What does it mean to receive a Reading First Grant?

Alexander Elementary is the third year of the grant since we made the improvement necessary to qualify for year 3 !!!!!!!!!

What is the purpose of the Reading First Grant? Reading First aims to improve K-3 instruction and ensure that all children will read at or beyond grade level by the end of third grade. It is designed to help districts, and communities identify and adopt scientifically based reading programs. As a result of grant funds, Alexander Elementary has adopted and purchased the Scott Foresman Reading series. Reading First also ensures that all classroom teachers can identify children at risk of reading failure, and provide effective early reading instruction.

Teachers will receive on-going and intensive training throughout the school year in various types of reading assessments in order to effectively measure student readiness, progress, and the need for instructional interventions. Additionally, teachers will be trained in explicit and systematic reading strategies for teaching reading skills and strategies for all students.

One critical component of the grant, is the implementation of a 90-minute minimum block of uninterrupted instructional time for reading. This focused instructional block ensures that students will receive extended, concentrated lessons that will better support student achievement. This block of teaching must not be interrupted by assemblies, announcements, pullout programs, or special subjects (art, music, P.E., Tech, etc.).

Your child’s teacher will be sending home the time when your child’s uninterrupted block of reading occurs. We are asking that you try to schedule appointments for your child outside of this 90-minute block.

In addition to the 90 minute block, all K-3 children will receive an additional 30 minute reading intervention time. During this time, children will receive more concentrated instruction designed to meet each individual's needs. This is done on a rotating schedule in which children may meet with different teachers in their grade level for a period of three weeks.

We need your support to maximize the potential of this program. Please check in with the office when you come to school in order to minimize classroom interruptions. By checking into the office, you are also ensuring that there are no unannounced visits to the classroom.

Thank you for your support as we implement the components of the Reading First Grant!

Assessment windows

In order to monitor the reading progress of each individual student, Reading First Ohio requires four separate testing times during the year. These assessments are necessary so that our teachers can provide the highest quality instruction that meets the needs of every child. The assessment times for the 2007-2008 school year are as follows:

Benchmark 1 September 17-28

Benchmark 2 January 14-25

Benchmark 3 April 14-25

All of the Benchmarks are done using the DIBELS assessments. These are quick, one minute assessments that help teachers track progress of each student toward the end of year goal.

If your child needs to miss during these weeks, please let the classroom teacher know in advance, so that arrangements can be made.

Thanks,

Reading First Staff

Parent Pointers

PARENT POINTERS

Here are some quick and easy things you can do with your child to help him/her with reading skills. We realize that many families lead busy lives and cannot always sit down and help their children as much as parents would like. Therefore, most of the following ideas can be done “on the go”.

Throughout the year, children will be given a series of one minute assessments that measure the acquisition of skills at different grade levels. These are known as DIBELS assessments. These pointers are divided by the assessments in which they could assist performance.

ISF (Initial Sound Fluency)

This test measures whether children are able to identify the first sound they hear in the word. For example “Point to the picture that starts with /b/”.

Let’s find ten things that start with the sound /s/ (or any sound) at the store, in the kitchen, during a car ride, etc.

Exaggerate the initial sound of some object and ask children what sound they start with.

Sort object by initial sound: “all the /s/ over here and the /h/ over here”

LNF (Letter Naming Fluency)

This test measures the automatic recognition of upper case and lower case letters. Saying the sounds associated with them can be helpful.

A-Z I-Spy: See if you can find all 26 letters of the alphabet during a trip, while at the store, in the house, etc.

One letter I-Spy: Count the number of times you see a “k” or let’s find 10 “F’s”.

Memory game or Go fish card games with upper and lower case letters.

PSF (Phoneme Segmentation Fluency)

This test helps the teacher determine if the child is ready to blend letter/sounds into words. Children are asked to break words down into the smallest sounds. (Sam, /s/ /a/ /m/)

“How many sounds are in…..? Children count each sound on their finger. “Bun…./b/ /u/ /n/ …three.

Clapping with individual sound.

Word train game- Person has to say a word (much), the next person has to say a word that starts with ending sound of the previous word (chair, red,…..)

NWF (Nonsense Word Fluency)

Measures the automatic recognition of short vowel patterns found in many words. In turn, it helps children sound out words they don’t know. (mem, vap, ik, zus, yox, for instance)

Word train game- Person has to say a word (much), the next person has to say a word that starts with ending letter of the previous word (chair, red,…..)

Word families- Children find words that end with the same two letters (bun, fun, run…) See how many they can get.

Make a pig into a cat by changing one letter at a time(pig, pit, pat, cat).

ORF (Oral Reading Fluency)

Measures how smoothly the child is reading by recording the number of words read in a minute.

Reading aloud- Reading things out loud provides children with a model in which to pattern themselves.

Echo reading- Read a line or two, then child reads it in an echo fashion. Funny voices can make this more fun.

Mute the TV and have the child read the Closed Captioning.

The “runner” on the news, weather, or sports is a good way for children to work on fluency.