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What happens during the Literacy Block?

The Third Grade Literacy Block is broken down into two main parts.  One part of the Literacy Block focuses on whole group instruction.  Students are introduced to and practice reading skills and strategies through cooperative groups, partner work, and direct teacher instruction.  Students read stories from their reading book or other supplemental materials and discuss the five core components of reading including vocabulary, comprehension, phonics, oral reading fluency, and phonemic awareness. 

The second part of the Literacy Block is composed of small group instruction and literacy workstations.  Students will be grouped in pairs.  During group work students will work on the five core components through leveled text, engaging activities, and literary discussions.  Students will be enabled to move at their own pace to reach their full potential.  During literacy workstations students will be engrossed in activities to reinforce skills and strategies taught during whole group and small group instruction.  Students will be assessed frequently to determine progress. 

How will students be assessed?

 Students will be assessed by the following methods.  The results of these assessments will drive instruction for the Literacy Team.

• Weekly Reading tests will be on Fridays to assess comprehension, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, and phonics.
• Literacy workstation activities will be assessed during the week as determined by the student’s reading teacher.
• Think Link®, a computer based program, will assess all of the core components of reading and report on student strengths and challenges to be evaluated by the reading teacher.

What is Vocabulary?

• The words we must know to communicate effectively.
• Oral vocabulary refers to words we use in speaking or recognize in listening.
• Reading vocabulary refers to the meaning of words we recognize in print.

Vocabulary is important because:

ü  Beginning readers use words they know to make sense of the words they see in print.

ü  Readers must know what most of the words mean before they can understand what they are reading.

How can I enrich my child’s vocabulary?

• Read aloud to your children and explain and define words that are unfamiliar. 
• Encourage your child to choose a synonym for common words such as nice, mad, happy, or good. 

What is Comprehension?

• Reading comprehension is understanding.
• It is creating meaning and usefulness from text.

Comprehension is important because:

 Comprehension is the reason for reading.

 Without comprehension, children are merely making sounds without meaning.

 To be successful in society students need to comprehend and respond to a print-rich world.

How can I improve my child’s comprehension skills?

• Ask your child questions about their book or text before, during, and after they read. 
• Ask your child to retell the story when they are finished. 
• Expose your child to all types of print including newspapers, magazines, maps, comics, books, menus, and even food labels.  Have them read these real-world materials and then have a discussion about what they read. 
• Remind your child that good readers reread when they don’t understand and encourage self-correction. 

What is Phonemic Awareness?

• Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and move individual sounds (manipulate) - phonemes - in spoken words.

Phonemic awareness is important because it:

 improves student's word reading and comprehension

 helps students learn to spell

What can I do to improve my child’s Phonemic Awareness?

• Practice rhyming words and identify the spelling patterns. For example, brake, rake, sake, take, make, lake
• Write letters on index cards and talk about the sounds the letters make when blended together to form words.

What is Oral Reading Fluency?

• Oral Reading Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly.

Why is Oral Reading Fluency important?

• Oral Reading Fluency is important because it helps students to understand what they read. Oral Reading fluency can be developed by modeling and then having students practice fluent reading.

How can I develop my child’s Reading Fluency?

• When your child reads, remind them to pause at commas, stop at periods, and read with expression and inflection.
• Have your child practice reading a story or a list of words out loud.  Time them for 1 minute and have them try to read more words each time they read the passage.

What is Phonics?

• Phonics instruction means students learn the relationships between letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language (often called letter-sound relationships or associations).

Phonics instruction is important because:

 It leads to an understanding of the alphabetic principle - the systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds.

How can I help my child with Phonics?

• Ask your child to break apart the words they read by segmenting the sounds within the word.  For example, cat - /c/ /a/ /t/
• Help your child to distinguish between long and short vowels by reminding them that long vowels say their name.