our first grade program

Language Arts

Language arts instruction includes instruction in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Modeled, guided, shared, and independent reading concepts and skills are the focus of the Readers’ Workshop while guided writing, independent writing, and spelling are associated with the Writers’ Workshop.

First Grade is a year of tremendous growth in the area of language arts. The first grade research workshop focus, “the culture and history of communication,” integrates social studies learning.

During the daily 90-minute Readers’ Workshop, students work in small groups or individually on word study activities, individual tasks and center work while the teachers meet with small groups for guided reading instruction.

Word study activities are direct and systematic. Teachers may introduce topics in large group settings and then ask children to complete tasks individually or with friends. Word study activities allow students to build understanding of word patterns and word families; sight word knowledge; rhyming; letter/sound correspondence; and segmenting/blending.

Center work is lively and engaging. Through games, activities, readers’ theater, puppetry, art, the listening center, or paper-and-pencil tasks, teachers tailor this instructional time for skill development in phonics, phonemic awareness, oral fluency or comprehension. Readers’ Workshop also allows time for shared and independent reading experiences.

During guided reading instruction, a group of two to six students meets with the teacher several times each week. Using a book the teacher introduces, the students read the book aloud, focusing on skills, strategies, listening and speaking skills, oral fluency or comprehension tasks.

The focus of strategies and skills introduced in guided reading typically depend upon the children’s instructional reading level. The strategies and skills are typically introduced in small group settings and organized by instructional levels. In the First Grade this typically encompasses:

Emergent stage:develop understanding that print contains message; focus on story meaning; use memory to match spoken and written words; use initial sounds to predict words; use some letter/sound links; use pictures to predict; practice in developing memory for text; learn through modeling and shared reading word identification strategies; phonic knowledge, patterns and syllabification
Early stage: practice reading familiar texts confidently to promote oral fluency; identify different text forms; ; understand that authors express their own ideas; use picture clues to check for meaning; begin to use a variety of word identification strategies; phonic knowledge, patterns and syllabification; develop broader sight word bank; expand vocabulary by using and applying graphophonic strategies; use a variety of strategies to decode unknown words
Transitional stage: retell and discuss interpretation; become more efficient using strategies to make meaning; predict, self-correct, re-read; reading-on; make meaningful substitutions; use increasing bank of sight words; broaden vocabulary based on reading increasingly challenging selections; use word identification strategies; phonic knowledge, patterns and syllabification; develop the ability to identify character traits, setting, main ideas and details
Self-extending stage: recognize and discuss elements and purposes for text; comprehend text removed from experience; make inferences and critical comparisons; increase range of strategies to make meaning; use broader vocabulary; use word identification strategies; read silently for information/pleasure and orally with fluency and expression; use a dictionary/thesaurus for word meanings; use a table of contents, glossary, chapter headings or index to locate information

Writers’ Workshop in First Grade, which meets several times each week, provides students opportunities to express themselves using written words. Teachers use whole group instruction, shared writing and mini-lessons. Instruction is based on the text, Writing Across the Primary Years (Calkins). Teachers introduce to First Graders the processes and structure of Writers’ Workshop, the understanding of what a writer does, and the ways a writer effectively conveys a message.

Writers’ Workshop at this level supports children thinking of themselves as writers. It provides students an opportunity to apply letter sounds and handwriting they have been learning in class and allows them to share stories with others.

Skills and strategies introduced at this level related to productivity and the writing process include: understanding the purpose of writing and generating topics willingly; composing personal writing about events in one’s life; working through portions of the writing process with independence; sequencing ideas such as a story’s beginning, middle and ending
Skills and strategies introduced related to graphophonics and the revision/editing processes include developing strategies for spelling unfamiliar words; spelling appropriately using developmental spelling and expected conventions; and understanding and beginning to use revision and proofreading as part of the writer’s process. Spelling instruction at this grade level takes place in context of word study lessons.
Skills and strategies introduced related to handwriting include continuing study of the Handwriting Without Tears manuscript; practicing for legibility the upper and lower case letter formation; and practicing word and sentence writing with appropriate spacing and capitalization