Balanced Literacy
We will be using a 'workshop' approach to teach both reading and writing. In the reading workshop, each child will be reading books on his or her own reading level. They will learn how to choose books that are 'just right' for them to read independently. Small group instruction is based on each child's individual needs (determined through assessments and individual teacher/student conferences) and observations of their reading behaviors. Likewise, in the writing workshop, students will work on his or her individual writing goals, based upon their needs and personal writing behaviors. Reading Units: 1. Readers Build Good Habits 2. Tackling Trouble: When Readers Come to Hard Words and Tricky Parts of Books 3. Readers Meet the Characters in our books 4. Nonfiction Readers Learn About the World 5. We Can Be Our Own Teachers When We work Hard to Figure Out Words 6. Reading Across Genres to Learn About a Topic 7. Dramatizing Characters and Deepening Our Comprehension in Reading Clubs 8. Readers Can Read About Science Topics to Become Experts Writing Units: 1. Launching the Writing Workshop 2. Writing for Readers 3. Realistic Fiction 4. Procedural Writing: How-to books 5. Opinion Writing: Persuasive Letters and Speeches 6. Authors as Mentors 7. Informational books 8. Cross-Genre Writing Projects 9. Informational books in Science 10. Poetry and Songs |