Transcript

As part of the first grade independent reading program each student has a reading toolkit of their very own. And inside is everything that they need to be successful while they're reading independently. So, one of those things is what I call a tricky word strategy ring. One of the strategies on the tricky word ring, it says and reminds the students to slide through the whole word. The students should also chunk the sounds of the words together, to break the words into smaller parts. And while they're doing these word attack strategies they should also always be thinking about the meaning of the story. 

So they might be looking at the picture to help them think about what would make sense. They always need to think, does it look right, does it sound right, and does it make sense? Another item in their reading toolkit are their good fit books, so these are stories, or non-fiction texts that the teacher and the student have sat together and picked out to make sure that they were interested in the topic and that its an appropriate reading level for them to be successful independently. Each student also has a reading goal so they know what their focus is while they're reading independently. This students goal is for when he gets to a word he doesn't know, he should break the word into parts and say the sounds together slowly. And finally, the last item in the reading toolkit is a reading target folder. This folder allows for choice and more independence while the students are working on their own. So on one column we have different comprehension strategies and different things they might be working on while reading. So, for example, they're goal might be to read different kinds of books, for example, if you have a student who always is only interested in non-fiction but you want to expose them to different genres and different authors, this might be a goal that you've set up for your student here. The student then can choose which day of the week they want to focus on this goal. So on Monday, that might be their goal. And then for tracking purposes the student then finds that goal on this list and colors in the square that matches the goal. So it has them feeling accountable, and for teachers we can track that they've been choosing a variety of goals throughout the week, not just focusing on the same one over and over again. And this is something that's just fun, and it makes them all feel independent and organized and they have something fancy to go and do when they're working independently. One really good source for reading goals for the students is the CAF book. 

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