Unit: Readers Build Good Habits

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Kindergarten ELA – Metacognitive Explanations

Unit 1 – Readers Build Good Habits: In order for students to begin building their comprehension skills, they must be able to understand that literature has meaning d purpose in day to day life. I chose making “book to life connections” for the first unit of the school year because doing so requires students to pay close attention to books’ pictures and text in order to find information that is meaningful (to them). It also introduces students the vocabulary through which they can talk about books in a deeper manner than simply retelling their events. I chose to focus on concepts of print for this unit because they introduce students to the technicalities of reading independently and lay the foundation for all forthcoming reading skills. Similarly, I chose this set of phonics and phonemic/phonological awareness skills because they focus on the basic letter and word knowledge that will allow students to fairly quickly delve into strong reading and writing habits. For example, learning how to identify rhyming words early in Kindergarten will lead students into reading and writing rhyming words as well. Finally, I aligned the writing block’s components to those of word study block in order to make them more meaningful and present in the students’ first days of school. The objectives also lay the foundation for the processes and skills students will use every day in writing for the rest of the year. I also focused on the early writing behaviors outlined in the K “Breakthrough to Literacy” Reading and Writing Developmental Stages Observation Checklist as I wanted to ensure that while strategies and skills being taught are ambitious, they are also developmentally appropriate and realistic.

Unit 2 – Readers Talk about Books to Grow Ideas: Now that students have learned the basic knowledge necessary for buildling the foundations of the rest of their Kindergarten reading and writing knowledge, I want to teach students how to take these basic skills and strategies and begin to “take them to the next level” of both reading and writing. During read a-louds, I no longer want students to simply relate the events or characters in a book to their own lives. Rather, I want them to start to dig into the texts and think more closely about what the author is trying to tell them as readers through the print and the pictures. During shared and indepdent reading, I want students to begin to pay careful attention to the print that they see in front of them. I want them to make sense of these words, and in order to do so, they need to begin to employ the strategies of letter/sound correspondence and asking themselves comprehension questions such as “Does this make sense?” During word study, students are ready to delve into more complex phonological skills such as phoneme isolation and blending in order to set themselves up for greater success in not only their reading but also in their writing. Finally, during the writing block, I want students to be employing these higher level comprehension and phonics skills in order to create more legible texts independently.

Unit 3 – Unit 3: Readers Read Just-Right Books and Use Print Strategies to Support Conventional Reading: As students begin to progress in their reading and writing skills, I want them to apply the strategies that they are currently working on to texts which allow them to practice said skills and abilities. By practicing skills like sequencing during read a-louds, students are gaining a retelling strategy that will help them in many of the lower level early readers that they will begin to see and read on their own. Additionally, I want students to practice identifying words that sound (and look) the same at the beginning and end so that, as texts get more difficult, they can easily compare an unknown word to a known word in order to make it more manageable. Similarly, I want them to continue to use MSV (meaning, structural, visual) cues to help them read so that as books get more difficult and they are required to actually read their leveled books rather than only rely on the pictures, they can check and correct themselves if something does not seem quite right (in their own reading of the book). I wanted to supplement what students are learning in shared reading through the word study block, which is why most of those objectives relate to those in shared reading. Finally, in writing, I want students to continue to make their writing as legible as possible to other readers. I related the writing objectives to those in the other literacy blocks because doing so requires students to really think about what they are writing and ask themselves if, for example, “it makes sense” and if not, what they can do to make it more readable to someone else.

Unit 4 - Readers Recognize When Books Have Patterns (to read with Accuracy, Fluency, and Comprehension): At this point in the year, I assume that, based on their developmental stages as well as all of the work we have been putting in since September, students are all reading on a Level 1 (Level A in Fountas and Pinnell). That being said, I want students to have a very clearly and strong understanding of language patterns as they will be encountering them frequently in Level 1 through Level 3 texts. Now that students have enough knowledge to give themselves a running start in their leveled books (i.e. they know must of the words on the first few pages), I want them to recognize any language patterns that are present so that they can focus less on reading those sight and familiar words on each page and focus instead on the more difficult vocabulary that appears in Level 2, 3, etc. books. During read a-louds, I want to read books with language patterns, too, so that students are surrounded by them all day and are required to focus on them in all aspects of literacy. During word study, the focus on phoneme categorization requires students to constantly be looking and listening for words that sound (and look) the same, just as words in language patterns do. Finally, during writing, I continue to ask my students to make their work as legible as possible. Not only does this improve their ability to self-correct (through, for example, revising), but it also allows me to get a clearer picture of what message the child is trying to convey and how well they can currently convey it.

Unit 5 – Non-Fiction Reading Strategies: Readers Read and Think about Sets of Texts about a Topic: Now that school is well underway and students have a firm understanding of what it means to both read and comprehend a piece of literature, I want to introduce them to the fact that literature is not always intended to entertain us, per say. Rather, non-fiction texts can explicity teach us new things about topics we have an interest in or a need to learn about. I surround students with non-fiction reading and writing during three of the four literacy blocks. During read a-louds, I want students to hear all of the facts and information that they can about a given topic and actively work to identify what they already know about said topic (so that they know not to focus on it) and what information they want to know about a topic, so that they begin to practice using literature to answer specific questions about something. During shared reading, I want students to not only explore and become familiar with the characteristics of a non-fiction text, but I also want to give them time during independent reading to explore varieties of non-fiction texts and actually practice learning from these books in whatever way they can (at this age, mostly from pictures, though with some students and books, print, too). Finally, during writing, I want students to actually see how an author goes about writing a non-fiction texts. By putting themselves into the position of “non-fiction author,” students begin to see that yes, a person really can teach another person about something through print and pictures.

Unit 6 – Readers Use their Imagination to Better Understand Fictional Texts: After over a month of immersion on non-fiction literature and writing, I want students to now put themselves in the shoes of an author who brainstorms and then writes books that are neither true life stories (as students had been writing for the first 4 months of school) nor non-fiction texts about an actual person, place or thing. Rather, I want students to begin to understand how it is that an author gets a fictional idea, plans it out, and then uses that plan to create a brand new text which does not explicitly match anything or anyone in their own lives, but which we as readers encounter on a daily basis. During shared reading, I want to continue to practice identifying small words within larger ones to help them read difficult words, as well as continuing to ask themselves comprehension-based questions (“Does this make sense?” “What exactly is happening right now in this story?”) as they read in order to give equal weight to meaning and comprehension questions alongside accurate and fluent reading. Writing is directly related to the fiction topics covered during reading blocks, allowing students to become the author of a fictional text at the same time as they learn about how other authors compose them and what they are made up of.

Unit 7 – Readers Explore Poetry: Now that students recognize both fiction and non-fiction texts as different types of literature with different purposes, I want them to understand that print is everywhere in their lives and not always in standard “story” or “book” formats. Through poetry, students can begin to see that meaning can be conveyed in a variety of ways, including non-traditional ones. I want students to be exposed to the way that poets play with words in order to convey a variety of emotions and messages, and I want to give them the opportunity to convey meaning in the same way. Word study links very nicely to both the reading and writing blocks during this unit, as students re-explore poetry and now begin to make use of it in context. During writing, students are able to apply what they learn during both of those blocks to weave meaning and depth into pieces of literature which require them to think very carefully and deeply about what they want to say (to their reader) and how they want to say it.

Unit 8 - Readers Read Different Types of Literature to Gain Different Types of Information: Piggybacking on what students learned in unit 7, I now want students to see that the forms of literature extend beyond classroom books and poetry. Rather, we are exposed to print every day of our lives, and in order to make the most sense of what is going on around us, we need to pay attention to that presence of print in our world. By exploring friendly letters, cards, signs and lists, students begin to see that they can use their words (and the words of others) to convey a massive amount of information and meaning in their day to day lives. I want students to see that they can explicitly share a piece of information with another human being not only through their spoken words, but also through their written words. Read a-louds and shared/independent reading objectives allow students to explore these different types of writing while the writing block objectives allow students to practice them.

Unit 9 - Readers Learn about Different Cultures through Literature: Because the school year is coming to a close and the pressures of testing and meeting benchmark are under wraps, I want students to become completely immersed in the use of literature to convey information and ideas about different cultures. While I have been doing this throughout the year by weaving social studies themes into each week’s read a-louds, I now want to focus less on the reading strategies and comprehension skills (i.e. using a book to teach a skill as a primary focus and to convey information about a culture/etc. as a secondary focus) and just let my students explore different things that they may never have seen or heard of before through our classroom literature. Doing so, I believe, gives students perspective on where and who they are, and sends them into the summer with the idea that they can choose books that take them to “far away”, “different” places and transport themselves through literature, even when they are not in school. While the writing block this time around does not explicitly relate to the unit title (since I need more time during which students can explore the technical aspects of literature used to convey information, such as lists and cards), reading responses before and after read a-louds allow students the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings about these different culture in another manner besides just discussion.

Notes for Enrichment and Remediation:

Reading:

Enrichment: For students who you find are mastering reading content quickly, employ the following strategies in order to keep them challenged and learning at their own level:

• Move forward in the shared reading and word study strategies during guided and independent reading (i.e. in January, move into February and March objectives)
• Gear higher-level comprehension questions during read a-louds toward students who need enrichment
• Put students into reading centers which require higher-level skills and thinking

Remediation: For students who you find need more time in a particular content area or literacy block, employ the following strategies in order to ensure that they master the necessary skills before moving on:

• Continue to address the week’s (or previous weeks’) objectives and standards during independent reading and guided reading
• Gear lower-level comprehension questions during read a-louds towards students who need remediation
• Put students into reading centers which allow them to revisit and practice skills that they need to continue working towards mastering

Writing:

Enrichment: For students who you find are mastering reading content quickly, employ the following strategies in order to keep them challenged and learning at their own level:

• Challenge students to write longer stories or, with non-fiction texts, books which require more intricate steps (how-tos) or a wider variety of informational pages (all-about books)
• During small group instruction after your mini-lesson, give students extra word study lessons which push them towards more conventional spelling (i.e. through different and more difficult word families)

Remediation:For students who you find need more time in a particular content area, employ the following strategies in order to ensure that they master the necessary skills before moving on:

• Give students smaller paper booklets to work with (i.e. if most students are using 3 pages for their small moments story, give students who need more assistance and support 2 pages)
• During small group instruction after your mini-lesson, work with students on the skills that you taught during your mini-lesson or on key, mechanical skills that students are having difficulty with (i.e. capitalization, spacing, punctuation, letter/sound correspondence)

Unit: Readers Build Good Habits

Month of September, 2007(WK 1)

Read A-loud / Shared/Independent Reading / Words Block
(Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Skills) / Writing Block
“Authors use drawings and writing to convey meaning”
Objectives and State Standards
Bolded are the Power Standards / Standard:
Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.(Comprehend and respond to literary texts and performances, with assistance)
Standard 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.(Identify ideas and experiences from texts and performances)
SWBAT: Make book to life connections.
SWBAT: Answer comprehension questions about a text. / Standard:
PK-1 Core Performance Indicator:
Reading (Follow left-to-right and top to bottom direction when reading; Locate parts of a book)
SWBAT: Identify front and back of book.
SWBAT: Turn the pages from left to right. / Standard:K Fluency Competency: Read own name and names of family or friends, K Alphabet Recognition Competency (Read own name)

SWBAT read their first name and locate them in a sentence.

SWBAT:Notice and discuss differences in different names.
Letters of the Week: D, J / Standard:S1
Standard 1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding. (Copy letters and words from books, magazines, signs, charts, and own dictation; Write own name on pictures, drawings, paintings, and written products; Draw or write facts and ideas gathered from personal experiences)
* Baseline writing assessment (students are given a piece of paper and asked to write and/or draw about whatever they would like in whatever manner they would like.

SWBAT: Copy their first name onto their writing paper from a name tag/word wall/etc.

SWBAT: Draw or write a story to represent/convey a story or event.
SWBAT: Generate and name topics for writing and make plans for writing.
Assessments / Comprehension conference checklist (based on discussion – did the student make a “legitimate” book to life connection? Can the student answer simple questions about the text?) / Emergent Reader Checklist
Independent Reading Conference Notes / List including all students’ names and a few extra for any first name that is alone in its first letter (i.e. if Raymond is the only student in the class with an “R” as the first letter, include rainbow) /

Baseline/Midline/Endline writing rubric

Writing conference checklists
Resources to Refer to: / Suggested Texts: My Friends by Taro Gomi, Miss Bindergarten goes to Kindergarten (Any “beginning of the year” type storybooks with vivid pictures and no more than 2 lines of text/page). / Shared Reading: “Big books” (enlarged versions of an ordinary leveled book) with the following characteristics: Two words or 1-2 sentences per page, repetitive patterns with a simple storyline, pictures strongly supporting the text, similar high-frequency words repeated throughout the text, print and illustrations placed consistently, definite spacing between words, punctuation marks (period, exclamation point, question mark)
Independent Reading: Bins of leveled “dot” books (leveled according to Rigby, Fountas and Pinnell, etc) at a Level 1/Level A / “Learning the Alphabet” (

2001/2001nrc/01nrcstahl/01nrcsta.pdf) – For order of letters of the week

Unit 1: Readers Build Good Habits