Reading

First grade is an important time for young children's growth as early readers. Paloma teachers respect and value each individual child's literacy behaviors; each first grade classroom represents a wide range of skill levels. Just as children learn to walk and talk at different times, they learn to read at different times. A few children enter first grade as early readers; most enter knowing alphabet sounds and reading a few familiar words from the environment. These behaviors are equally important and valued. Young children progress and grow at their own rates, and teachers strive to meet each child's individual instructional needs.

First grade teachers work with children as they make progress through a continuum of early reading behaviors. Skills and strategies are practiced as needed with the whole class, small groups, and individuals. Some of these skills include:

Children are introduced to authors of quality children's literature and are exposed to a wide variety of printed materials. Students study authors, illustrators, and genres. They are introduced to concepts of character, setting, plot, sequence of events&emdash;beginning, middle, end, and point of view. They begin learning to make predictions about a story and to differentiate between fiction and non-fiction works.
  • Letter names and sounds
  • Concepts of print&emdash;locating title and author, direction of text (top to bottom and left to right), locating words and spaces, etc.
  • Phonetic elements and strategies&emdash;using phonetic clues to read unknown words
  • Sight word strategies
  • Meaning making strategies (what makes sense, what looks right, what sounds right)

 

Children learn to talk about literature and relate it to their own experiences. We hope to help instill in first graders a love for reading and learning.

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