1st Grade English & Reading

Phonological awareness instruction occurs in whole and small group lessons. Lessons include rhyming, identifying syllables, and phoneme manipulation such as: isolating, segmenting, adding, deleting, substituting and blending sounds.

Phonics instruction occurs in both explicit whole and small group lessons. Multi sensory instruction incorporates letter tiles, dry erase boards and visuals which help students construct and deconstruct words. Children apply letter sound knowledge to read decodable and other texts.  Students are also explicitly taught to read and spell irregular words.

Vocabulary instruction is incorporated throughout the school day through high quality read-alouds, small groups and high quality adult/child interactions.

Fluency instruction occurs in whole group and small group lessons. It involves shared reading, music, poetry, decodable texts, repeated readings, partner reading and the reading of their own writing.

Comprehension instruction occurs as students listen and talk about texts. Teachers use a variety of texts across genres, cultures and perspectives to build students' background knowledge. Teachers use read-alouds to model how to make connections, how to make inferences and how to visualize stories. Teachers also use questioning, turn and talks as well as other strategies to support student comprehension. Instruction occurs in whole and small group lessons, partner reading and teacher/student conferring.

Writing instruction across all grade levels involves explicit, direct, systematic instruction. Students are scaffolded through the writing process.  First grade writers author a variety of pieces throughout the school year, including personal narratives, informational writing, and opinion pieces.