English/Literacy

Lower School

The literacy curriculum is built around genre and craft studies which last four to six weeks. Recognizing that different strategies and thinking skills are required to demonstrate competence in different genres, students are exposed to multiple genres throughout the reading and writing program. During a particular genre study, students are immersed in the genre and given explicit instruction in reading and/or writing within that genre.

Reading

A critically important feature of the Wooster Lower School reading program is the interactive circle of teacher, students, and literature. Students thrive when they truly understand and appreciate the value of good literature. They are exposed to literature through read aloud, independent reading, literature circles, and class readings of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. As active learners, students work together in a literate community telling stories, listening to tales, discussing others’ ideas, responding to and interpreting their readings, and collaborating on projects.

The single most effective way to instill a love of reading in children is to read aloud to them. Students in kindergarten through fifth grade are read to daily at Wooster. It is an essential part of the Lower School curriculum. The titles are chosen because they are theme-related, deal with issues of substance which provide fuel for a thoughtful discussion, or illustrate well a reading strategy being studied. The read aloud provides an instrumental teaching time when the faculty models reading strategies that the students then incorporate into their own independent reading work. Teachers employ specific reading strategies as students move toward reading proficiency; these include asking questions, making connections, synthesizing information, visualizing, determining importance, making inferences, and repairing comprehension.

Every student is expected to read or be read to nightly. In the primary grades as readers are emerging, teachers confer with the students to choose a book for homework which is at the student's independent reading level. In the upper elementary grades a wide range of nightly reading material is provided and encouraged.

Appropriate grammar concepts, dictionary skills, phonemic awareness, and vocabulary development are woven into the reading curriculum, with the literary works themselves providing context. The focus on these important skills and concepts is on-going and recursive, helping students learn how to read and how to make meaning of what they read.

Writing

In the language-rich environment of the Lower School, writing is respected and engenders students’ respect for peers as authors. Youngsters are encouraged to write about the details of their own lives rather than retelling the popular adventures of superheroes or the romanticized stories they see on television. They are expected to write about their ideas creatively and analytically, always probing for meaning.

Through author and genre studies, students learn to craft their own writing. These experiences heighten their awareness of the power of language. Students at all levels study the works of their classroom authors and listen critically to the voices of the writers.

Students in grades two through five use a Writer's Notebook as a tool for thinking and exploring ideas. The Writer's Notebook is a collection of entries in which students experiment with the writing strategies taught in class and modeled by published authors. This notebook is the source of seed ideas for writing pieces, which are carried through the writing process. The management and complexity of a Writer's Notebook is a developmental progression through the grades.

Revising, editing, and publishing are important stages of the writing process. In revision, students learn to revisit their pieces, looking at them through different lenses. As they edit their work, students are expected to focus on the proper application of grade level writing mechanics. At the end of each writing cycle, student work is published and celebrated.

Word Study

The study of words, word patterns, and generalizations of the English language begins in kindergarten and continues through fifth grade. There is a logical progression of gradually expanding knowledge, which builds upon the strength which students exhibit in the spoken language.

The word study continuum for students in kindergarten and first grade includes lessons in nine different areas of learning: early literacy concepts, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, letter/sound relationships, spelling patterns, high frequency words, word meaning, word structure, and word-solving actions. Classroom teachers provide individual and/or small group instruction during the literacy period of the day as well as during the morning meeting. The ultimate goal of the word study program is achieved when students are able to accurately transfer the knowledge learned during word study lessons to their independent reading and writing. Strong readers and writers are able to apply their knowledge of our language system independently.

Words Their Way by Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, and Johnston is the guiding text for word study in grade two through five. Students examine words, explore their patterns, and reflect on how words are organized. Students are given a collection of words to study and examine each week that illustrates a particular spelling pattern. In addition to these words, the teachers expect each student to work toward mastery of the commonly misspelled words that continue to appear in their writing. At Wooster, these are called Lifetime Words. By second grade students know that spelling should not distract readers from attending to the ideas, questions, and memories which the author is putting on paper. Each child’s spelling should reflect his/her level of literacy and developmental stage.

Handwriting

Wooster students are taught the D'Nealian form of manuscript and cursive writing. Early in the kindergarten year students focus on a variety of pre-writing skills which strengthen fine motor development and the tensile strength in the fingers. Kinesthetic activities which support directionality and the basic handwriting strokes lay a strong foundation for the work done in kindergarten and first grade to produce consistently accurate and proportional letters and numbers. Students are encouraged to use all lowercase letters until they have mastered the appropriate uppercase letters and understand when to utilize them. The 'tails' at the end of the D'Nealian manuscript letters lead easily into cursive which is taught in third grade. Fourth grade is a transition year; students produce about half of their work in cursive. By fifth grade, all written work must be completed in cursive.

Kindergarten

WRITING

Unit One - Writerly Life

Rationale: Students see themselves as authors and believe that they have stories to tell. They learn the rituals and routines of the Writer's Workshop. They choose topics, the emphasis being on true experiences from their own lives, and then draw or write as best they can to make their page match their ideas. Students come to understand that writing can be done through pictures and/or words. They assemble several pages of writing together to create a book.

Unit Two – Everyday Writing

Rationale: Students recognize that writing has a significant place in their everyday life. They recognize that different kids of writing exist in the classroom, the school, their homes, and the world. Students learn that writers write for many different purposes. They explore different types of writing and discover authentic purposes for their own writing: making a birthday card for a friend, writing out a grocery list, placing a sign on a special block structure. Students see that writing serves a purpose and can be used to communicate important ideas.

Unit Three – Personal Narrative

Rationale: Students learn to value the tiny moments of their lives and realize that many of our best stories come from personal experiences. Students create a memory box using concrete objects from home. These objects are tangible reminders of special events or personal experiences. Initially through story telling and eventually using inventive and conventional spelling, the children write their own personal narrative.

Unit Four - Nonfiction

Rationale: Students learn how nonfiction books are different than fiction books. Students learn that nonfiction writing can be used to teach others about the world. Students recognize that they are experts on certain topics. They then write their own "How to Book" that will sequentially describe how to do something.

Unit Five – Revision Study

Students recognize that writing can be changed and improved after a first draft. They recognize that the order of sentences can be shifted to improve the flow of their writing and make their ideas clearer to the reader. Students are encouraged to look for ways to change individual words to better convey their ideas. With support, students talk about ideas within a personal narrative which need more development or would be appropriately omitted.

Unit Six – Author Study

Rationale: Students recognize that they are writers, just like many of their favorite authors. They learn that other writers can help them to become better writers by serving as mentors. Students learn what it means to use a mentor author. Students look closely at the work of Donald Crews and explore how he lives as a writer, what themes he tends to write about, and especially his crafting techniques. Students use this information to write their own pieces and actively try out the crafting techniques of Donald Crews.

Unit Seven - Poetry

Rationale: Students learn that poetry is different from narrative writing in the following ways: rhyming pattern, rhythm, language, structure, and length. Through the exploration of published poems the children begin to notice for themselves the differences between poetry and prose. Students are exposed to a variety of poems and discover that poetry can be about any topic. Students learn about the 3 R’s of poetry: rhyme, rhythm, and repetition. Students write their own poems and practice playing with rhyme, rhythm, repetition, and white space.

Unit Eight – Writing Projects

Rationale: After a year of working and learning as writers, students will have a chance to take all that they have learned and choose their own independent writing project. This reaffirms to the students that they are writers with ideas of their own and gives them the opportunity to imagine and pursue their own writing projects.

READING

Unit One - Developing Good Reading Habits

Rationale: Initially, students learn about the different members of our reading community by sharing their favorite books brought from home. This sharing establishes a strong home-school link and brings the joy of comfort and familiarity to those first days of school. During the initial weeks of school students also learn the routines and rituals of our Reading Workshop. They begin to adopt the habits of good readers even though most are not yet reading conventionally. Students begin to see themselves as "readers" whether they are telling a story through pictures, retelling it from memory, or beginning to decode the words. Students are introduced to the classroom library and learn how to select books as well as how to put them back in the appropriate baskets when finished. Rich, engaging books are read and reread during shared reading. These texts promote a sense of being part of a reading community, help to support concepts of print, demonstrate literary language, support directionality, build phonemic awareness, and, most of all, instill a love of books.

Unit Two - Reading with Pictures and Patterns

Rationale: The students are exposed to many highly predictable Big Books. Students learn to read simple, predictable texts by using their knowledge of the way these books are structured. Students are also exposed to many pattern books and begin to see that once they learn the pattern of the text, they are able to read the whole book. Students understand that pattern books have ideas, words, sentences, or phrases that repeat. Using familiar texts, students learn to look closely at the details in pictures to help them orally retell the story. By looking closely at the details in pictures, and by drawing on what they know of the story structure, children learn to retell a familiar story using their own words. Over time and through repeated exposure to favorite books, students learn to incorporate much of the story's familiar language into their retelling.

Unit Three - Learning the Leveled Library

Rationale: Students learn that books in the kindergarten classroom library are carefully organized in several different ways. In addition to the now familiar "theme" baskets which are organized by author or subject matter, the students learn that there is a part of the classroom library that is organized by the level of text difficulty. The students learn how to use the leveled library to help them find texts that are "just right" for them as a reader. Students learn the specific characteristics which make a particular text "too easy", "too difficult", or "just right". Students preview texts at the end of the reading workshop and self-select the reading material for the following day.

Unit Four - Reading Strategies

Rationale: Students learn various reading strategies to employ when they are struggling in their reading. They take strategies modeling during our shared reading period and use them in their independent reading. Students may be conventionally reading texts or continuing to read familiar, shared texts. Everyone practices strategies for reading difficult text: picture clues, one-to-one voice to print matching, left to right directionality, initial and final consonant sounds.

Unit Five - Focus on Comprehension

Rationale: Students learn that the pictures and the text should support each other or "match". They learn that they can use the pictures to help them figure out unknown text. Students learn that reading should make sense. They are reminded to stop and reread as soon as they become confused by what they have read or realize that the story line no longer makes sense. Students learn that if they are unable to make sense of the story, even if they are able to read all of the words, the text is too difficult for them as a reader.

Unit Six - Partnership Reading.

Rationale: Students learn how to be a good reading partner through explicit teaching of what a good reading partner does and through daily opportunities to practice these ideas in a partnership. Students learn how to sit with a partner, how to take turns choosing books, how to hold a book with a partner, how to decide the manner of reading with a partner, and how to "help" their partner.

Unit Seven - Introducing Book Talk

Rationale: Students learn to talk about books that they are reading with their partner: making comments, sharing ideas, asking questions, making predictions, and expressing connections. This reinforces for children the idea that through shared reading experiences we can think about ideas. During shared reading, teachers model the way readers talk about text, stopping to make connections between texts, between the text and ourselves, or between the text and the world. Students also learn the phrase "I think" and learn the importance of sharing their ideas with others.

Unit Eight - Reflecting and Planning Ahead

Rationale: Students reflect on their reading life throughout the year. They are encouraged to think about their reading skills in September and acknowledge the growth they have made. Students learn to make plans for themselves as readers which will support their need through the summer.

WORD STUDY

Recognizing names

Hearing rhymes

Learning lower and upper case letters

Hearing words in sentences

Hearing syllables

Saying words slowly to hear sounds

Hearing beginning sounds

Using letter sound analysis

Hearing ending sounds

Beginning consonant letters and sounds

Making rhymes

Beginning consonant letters and sounds

Noticing word families

Making new words by changing the first letter

Blending syllables

Hearing and blending onsets and rimes

Learning letter names and sounds

Matching word by word

Hearing middle sounds

Hearing sounds in sequence

Learning simple plurals

Changing first and last letters to make new words

Hearing saying and deleting beginning sounds

Understanding alphabetical order

Learning the initials for names

Recognizing syllables

Using known words to solve new words

1^st Grade

WRITING

Unit One - Living a Writerly Life

Rationale: Students are encouraged to see themselves as writers; people with a story to tell. The goal is for the children to know that the oral stories they tell every day make them writers. Emphasis is placed on the true moments of their lives. Rituals and structures of the Writer's Workshop are a large part of this study as well. Students learn and practice the good habits of writers; good writers choose their own topics, write about what they know, observe the world around them, tell stories by talking, writing, and drawing the best they can, and write a lot.

Unit Two - Writing for Different Purposes

Rationale: In this study, children are exposed to forms of writing other than stories. These different forms depend on the writer's purpose. For example, if you don't like what mom packed you for lunch, a letter would be the best way to express yourself. The class examines how these genres look and sound different. Students come to know that writing does not just happen at writing time. Writing is regarded as part of their whole lives.

Unit Three - Writing Conventions

Rationale: This unit of study focuses on the importance of writing in a way that others can read. This is done mainly through shared classroom texts: poems, big books, and environmental print, interactive writing, and the word study program. The class looks closely at the conventions of writing.

Unit Four- Small Moments

Rationale: In this study, the class considers how writers value the tiny moments from their lives and then make a story out of them. The technique of "zooming in" on the most important part of the event moves children away from their inclination to tell "bed-to-bed" stories. The children are encouraged to bring out their feelings, and by doing so, become more reflective about themselves. Skills that are taught in this study are focus, detail, writing with a sense of story, and identifying and expanding the beginning, middle, and end of the moment. There is ongoing work in hearing and recording sounds, leaving spaces between words, rereading one’s own words, and being a risk-taker with spelling.

Unit Five - Author Study

Rationale: As a writer, it is extremely important to look at other writers and see what they are doing. Students look closely at one writer's life and craft. The ultimate goal is for the students to write using some of the author's crafting techniques in their own writing. At this point in the year, the children are taken through the writing process step-by-step.

Unit Six - Nonfiction

Rationale: This is an important unit of study as it speaks to the many children who thrive on their knowledge of facts. It builds on their natural curiosity about the world. Their eagerness to pose as experts makes this unit very exciting. The children self-select topics of personal interest. They brainstorm topics, organize their knowledge, and research through interviews and books. Students look closely at the text characteristics of nonfiction books. They also study different nonfiction structures and choose one to emulate.

Unit Seven - A Study of Craft

Rationale: The class examines texts to look at different authors' craft. The children learn to examine and describe things in a different way than just "telling like it is".

Unit Eight – Independent Writing Goals

Rationale: This unit expands upon the earlier studies of first grade. The students write a more developed story of an important event, moment, or time in their lives. They consider their strengths as writers and how they would like to improve their writing..

LIFETIME WORDS

after, and, are, before, does, each, for, from, have, how, little, look, make, more, off, one, only, out, put, some, that, then, these, this, want, was, went, which, why, you/your, been, come/came, said, say/says, there, they, use, very/every, were, who/what/when/where/ why, with

READING

Unit One - Building the Habits of Good Readers

Rationale: In this study, the children are becoming reacquainted with the routines of the Reading Workshop. Mini-lessons focus on classroom routines such as book handling, the library system, and conferencing etiquette. The students explore the various habits of good readers through shared reading and read-aloud texts. They then explore themselves as readers and learn to identify too easy, just right, and challenge books. Formal partnerships are formed and the practices of good partnerships identified.

Unit Two - Strategies for Decoding Texts

Rationale: Students learn various print strategies. They practice these strategies as a class as well as in partnerships. The three cueing systems are taught to help the children utilize graphophonics, semantics, and syntax.

Unit Three - Strategies to Scaffold Reading

Rationale: Students are taught their "jobs" as a reader. Through the prereading, during reading, and post-reading study, students are expected to build knowledge about the text so that they may utilize that knowledge for more comprehensive reading.

Unit Four - Retell

Rationale: In this unit of study the students move beyond the emphasis on print strategies and focus on the importance of reading with understanding. Students are also encouraged to attend to the details of the text.

Unit Five - Nonfiction

Rationale: In this unit of study, students have an opportunity to read with peers who share their interest, but may not necessarily be on the same reading level. In reading centers, the children are grouped according to their own interests in order to pursue knowledge about a particular topic. Mini-lessons focus on gaining information about a topic by looking at the text features of nonfiction books and learning how these features support readers' comprehension. These nonfiction reading centers invite collaboration and conversation, which in turn, support thoughtful and active reading.

Unit Six - Building Comprehension by Talking About Books

Rationale: Beginning readers often become absorbed in decoding their texts. This study is a time to work steadily on the other aspect of reading; comprehension. A major focus of this study is to teach the children how to pay attention as they read to yield good conversation and how to then respond to texts. This is done primarily through partnerships and book talk groups. The children become aware of what comprehension is and how to achieve better comprehension.

Unit Seven - Character Study

Rationale: This is an opportunity for the class to focus on one aspect of text. By looking at a character in-depth, the children are able to make deeper connections to their books. The children reflect on how characters are like themselves or like someone they know. This heightened awareness adds a deeper layer to the previous study on comprehension.

Unit Eight - Individual Reading Goals

Rationale: This study is driven primarily by the needs of the students. It gives them a chance to focus on specific skills that are needed, such as fluency, expression, or comprehension. Like the character study, other elements of text may also be considered to enhance the reading skills of the students. This study can be done through reading centers, author studies, or other genres. The students devise a rubric of what makes a good reader and place themselves on the rubric. They then set individual reading goals.

WORD STUDY

Consonant Sorts

Initial and Final Consonants: b, d, f, g, h, j, k, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z

All Short Vowels

Long Vowel (Magic e Patterns)

Short Vowel Phonograms: *ank,, *ink, *unk, *onk

Short Vowel Phonograms: *ing, *ong, *ung, *ang

L Blends: bl, pl, fl, gl, cl

R Blends: br, gr, cr, dr, fr, tr, pr

S Blends: sc, st, sk, sm, sn, sw, sp

Initial Digraphs: ch, sh, th, wh

Final Digraphs: ch, sh, th

Introduce Plurals: s and es

Endings: s, es, ing

Introduce Contractions and "Not Contractions"

Compound and "Not compound Words"

R-Controlled Vowels: er, ir, ur

Introduce R-Controlled Vowels: ar, or

Long a Sound Patterns: ai, ay

Long e Vowel Patterns: ee, ea, e

Long o Vowel Patterns: oa, ow, oe

Triple Blends and Digraphs: scr, shr, spr, squ, str, thr

le-Endings: ble, fle, dle, gle, kle, ple, zle

2^nd Grade

WRITING

Unit One – Introduction to a Writer’s Notebook

Rationale: The students are introduced to the idea that writers use a notebook as a tool to help them better their written word. This tool will hold their ideas for later use. They will continue to use a folder, yet the notebook will take on a life of its own, making ways for them to keep track of and build their thoughts. There is the management and the content of a notebook to consider.

Unit Two- Personal Narrative

Rationale: This unit directly builds on the earlier story telling unit as each writer finds new stories to share. Basic story elements are crucial to this study, while the structure of the piece may vary from the simple beginning, middle, and end, the sophisticated flashback, or a string of small moments in a sequential manner with time influencing each moment. The students experience the stages of the writing cycle for the first time, working together on each stage as a class.

Unit Three: Conventions and Sentence Structure

Rationale: This study gives the students a chance to focus on the conventions of good writing. Therefore, the writers will engage in writing exercises that promote an awareness of basic capitalization, punctuation, and age appropriate grammar.

Unit Four: Nonfiction

Rationale: Non-narrative and nonfiction texts allow students to pursue personal interests and research a nonfiction topic using a variety of strategies. Non-narrative texts give information through story, either personal experience or reliable resources, categorized by one topic with a few main points that support the main idea. The students are able to utilize various aspects of nonfiction texts such as the glossary and table of contents, captions, bold print words, the basics of categorizing information through paragraphs, etc. Illustrations are more of a focus in this study as nonfiction material relies heavily on a variety of diagrams, pictures, charts, and symbols. Each child publishes one piece in either genre. The children revisit and build upon their repertoire of nonfiction characteristics from first grade.

Unit Five: Revision

Rationale: The craft of writing is the cauldron in which the writing is forged. This craft unit will develop the young writers’ critical eye toward their own writing. The idea that writers use craft to make changes will open the world of rereading as a writer and not just a reader. Writers revisit their work by rereading and looking for places in need of change, as well as, trying out strategies in new entries. Mentor texts and student generated texts will be used to identify specific strategies and author intention.

Unit Six: Writing About Reading

Rationale: This study allows the students to gather and utilize prior information about finding the main idea and understory of a text. Linking the reading and writing connection gives the students a chance to demonstrate what they can do with their accumulated knowledge about story and self. They are regularly asked to respond in short jottings and on charts, to locate the main idea, to look for reoccurring themes in their reading. Students are expected to write longer about an idea using examples and specific lines from texts that support their ideas. The students utilize the social action reading unit as an avenue to generate ideas for their writing. The students write with an opinion, and focus on one issue at a time. Students think about their own views of an issue in the world and how it affects who they are.

Unit Seven: Poetry

Rationale: During this study students can focus on the meaning of a piece and not worry about punctuation, capitalization, or length. Structure is fun to explore and yet the writer needs to hear the rhythm of the poem before he/she can add verses and white space. Meaning is at the heart of this study, requiring the writers to stretch their imaginations about topics to record in poetic form. Mentor authors assist the writers with ideas and the strategy of specificity. Strong verbs and succinct phrases are key pieces to poetry which the students try when revising their work. By engaging in poetry centers the students experience poetry from a variety of stances. Some poets use illustration to help create the image while others use rhythm and repetition to write. Students see poetry as a gift of words and help spread the gift to others.

Unit Eight: Writing Project and Setting New Goals

Rationale: This study builds independence in the students. They rely on their past experiences with literature and units of study for project ideas. The project should show stamina, the ability to create new ideas, and manage one's time. A calendar will be used as a way to help the students stay focused and accountable for each stage of this study. The students are being asked to outgrow themselves, accept a challenge, and work independently. The students need to take direction from general mini-lessons and, at times, the students are asked to give a mini-lesson if they used a strategy from a prior unit of study.

WRITING MECHANICS

Capitalization

Titles of works

The pronoun I

First words in a sentence

Personal titles

Proper nouns: people, animals, places, months, days and holidays

Punctuation

Ending marks with declarative sentences, interrogative sentences, exclamations, and imperatives

Commas for items in a series

Underlining of titles

Periods with abbreviated months, days, and titles

Commas in dates, letters, and addresses

Apostrophes with possessives

Grammar and Usage

Regular and irregular plurals

Pronouns of subjects

Agreement of subject and verbs

Run-on sentences

Sentence fragments

Regular and irregular past tense

Order of pronouns

Pronoun use with direct objects

LIFETIME WORDS

been, come/came, said, say/says, there, they, use, very/every, were, what, who/what/when/where/why, with, about, again, animal, any/many, are/our, ask/asked, both, could/would/should, down, feel/felt, gone, great, house, keep, live/ give, myself, none/done, number, once, other, over, sure, time, to/too/two, word, water, where, your/you’re, because, friend

READING

Unit One – Story Elements Build Comprehension

Rationale: At the start of the semester, students are asked to develop a working understanding of their own reading level in order to determine what a 'just right’ text is for them. We review from first grade how to determine a ‘just right’ text. The children set-up reading places for themselves in the classroom and at home. The spaces allow the students to do their best reading; quiet, comfy, free of distractions, and equipped with post-its, pencils, bookmarks, and favorite books. Students review story elements such as setting, scene, character, plot, conflict, and resolution. As a group they identify and label the story elements on charts for our read-aloud and then begin to do the same for their partnership reading. "Say Something" is introduced as a way to respond to text and identify story elements. Students engage in book talks, emphasizing depth of response as the partners work together to identify the story elements as they occur in the book. Body language is an essential part to all conversation. Setting routines and rituals in Readers’ Workshop is important.

Unit Two - Responding to Text Orally

Rationale: Students understand the large variety of responses to texts: retell in multi-levels, prediction, text-to-text, text-to-self, questions, and sometimes an answer. They are not expected to master these ways, simply explore the differences in order to try a range and not just one type of response. As the unit progresses, students are able to label their responses and make short term goals to try different ways of responding. It is important to notice the way characters are similar or different and why texts in a series tend to go the same way in plot and style of story, etc. Students are expected to try a variety of conversation starters: I think, I agree, I disagree, I wonder, I am adding onto, etc. The students move into partnerships and use this knowledge of response on a daily basis in partner book talk.

Unit Three - Responding to Text in Writing

Rationale: The idea of responding to reading in writing was introduced in first grade. Response through Stop and Jot happens on post-it notes and notebook paper. Charts begin once the students are able to jot down meaningful thoughts on a daily and nightly basis. The post-it notes help students hold their thoughts over a period of time. This aids with comprehension and sequencing. Retelling important parts of a chapter is important to later work where students will follow a character's moves or the events in a story. The charts serve a purpose for stronger partnership work and accountability. Partners can see what each other is thinking. If there is a misunderstanding or confusion about a specific part of the story, the readers are expected to return to that passage to reread and discuss the misunderstanding.

Unit Four: Nonfiction Reading

Rationale: In this study, readers become adept at using the table of contents and accustom themselves to skimming over parts that are not of interest or necessary for understanding. Building vocabulary through context is an essential component of this study. The beauty of this genre study is that the partnerships need not be based on reading ability but rather on interest. Two partners can read about the same subject yet in different texts. This way the daily book talk is pertinent to each reader. The readers are still working on building the same reading skill at varying levels.

Unit Five - Character Study

Rationale: Characters change in a text and affect the story and our thinking. In order for a deeper understanding of a character and his/her motives, one must be able to understand why he/she did what he/she did. The students chart notations about the action of a character, wonder why he/she did it, and the reaction to the action. This lifts the level of comprehension and inferential thinking. To walk in a character's shoes means to put aside your own thinking and be that character. There is no disagreeing with the character's motives unless one is discussing how he/she feels as a reader. This is a developmental stage and an introduction to looking at characters in this very grown up way. Students keep track of one character through action and response to other characters. A variety of charts are used: Venn Diagram, U-chart, T-chart, and Time line.

Unit Six - Identifying Social Themes In Texts

Rationale: This is a comprehension unit focusing on social themes or issues in texts. Students learn to identify, label, and follow throughout a book or across multiple books, poems, and songs, major themes or issues that the author writes about. Students reread and examine old texts as well as new ones, paying close attention to the issues with which the characters are dealing in their everyday lives. Students look for issues and themes that run throughout the story and at the actions or events in the story that support or are examples of the issues. Students learn that the issues that the characters in the stories struggle with are issues that may be relevant to their own lives as well.

Unit Seven - Poetry

Rationale: Fluency, meaning, and motion are lively and reactive ways to respond to poetry. Reading the work of a variety of poets aids the readers when discussing a specific poet's work. Students work in small groups, making decisions as to how to manipulate the words in a poem in order to hear the rhythm and poet's voice. Students keep a poetry folder of their work and strategies they may create out of their partnership work. Students have the opportunity to experience poetry through movement, illustration, voice, choral, echo, and repetitive reading.

Unit Eight - Independent Reading Projects

Rationale: Projects are selected and researched by topic or author. These projects are done independently, although the students have a partner. The peer partner aids in a variety of ways: stamina, accountability, idea gathering, and clarity. Each student must present the information in a written form as well as verbally. The projects should be innovative and reflective of newly learned information, such as comparing characters, how series are similar or different, how events effect a story, etc.

WORD STUDY

Review short vowel sounds. Review blends: bl, pl, fl, gl, cl, br, gr, cr, dr, fr, tr, pr, sc, st, sk, sm, sn, sp, sw.

Short a and long a: a_e pattern.

Short e and long e: e_e pattern.

Short i and long i: i_e pattern.

Short o and long o: o_e pattern.

Short u and long u: u_e pattern.

Review initial and final digraphs: ch, sh, wh, th, in long and short vowel words.

Long a sound patterns: ai, ay, ei, a_e.

Long e sound patterns: ee, ea, e_e.

Long i sound patterns: igh, y, i_e.

Long o patterns: oa, ow, o_e.

Long u patterns: ue, ui, u_e.

Short vowel phonograms: an, ap, ack, ank, ash, at, all.

Short vowel phonograms: est, ell, en, et, ent, end.

Short vowel phonograms: ick, ill, in, ing, ink, ip, it.

Short vowel phonograms: ock, op, ot, og.

Short vowel phonograms: uck, ug, ump, unk.

R-controlled vowels: ar, er, ir, or, ur.

Singular and plural nouns with some "irregular" nouns.

Endings: doubled final consonants for ed and ing verbs.

sounds of the ed endings: ed (dated), d (tried), t (mixed).

Contractions.

Compound words.

Vowel diphthongs: oo/moo, oo/book, oy, oi, ew, ui, ow/cow, ou, au, aw, al.

Silent consonants: gn_, kn_, wr_, mb.

Sound-alike endings: _ck, _ke, _k, _ch, _tch, _ge, _dge.

Multi-syllabic words and syllabication work

3^rd Grade

WRITING

Unit One - Launching a Writing Workshop

Rationale: Writers learn the rituals and structures of the Writer's Workshop and learn to experience the joy of thinking of themselves as real writers. They carry their writers’ notebooks with them both at school and at home, allowing them to record entries wherever and whenever they are inspired to do so.

Unit Two - Writing with Focus

Rationale: Using personal narratives as a vehicle, students learn to write with clarity by "zooming in" on the most important parts of their stories. They learn techniques to invite the readers to experience their stories almost as if they were there firsthand, by producing a "snapshot" of a moment in time.

Unit Three - Craft and Conventions

Rationale: Writers explore editing strategies that enable them to enhance their writing. Using a new or previously written piece, students first reread to check for clarity of subject matter, then for truth and structure, finally deciding which revision strategies would be most effective to better their piece of writing.

Unit Four - Historical Fiction

Rationale: In this unit, students will plan, develop, and write a short piece of historical fiction, synthesizing the knowledge gained from reading about colonial times. Using the story elements studied thus far, they will develop characters and make time lines of possible plots.

Unit Five - Memoir

Rationale: Students build upon what they previously learned using various craft techniques to translate the emotions evoked through their remembering to the written page. Writers accomplish this by identifying common characteristics while studying published memoirs, and then by applying these characteristics to a story taken from their own lives.

Unit Six - Poetry

Rationale: The third grade students become a community of poetry lovers, appreciating the beauty of this genre. They understand the differences between poetry and prose, and practice strategies for reading this genre. They learn how to ‘unlock’ a poem and become immersed in many different styles of poetry. They develop mentor authors and notice their craft techniques.

Unit Seven - Nonfiction

Rationale: Students are asked to live like nonfiction writers. They choose a subject of interest to gather observations, details, thoughts, and questions, eventually nurturing their seed idea into a piece of nonfiction writing. While writing, students focus on factual accuracy. Their pieces should have an introduction, complex sentence structure, and be written in paragraph form.

Unit Eight - Realistic Fiction

Rationale: Students learn how to write realistic fiction by reading examples of realistic fiction and examining how the stories are structured. They then apply what they have learned to their own writing, rereading for development of plot and plausibility of storyline.

WRITING MECHANICS

Capitalization

Titles of works

The pronoun I

First words in a sentence and in quotations

Proper nouns: people, animals, places, months, titles of people, days and holidays

Punctuation

Ending marks with declarative sentences, interrogative sentences, and exclamations

Commas for items in a series

Underlining of titles

Periods with abbreviated months, days, and titles

Commas in dates, addresses, introductory material, and with quotations

Quotation marks with direct quotations, and titles

Periods with initials

Grammar and Usage

Agreement of subject and verbs

Run-on sentences

Sentence fragments

Regular past tense

Order of pronouns

Articles a vs. an, the vs. a/an

Double negatives

Pronouns: possessive vs. contractions

LIFETIME WORDS

because, friend, a lot, above, across, almost , also, always, among, another, answer, anyone/anything, author, believe, change, days of the week, dear, during, easy, else, excited, favorite, grade, laugh, lesson, minute/hour, outside, people, please, poetry, pretty, prove, really, school, seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall, sometime, special, together, terrible, walk/talk, trouble, until, wear, beautiful, everyone/everything/everybody, something, though

they’re/their/there

READING

Unit One - Living the Readerly Life

Rationale: Students learn the routines and expectations of the Readers' Workshop as well as learn ways to develop more stamina as they read. They learn how to give an effective retell, concentrating on the main ideas of the story, and also become more comfortable with participating in book talks.

Unit Two - Reading for Meaning

Rationale: Students are taught to see themes, concepts, and patterns within a book, as well as to develop theories about books. They make multiple connections while reading such as text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world. Students learn how to delve more deeply into a story, stretching their talk during read aloud and when conversing with their partners.

Unit Three - Responding to Texts

Rationale: Students further develop the skills necessary to talk, think, and write well about books. They develop and follow a single theory about the stories they are reading, and learn additional ways to think and respond to texts, such as using “above ground/below ground” charts. In addition, students begin to write responses in their reading response journals.

Unit Four - Historical Fiction

Rationale: During the study of Colonial America, students learn strategies of reading historical fiction and nonfiction to find information and understand the historical roots of Americans. They build on their knowledge of story and character from previous units, now noticing the impact of the historical events of the time.

Unit Five - Inference and Analysis

Rationale: Students build on their character work from previous years, now taking their thinking to a deeper level. They analyze character traits, actions, and motivation. They discuss and write about complex relationships between characters. They make personal connections and try to empathize with a character to deepen their comprehension. They notice character change and how this may portray the “life lessons” of the book.

Unit Six - Poetry

Unit Seven - Human Struggle and Conflict

Rationale: Students broaden their ability to think deeply about texts and become aware of some of the conflicts of our historical past. We turn our thinking to the experiences of people from different cultures. Through a wide variety of picture books, chapter books, and poetry, students gain an understanding of human struggle and the fight for fairness and freedom. We use this lens to widen the students’ comprehension of the big ideas in a text.

Unit Eight - Planning Our Summer Reading

Rationale: Students look back over the year, noting new series, authors, or genres they have explored. They listen to recommendations of their classmates during group sharing in order to plan their summer reading goals.

WORD STUDY

Short u Phonograms: uck, ug, ump, unk

Endings: Doubled Final Consonants and "Other" ed and ing verbs

Nouns: Singular, Plural, and Some "Irregular" Plural Nouns

Contractions and "Not Contractions"

Compound and "Not Compound" Words

Contractions and Compound Words

Long a Sound Patterns: ai, ay, ei

Long e Vowel Patterns: ee, ea, e, ie

Long i Vowel Patterns: igh, y, i with 2 Consonants

Long o Vowel Patterns: oa, ow, o with 2 Consonants

Long u Vowel Patterns: ue, ui, u_e

Vowel Dipthongs: ea. ew. oo (moo), oo (book), oy, oi, ow (cow), ow (show), ou, ow, au, aw, al

Triple Blends and Digraphs: scr, shr, spl, spr, squ, str, thr

Sound-Alike Endings: _ck, _ke, _k, _ch, _tch, _ge, _dge

Silent Consonants: gn, kn, wr, mb

Sounds of the ed Ending: ed (dated), d (tried), t (mixed)

Homophones with Short Vowel Sounds

Homophones with Long Vowel Sounds

Contractions by Families

Doubling the Final Consonant in CVC Words When Adding ed and ing

4^th Grade

WRITING

Unit One - Writerly Life

Rationale: The students reestablish their knowledge of the Writer’s Workshop and the use of a writer’s notebook. They also become familiar with the quality and quantity of writing expected in fourth grade. Writing mechanics are emphasized more heavily in the fourth grade curriculum.

Unit Two - Letter Writing

Rationale: During this unit the students use a variety of mentor texts to rediscover the wonders and complexity of letter writing. They learn the difference between a friendly letter and a business letter as well as the components of each. They compose one or more cohesive letter(s) incorporating the proper format.

Unit Three - Reports

Rationale: In this study students build upon their knowledge of non-narrative writing by adding research within their theme of Simple and Complex Machines. They practice their research skills, build upon their knowledge of the components of a paragraph, and increase their understanding of presenting an opinion with supporting facts. These skills are demonstrated through the writing of a report on a particular inventor.

Unit Four - Historical Fiction

Rationale: During the study of Westward Expansion, students compile a travel diary written from the point of view of a pioneer on the westward frontier. They use this diary as the basis to develop a more detailed piece of historical fiction. The students read a variety of mentor texts to understand the time period and the genre of historical fiction.

Unit Five - Nonfiction

Rationale: Students build upon their prior work in Writer’s Workshop to assist them in composing a nonfiction piece based on their individual interests. Students gather information from a variety of sources and then organize the information into clear paragraphs. Students begin to understand that a writer chooses not only his/her topic, but the lens through which he/she presents the information.

Unit Six- Poetry

Rationale: During this unit the students are exposed to a wide variety of poetry to assist them in their exploration of writing poetry. They use mentor texts to discover the joy and ease in which poetry can be written. The students use their prior knowledge of word usage, punctuation, metaphor, and simile to compose poetry.

Unit Seven - Study of Fiction/Fantasy

Rationale: Students are introduced to this genre through a variety of sources and mentor texts such as myth and fairy tales. Students think deeply as they develop characters, points of view, and setting. Sentence structure becomes increasingly more complex for students and they must apply more complex punctuation as well.

Unit Eight - Writing Project

Rationale: The students reflect on the fourth grade Writer’s Workshop and develop an independent written piece from collecting seed ideas through publication.

WRITING MECHANICS

Capitalization

Titles of works

The pronoun I

First words in a sentence and in quotations

Proper nouns: people, animals, places, months, titles of people, days and holidays

Proper nouns: organizations, religions, languages, and nationalities

Punctuation

Ending marks with declarative sentences, interrogative sentences, and exclamations

Commas for items in a series

Underlining of titles

Periods with abbreviated months, days, and titles

Commas in dates, addresses, introductory material, and with quotations

Quotation marks with direct quotations, and titles

Periods with initials

Commas with coordinating conjunctions

End marks with imperatives

Grammar and Usage

Articles a vs. an, the vs. a/an

Double negatives

Agreement of subject and verbs

Run-on sentences

Sentence fragments

Regular past tense

Pronouns: possessive vs. contractions

Order of pronouns

Irregular past tense

Helping verbs with present participles

Irregular plurals

Double comparison

LIFETIME WORDS

beautiful, everyone/everything/everybody, something, thought, they’re/their/there, activity, address, along, already, although, altogether, another, between, birthday, carefully, children, daily, details, develop, early, enough, guess, heart, instead, interest, language, library, months of the year, morning, necessary, novel, often, picture, practice, probably, promise, quarter/half, question, receive, remember, respect, sentence, suppose, several, surprise, silence, special/ especially, usual/ usually/unusual

READING

Unit One - Readerly Life

Rationale: The students reestablish the reading skills of posting, journaling, and applying various reading strategies. They review and build upon their skills in conducting a good book talk within a large group, small group, and partnership format. They build upon their knowledge and use of these skills as the Readers’ Workshop format is established at the fourth grade level.

Unit Two – Responding to Literature

Rationale: Responding to the texts heard during read-aloud and those read independently builds deeper comprehension and supports comprehension strategies. Students are expected to respond to the texts both orally and in written form. Activating background knowledge, students articulate connections with the text: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world.

Unit Three - Nonfiction

Rationale: Students explore a variety of nonfiction texts. They learn to use the various text features to gain information. They begin to strengthen skills, such as highlighting important information, skimming/scanning for relevant information, outlining, and using the text to locate supporting details for authors’ point of view. These skills are introduced within the classroom and in library class to aid in this investigation.

Unit Four - Building Comprehension

Rationale: The students continue to expand upon their knowledge of how a literature circle is established and run. Students will learn questioning strategies to assist in sustaining an in-depth discussion on a given text. They establish a challenging reading plan for each group member, choosing an effective charting/journaling system to assist in their comprehension of text as well as further their discussions. Students understand and use literature circle roles to assist in the progression of their discussion and to uncover the author’s main idea. In addition, students continue to recognize the importance of being a responsible member of a Literature Circle and coming prepared to each group meeting to ensure group success.

Unit Five - Biographies

Rationale: During the thematic unit of Simple Machines, the students begin an investigation of the genre of biography. The students will learn and utilize a variety of strategies for reading nonfiction: highlighting, posting, identifying paragraph main ideas, summarizing, and skimming/scanning. Students investigate the impact of inventors’ discoveries of yesterday on their lives today through this biography study.

Unit Six - Poetry

Rationale: During this study the students are immersed in a wide variety of poetry from classical to contemporary. They learn to identify different styles of poetry by the writers’ use of words, punctuation, spacing, and word position. Students also begin to understand the use and impact of simile and metaphor.

Unit Seven - Story Elements

Rationale: During this unit of study the students learn strategies to locate the story elements within a given text and understand the significance each has to the development of the plot of the text. They read a variety of texts within the genres of mythology and fairy tales to aid in their investigation of story elements.

Unit Eight - Planning for Summer Reading

Rationale: Students will reflect upon the fourth grade Readers’ Workshop to plan their individual summer reading goals and objectives. As a class, students review strategies covered throughout the year and each student selects a way in which he/she will respond to the texts. Each student ends the year with a concrete plan for summer reading success.

WORD STUDY

Homophones with long and short vowels

Two and three syllable compound words

Contractions

Doubling the final consonant in CVC words when adding ed and ing