• First Grade Reading Curriculum

     

    Reading Comprehension (Before Reading)

    First graders are expected to use reading strategies taught throughout the year to preview book components in order to make predictions and establish a purpose for reading. 

    • Do a picture walk (identify cover, title, author, illustrator, table of contents)
    • Identify genre (biography, fantasy, realistic fiction, nonfiction, folktale, play, etc.)
    • Activate prior knowledge
    • Ask yourself the following questions:
        • Who are the main characters?
        • What is the setting?
        • What events do you think will take place?
        • Is there a problem in the story?

    Reading Comprehension (During Reading)

    During reading, students are encouraged to use the following reading strategies:

    1. Check the picture
    2. Start the word
    3. Skip the word and reread
    4. Chunk/break into smaller parts
    5. Think about the story and what makes sense

    The following skills are also taught:

    • picture clues
    • phonological awareness
    • word analysis
    • context clues
    • sentence structure
    • reread
    • predict and revise

    Reading Comprehension (After Reading)

    After reading, students are encouraged to:

    • retell characters, setting, events (beginning, middle, and end)
    • make personal connection
    • distinguish between reality and fantasy
    • make a reading response
    • make conclusions

    Fluency (Fluency is the ability to ready smoothly.)

    • Accuracy
    • Self-Correction
    • Punctuation
    • Reading Rate

     

    Literary Components

    • Genres (Drama/Poetry)
    • Style (Character/Mood)
    • Sound Devices (Rhyme/Alliteration/Repetition/Rhythm)

    Story Elements

    • Characters
    • Setting
    • Events

     

     

    The reading strategies and skills that are taught throughout the year are:

    • classification/categorizing
    • initial and final consonants
    • inferences/predicting outcomes
    • main idea
    • compound words
    • consonant blends and digraphs: sh, wh, th (ex: ship, what)
    • short and long vowels
    • reality/fantasy
    • contractions
    • antonyms
    • synonyms
    • cause and effect
    • sequencing
    • compare and contrast
    • rhyming
    • segmentation and blending
    • endings (ed, ing, s, es, 's, er, est)

     

    Learning to Read in First Grade

    Teaching first graders to read in first grade, begins with the Science of Reading.  In my classroom, I focus on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.  These are all taught through the implementation of the Fundations program, Heggerty (a phonemic awareness program), and daily read alouds in my classroom.  

     

    First graders will learn to read through using their phonics skills in decodable readers to start.  The reading hand below shows the strategies that children are being taught to help sound out words.

    What can you do to help your child develop his or her reading skills???

    READ      READ      READ

    It is very important that your child reads aloud to someone each and every night! 

    The ONLY way to get better at reading is by reading!!!