Reading/Language Arts
In the second grade classroom at Arena Elementary, we will be using different reading activities to build and develop the student's reading skills. The main reading program is the Houghton Mifflin series. We will be using this reader on a regular basis, along with Literacy Centers, Literature Kits, and other reading and writing activities. We will be adding a new step to our program this year called The Four Blocks. The Four Blocks include: Guided Reading, Self-Selected Reading, Writing, and Working with Words. These areas represent four different approaches to teaching children to read and acknowledges that children do not all learn in the same way and provides instruction to support the way they learn.
Ms. Swenson, Mrs. Goers, and myself will be working together during reading. We typically divide the students into three groups for reading time. This allows the students more time to read and more teacher help. Sometimes we work with the class as a whole on bigger projects and regular skill learning.
Accelerated Reading
Many of the children started using this reading program in first grade. The Accelerated Reading program is often called A/R and allows the children to read library books at their own success rate and level. The children are allowed to check out one A/R book at a time from the library and after reading it, they go into the computer lab and take a comprehension test about the story. They get immediate feed back about how they did.
We suggest that they stay at the same level until they have passed three tests. If they fail a test, we ask them to move to a easier level until they become successful. They earn points based on how well they do.
At the end of each week, we announce the points for each child and they earn prizes for every five points awarded.
Individual A/R records are sent home with report cards explaining what reading level and success rate your child is at. We use A/R scores to help determine reading grades.
Return to Mrs. Portz's Homepage.
08/27/07 (JP)