Language Arts
During the summer of 2001, the faculty
of Riverton Elementary attended and became a site for the Alabama Reading
Initiative. This year we will be implementing the strategies we learned
during the two weeks of training.
ARI and Riverton Elementary/Mt. Carmel
There are four important elements in the
Language Arts program.
Small Group Reading Instruction
Self Selected Reading
Writing
Working With Words
Reading-
60 minutes (We have protected reading time this year from 9:00-10:00.)
We will focus on one author each month.
Check out the author study page for links to the author. I want my students surrounded
by literature. If you are cleaning out and want to put your old books to use,
donate them to a classroom.
Small Group
Instruction- Students will be given the opportunity to work in a small
group to work on improving a particular skill.
Self Selected
Reading- Students will choose books based on the theme and interest.
Whole Group
Instruction- All students taught using grade appropriate material.
We have a new reading book this year, I will use the text more closely then I usually do. In addition to the text I will use some leveled text for small group instruction and self-selected reading time. It is very important for children to practice reading, therefore I give them a minimum of 30 minutes of self-selected reading time.
After we read a class story, students
complete a story map in their Literature Log. A story map is;
The title is ____.
The author is ____.
The illustrator is ____.
The setting is ____.
The main character(s)
is(are) ____.
Some important
character(s) is(are) ____.
The problem is ____.
The solution is ____.
The best part of the
story is ____.
What is the author trying
to teach us?
For non-fiction I will ask for 5 facts from the reading.
These are good questions to ask your
child as they read.
Students will keep a contents page and
genre page in their Literature Log also.
My classroom library is close to 2500 books. I add to it each year as I send home book orders. I have multilevels of books as well as different genre.
Accelerated Reader: I expect all
children to check out an Accelerated Reading book from the library to read at
home and school each week. Some of the new reading text stories are AR
stories, as well as some of the support readers.
I do count their AR test average at the
end of the nine weeks as a test grade, and will also count individual tests of
books we read as a class and work on all week. I
will give weekly reminders on Thursday for children who need to take tests for
a while. I need you to encourage your child to read and take tests.
I love children's books, I share them with the class all during the day, other teachers borrow from my library also. You can help your child love to read by letting them see you read, read to your child, let your child read to you, and let your child read alone. I will send book orders home from Trumpet and Scholastic, this is a very good way to increase your home library because these books sell for less then half the price of bookstores. Let's work together to create a child who values reading. If you have any unwanted children's books at home and wish to donate to the school, I would be happy to take them. If I can't use them I will find a teacher who will give them a new home (please let your child write in the book: Donated by _____).
For some light reading about how to help your child become a better reader:
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Reading/index.html
Writing- 30 minutes
Students will be given to opportunity to
write about subjects they are interested in writing about. Mini skill lessons
will focus on the different aspects of grammar and the writing process. We
will use the 4 square writing method.
During our writing block we will work on
publishing children's works. When your child brings home class books, read
and make comments, send them back to school in 2 to 3 days.
Working With Words- 30
minutes
Students will work on phonics and
spelling patterns. I use Saxon Phonics in my classroom. I
will post the spelling words each nine
weeks. Students and parents are responsible for
spelling homework. In one of the
spiral notebooks, students will do 4 spelling activities a week. We will test
on Friday. We will also have a sentence test- I will grade sentence
structure.
