Literacy

One of the most exciting things we teach is how letters and words work together to create a meaningful message. Students who are ready to start literacy work receive group instruction that includes phonemic awareness, meaningful comprehension of what is read, and other activities based on individual strengths and interest.

Here are the core components of a standard early literacy lesson for private one-on-one sessions at the Sibley Center. The purpose behind each component is outlined below.

I. Rereading of Familiar Books

* promotes fluency which aids in comprehension
* provides practice in bringing reading behaviors together (orchestration)
* encourages confidence and promotes independence
* allows closer attention to features of print or story

II. Running Record (Assessment)

* gives child opportunity to organize and control his own reading behavior independently
* allows teacher to observe child’s strategies and check for any processing problems
* following reading, teacher has opportunity to reinforce learning and to prompt for new learning on 1-2 points
* shows accuracy and self-correction rate
* helps teacher gauge child’s progress
* helps teacher plan instruction

III. Letter and Word Work

* establishes and reinforces letter knowledge
* learning how words work
* learning how to get to new words from known words
* understanding the process of word construction (rime and onset)

IV. Sentence Writing

* emphasizes the relationship between reading and writing
* helps child build sound/letter relationships; helps to sort out letter/word confusions
* helps child learn to read using own natural language and experiences
* promotes word analysis and fluency practice
* reinforces concepts of: directionality, sequencing, one to one match, punctuation, monitoring behaviors
* assists in breaking oral language into segments

V. New Book

* encourages use of reading strategies on new text

* an opportunity to problem solve

* promotes independence

* allows teacher to reinforce and improve processing strategies

Emphasis is given on taking a STRATEGIC approach to reading, as opposed to just skill-building or using solely phonics. The core reading strategies are:

1. one-to-one correspondence,
2. directionality
3. locating known words,
4. locating unknown words,
5. searching for meaning/structure/visual cues, cross-checking cues,
6. monitoring our reading for meaning, and
7. self-correcting.