Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul. -- Joyce Carol Oates

Third and fourth grades are vital years for developing a lifelong habit and enjoyment of reading. Our main goals for the reading program are to immerse the children in different kinds of literature and to increase their depth of understanding of, connection to and appreciation for books. We provide children with the opportunity to read self-selected books, as well as curriculum related, non-fiction books and literature books of various genres. Through the components of our reading program, we hope to promote reading development on the individual level and also to create a “community of readers” who read and listen together, share their responses to what they have read, and recommend books to one another. The following is a list and description of the components of our reading program:

READER’S WORKSHOP
We will meet for Reader’s Workshop 2-4 times a week, sometimes as a whole class and sometimes in half groups. Reader’s Workshop is divided into three sub-components: Independent Reading, Guided Reading and Literature Study. Unlike “quiet reading” or “free reading,”

• Independent Reading is framed by instruction. It begins with regular mini-lessons to model how we read and react to text. While the children are reading, we circulate and confer with individuals to support and assess reading, as well as to teach to individual needs. Periodically, children are also asked to respond in writing to what they are reading. Independent Reading is usually followed by a form of sharing and evaluation.

• Guided Reading is used to pull together small, temporary groups to teach more explicit reading strategies for processing text. We usually introduce shorter texts at this time.

• Literature Study is a time to discuss books that we have all already read. At this time, we encourage children to share their thoughtful responses to specific passages and to listen attentively to their classmate’s ideas. Discussions might include making predictions, examining character development, asking questions, considering literary devices, or thinking about an author’s intent. Sometimes we use Literature Study to dramatize a scene from the book together.

READ ALOUD
A teacher reads aloud from an ongoing chapter book or from a picture book. This is a time when the whole class can take pleasure in enjoying a story together. We discuss particular issues found in a book and what is being studied in Theme. It is also an opportunity for teachers to model fluent, expressive reading.

CURRICULUM AREA READING
For each theme we study, children read fiction and non-fiction material in order to gather information. Children read in small groups, in pairs, or individually. Follow-up activities might include making a poster to display information, teaching a lesson to the rest of the class on the topic, or answering questions which have the children reflect, synthesize information or make hypotheses.

SPECIAL FRIENDS
Each student from our class will be paired up with a “special friend” from Meg and Cindy’s Kindergarten class. As part of our bi-monthly meetings, the students will be asked to select and practice reading books they will share with their special friends.

NIGHTLY READING
As part of their homework, students are asked to read a minimum of 20 minutes a night. This may involve children reading on their own, parents and children reading aloud together, or a combination of both. Children should fill out a nightly reading log during the week to help keep track of the books that they are reading at home, both for themselves and their teachers.

Writing happens across the curriculum in areas of study including writer’s workshop, literature group, theme, spelling, math, weekly reflection, and homework. We aim to guide the children toward fluency, clarity, comfort and enjoyment of the writing process. We focus on helping children develop the qualities of a good writer, including coming up with ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and presentation.

We have Writer’s Workshop for 45 minutes 3 times a week, with two of those sessions in smaller half groups. Writer’s workshop is usually used for creative writing- children’s self initiated fiction and nonfiction stories and poetry- and other times used for theme related writing in which students choose a specific topic within an area of study. Just as in literature the children are exposed to a range of genres, writing assignments are designed to provide writing experiences in several genres. The Workshop is often structured with a mini-lesson at the beginning, a quiet writing period, and sharing of work with feedback for the author when time allows. Mini-lessons focus on a particular aspect of writing; such as drafting a strong lead, creating a vivid setting, describing a character or brainstorming alternatives for overused words. Teachers model writing for the children and talk aloud writing challenges along the process so that the children can see that it is normal to “get stuck” and then discuss, as a group, strategies to overcome these challenges. We are very much a community of writers and children often share their personal frustrations or triumphs to inspire fellow writers. Having children share works-in-progress and final “published” works gradually helps them to recognize and value clarity, descriptive detail and depth in their own writing.

We guide children through the writing process that author’s follow: planning, writing a first draft, revising, editing, and making a final draft or “publishing”. For many students, this is the first time in which they are introduced to the concept of multiple drafts. We encourage the students to really experiment with their first drafts and to see writing as a process. Therefore, students are not expected to use conventional spelling in their first drafts. For many students, this allows them to focus solely on idea development. Revision is the stage in the writing process when children use a different color pencil to add detail, explanation, or make any other stylistic improvements. Editing is the stage of writing in which the student checks and corrects grammar, punctuation, and now spelling. It is at this stage in the process when students will be expected to correctly spell all “word wall words.” When children reach the revising and editing stages, they often use an editing checklist to help them focus on different aspects of their writing including clarity, order of ideas, use of description, capitalization, punctuation, spelling and for those who are ready, quotations and paragraphing. Students independently keep track of their individual progress through the writing steps, consulting with their advisor throughout. After children edit, their advisor makes final edits and suggestions for the final draft. Not all pieces of pieces of writing get revised or reach the publishing stage, but we encourage children to select some pieces that they have been especially invested in to follow through to publishing. Creating a final, polished piece of writing to share with friends and family provides a natural, authentic purpose for children to revise and edit their writing skills.

Throughout the year students will write for many purposes: to entertain, to inform, to persuade or to retell.

We will do word work three times a week in thirty minute blocks. The children will be divided by grade level at this time.

Patricia Cunningham and Dorothy Hall’s Making Big Words and Month-By-Month Phonics will provide many of the activities we will use to “play” with words. The purpose of these activities is to give the children practice recognizing and applying conventional English spelling patterns, as well an opportunity for them to construct their own understanding of basic spelling rules (such as changing the –y to -i, or doubling the last consonant in a CVC verb before adding the –ing ending). Some examples of the activities include using letter manipulatives to generate lists of all the small words that can be made out of a longer word, sorting those words for spelling patterns, and transferring the patterns to other words that follow the same pattern. In their book Month-By-Month Phonics, Cunningham and Hall assert the following:

“Phonics – the relationships between letters and sounds—makes sense in English, but only if you know to look for patterns of letter rather than individual letters. These patterns determine the sounds for consonant letters as well as vowels. Psychologists tell us that the brain is a “pattern detector” and that separate, short, unknown words are separated by the brain into two patterns. These patterns are onsets (all the letters up to the vowel) and rimes (the vowel and letters following it). The first time we ever saw the words spew, mite, and phrase, we separated their onsets – s-p, m, p-h-r – from their rimes – ew, ite and ase – and then used what we knew about consonants and vowel patterns to come up with sounds for each part and combine them. To be good decoders and spellers, children need to learn to quickly separate words into these parts, think of sounds associated with the patterns, and recombine them. Because of the nature of English and the fact that the brain is a pattern detector, the most useful approach to phonics instruction is one that teaches students to look for patterns from words they know and then use these patterns to read and spell unknown words.”

The essence of spelling in this classroom is that students use words and patterns that they are familiar with to inform their spelling of similar words. For instance, if the children know the conventional spelling of the word should, they can transfer their knowledge to the conventional spelling of the words could and would.

Patricia Cunninghman’s Word Wall is a list of high frequency words that are permanently displayed in our classroom. irregularly spelled words, including common compounds, contractions, and homophones. Some of these words don’t follow conventional spelling patterns, some of these words contain frequently occurring prefixes, suffixes, compounds, contractions or easily confused homophones. A copy of both September’s Word Wall and last June’s Word Wall is attached to this document to help you get a sense of these words. New words will gradually be added to the Word Wall each month.

The children will keep an updated hard copy of the Word Wall in their writing folders and their homework folders. We want the children to use their Word Walls as a reference tool. Our goal is for them to build automaticity over time with the correct spelling of Word Wall Words. If Word Wall Words are not spelled correctly in their writing, we will point this out. We believe that spelling practice in a meaningful context with a limited number of carefully selected words will help the children become stronger conventional spellers.

Finally, each child has been provided with his or her own Spelling Notebook, as a place to keep track of words that we have “played with” together, and also any words that he or she is working on individually.