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Kindergarten Reading at PS 11
A parents guide to understanding the
Reading Workshop
Created by
Megan Stein & Crystal Stewart, 2012
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What is Reading Workshop?
P.S. 11 uses a researched based reading and writing curriculum
developed by Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at
Columbia University.
Students gain a love of reading and appreciation of books through
daily Reading Workshop. During this time, students learn the
features of books, concepts of print, decoding, and comprehension
skills to help them become successful, lifelong readers.
A typical Reading Workshop looks like this:
•Minilesson with Active Engagement (5-10 minutes)
•Independent Reading (10-25 minutes)
•Partner Reading (10-20 minutes)
•Share (5 minutes)
There are many additional reading opportunities throughout the
day, such as: read alouds, shared reading, word study.
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Differentiation
During independent/partner reading time there are ample
opportunities for individualized instruction
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Partner conferences
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Guided reading groups
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Strategy lessons
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Phonological awareness groups
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Individual conferences/check-ins
Reading routines are also differentiated to meet the
needs of each learner.
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Units of Study Across the Year
Unit 1 We Are Readers Exploring the Exciting World of Books
Unit 2 Readers Read, Think, and Talk About Emergent Storybooks
and Familiar Shared Texts
Unit 3 Readers Use Superpowers to Read Everything in the
Classroom and Beyond
Unit 4 We Can Be Reading Teachers: Teach Yourself and Your Partner
to Use All You Know to Read
Unit 5 Learning About Ourselves and Our World: Reading for
Information
Unit 6 Readers Are Brave and Resourceful When We Encounter Hard
Words and Tricky Parts in Our Books
Unit 7 Readers Get to Know Characters by Pretending and by
Performing Our Books
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Why We Assess
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Teachers use many forms of assessment to ensure that they
are constantly aware of where your child is performing and
how they can best push them to become successful
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This helps us to identify your child’s strengths and needs and
plan appropriate instruction to push them to the next level
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Assessments We Use
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Concepts of print
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Letter sound identification
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Sight word identification
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Running records
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Conferences
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Performance tasks
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Teacher observation
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Benchmarks Across the Year
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Reading Levels
November
Emergent Story Books
Shared Reading
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1 = Emergent/Level A
2 = B with support
3 = B independently
4 = C or above
March
1 = Early Emergent
2 = A/B (with book intro)
3 = C (with book intro)
4 = D/E
May/June
1 = B or below
2 = C (with book intro)
3 = D/E
4 = F or above
Letter Identification/ Sounds
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January
By January, students should be able to identify all upper and
lowercase letters and most corresponding sounds for consonants
By March, students should know all corresponding letter sounds
By June, students should be consistently transferring this knowledge
into their writing
Sight Words
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By January, students should be able to identify 20 sight words
By June, students should be able to identify 35 sight words and begin
to spell them independently
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Star Books
Skills/Strategies
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Uses the pictures to tell the story
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Identifies characters and their
feelings
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Develops vocabulary
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Understands that books tell a
story
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Begins to understand how
language sounds when written
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Uses character voice when
reading
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Levels A/B
Skills/Strategies
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Uses cover/title/illustrations to get
ready to read
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Uses illustrations as a source of
information to figure out words
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Moves from left to right when reading
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Uses one to one matching
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Uses and locates known words
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Thinks about what makes sense
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Carries the pattern from one page to
the next with prompting
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Level C
Skills/Strategies
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Follows multiple lines of print on a page
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Uses the beginning letters in a word along with
meaning to solve an unknown word
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Independently follows more advanced patterns
across pages
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Begins to read with fluency
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Retells/summarizes story with important details
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Begins to implement self monitoring strategies
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Does is look right?
Does it sound right?
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Does it make sense?
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Level D
Skills/Strategies
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Begins to use eyes, rather than
finger, to track print
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Uses the final and middle letters
letters in a word along with meaning
to solve an unknown word
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Continues to self monitor reading
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Uses more advanced decoding
strategies (chunking, looking for a
smaller word inside, skip it and go
back)
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Retells and summarizes the story
with more detail
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Level E
Skills/Strategies
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Notices errors and self corrects
using all sources of information
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Makes inferences about the story
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Begins to read with even more
fluency and phrasing
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Makes connections to the text
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Decoding strategies at this level
may include: looking for familiar
word patterns, changing the
vowel sound
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Level F
Skills/Strategies
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Recognizes and reads more
difficult sight words automatically
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Reads punctuation
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Retells and summarizes keeping
story events in order
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Makes inferences about story
content with a clear explanation
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Makes explicit connections to the
text with supportive evidence
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Uses a multitude of decoding
strategies
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“But my child can read Harry
Potter!”
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Reading is the of process making meaning of written text
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Decoding vs. Reading
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Word callers often focus so much on letters and decoding
that they are unable to fully comprehend the text (therefore,
they are not actually “reading”).
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In order to really be able to read higher level texts, students
must clearly be able to identify plot, setting, key characters,
complex themes, character relationships, etc.
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The Importance of Rereading
Each time we read, we can read with a different lens. Students can focus on:
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Fluency
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Word recognition
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Comprehension
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Building confidence as a reader
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Thinking about different characters
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Sharing ideas with partners
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Learning something new
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E N J O Y M E N T !!!
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Supporting Your Child at Home
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Read every night—”Just Right” books and storybooks
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Practice reading sight words
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Work with your child on comprehending what they have read
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Coach your child to use “word tackling strategies”
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Read everything you see!
Sight Words
Comprehension Questions
•Look at the cover and predict.
•What might this book be about?
•What happened in the story?
•Who are the characters in the story?
•How did this story make you feel?
•What was your favorite/least favorite part? Why?
•Who was your favorite character? Why?