues to be a frustrating endeavor for me because of time and behavior management issues.  As a kindergarten teacher, I train kids to a degree I think my expectations are quite clear.  However, in reality, I get about two minutes of quality instruction before the decibel level is unacceptable.  I also feel like my small group instruction is good, but maybe I could get better results if I landed on the right routines and instruction.  I'm hopeful I have been led to the perfect thing.

This summer when I taught summer school, I was asked to use How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction by Sharon Walpole and Michael C. McKenna.  I used the program with 3rd graders, but it is intended for K-3.  My plan is to use the interventions in this book, along with the readers from my reading series, to meet the needs of all of my students.  I am still working on a plan for what the rest of my class will be doing, but I am planning to have at least three groups as I only have 11 kids right now.

My BIG WHY for wanting to work on my small group instruction is because I feel like kindergarteners have a hard time meeting benchmark by the end of the year.  Most of the students reach benchmark in the Fall and Winter, but Spring seems to be hard to reach for many of them.  I feel like my whole group instruction is solid, although I know there is always room for improvement, but small groups are where I feel I need the most improvement.  I will know if my small group changes are working if I can keep 80% or more of my kids at benchmark by the end of the year.

Engaging Reluctant Readers

Jess was working this year on engaging reluctant readers.  She tried some one-on-one conferencing as well as independent reading everyday.  Check out her thoughts on her blog.

https://cnreluctantreaders.blogspot.com/