• Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him. 

    -Maya Angelou

     

    Click here for Raz-Kids Login: RAZ-Kids

    Teacher Login: sgoracy1

     

    Need book suggestions by level? Scholastic has made it easy! Click here.

     

    Reader's Workshop

    What is Reader's Workshop?

     

    Reader's Workshop provides students with a supportive environment that involves them in authentic reading experiences that focus on the strengths and needs of each individual student.

    Reader's Workshop helps students develop strong reading skills through the use of a mini-lesson, shared reading, read aloud, conferencing, independent reading, paired reading, and literature responses.

    The basic philosophy behind the Reading Workshop model is to allow students to spend an extended amount of time reading authentic texts that interest them on a daily basis and to provide opportunities to talk about literature. The ultimate goal of a Reading Workshop is always to develop life-long passionate readers,

     

    Reading A-Z

    Raz-Kids can be used as part of your child’s independent reading homework. Please have your child log “Raz-Kids” on the reading log. We will also use Raz-Kids as a supplemental tool during Reading in school as well. 

    IMPORTANT

    I will periodically update your child’s Raz-Kids reading level based on his or her Fountas and Pinnell reading assessment. While some Reading A-Z levels match directly with Fountas and Pinnell, others do not. I have used a level correlation chart otherwise. Please feel free to reach out if you or your child feels that the Raz-Kids level is too easy or too hard.


    Thanks for your continued support!

    Click Here for the Reading A-Z/Fountas & Pinnell Reading Level Correlation Chart

     

     

  • 2nd Grade Units of Reader's and Writer's Workshop

     

    Reading Workshop

    Writing Workshop

    Unit 1 - Reading Growth Spurt

    Lessons from the Masters

    (small moment)

    Unit 2 - Becoming Experts: Reading Nonfiction

    Information Writing

    (Personal Expertise)

    Unit 3 - Studying Characters & Their Stories

    Writing Gripping Stories

    (Realistic Fiction)

    Unit 4 - Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading Power (Foundational Skills → Word solving, fluency, vocabulary development  (January)

    Poetry

    Unit 5 - Reading Nonfiction Cover to Cover: Nonfiction Book Clubs (Studying a Topic)

    Lab Reports and Science Books

    Unit 6 - Series Book Clubs

    Writing About Reading

     

    "When young people are explicitly taught the craft of proficient writing, they are able to travel the world as writers, applying their skills to discipline-based learning and to their lives. And through all of this work, their writing skills continue to develop. When you provide students with constant opportunities to write, and when you actively and assertively teach into their best efforts, their development as writers will astonish you, their parents, the school administration, and best of all, the students themselves.”

     

    —Lucy Calkins

     

  • "Just Right Books"
     

    justrightposter.jpg
     Edit: ADD - It is about something that you find interesting! (See quote at top of page)
     

    Your child and his or her teacher will have opportunities throughout the year to meet individually and read with one another. We will give your child a suggested level he or she will use to shop in the classroom library for "just-right books." We will also send home updates about your child's independent reading level, but feel free to reach out if you need suggestions. Thanks in advance for your communication and support!

     

    The following websites can help you find books on your child's reading level:

     

    http://home.comcast.net/~ngiansante/index.html

     

    http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do?ESP=TBW/ib//acq/tbw_slimnav_Teachers///nav/txtl////

     

  • Reading Skills and Stategies

    Building fluency and meaning

    In second grade, children begin reading for meaning, not simply as a way of sounding out simple sentences. Your child will have many opportunities to read — silently on their own, aloud in groups, and aloud with a partner.  Students will often reread stories to increase their fluency, or their ability to read quickly and accurately with expression.

    Decoding words

    Your second-grader should be able to recognize a growing number of words, using knowledge of word structures and letter-sound relationships and a variety of strategies to read. Not only do second-graders develop skills to hear and say separate sounds in words, but they also use patterns to decode words. Second graders should be able to read new words by breaking them into syllables. 

    Reading for meaning

    In second grade, children learn strategies to draw meaning from what they read. They should be able to:

    • recognize the sequence of events in a story
    • anticipate the possible outcome (predict)
    • retell familiar stories
    • summarize the main ideas and plot
    • identify the characters and settings
    • compare and contrast characters in stories to their own lives
    • determine the who, what, where, why, when, and how

     http://www.wilsonsd.org/cms/lib01/PA01000270/Centricity/Domain/519/reading%20strategies_intermediate.jpg

     

    Prompts for Teaching Reading