Time: Minimum of 3 times per week

• 
  Short sessions
  
• 
  Largely embedded in real reading and real writing contexts
  
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  Interactive word walls of high frequency words
  
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  Other wall charts of words for content areas (posters, graphic organizers, lists)
  
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  Focused attention to onset and rimes
  
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  Word games
  
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  Literacy centres
  
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  Provides an opportunity for teachers to assess the ability of students to apply word study knowledge in daily reading and writing activities
  

A balanced literacy program consists of time to teach, time to practice, and time to share in:

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  Speaking and listening
  
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  Reading
  
• 
  Writing
  
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  Word Study
  
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  Effective assessment
  

Teachers of Grades two and three in Tri-County Regional School Board are required (as mandated by the Department of Education) to provide a minimum of 60 uninterrupted minutes for Active Reading Hour daily (90 minutes sessions are strongly recommended). In addition to this Active Reading Hour, students in Grades Two and Three must have 30 minutes daily of writing and writing instruction. Word Study should be embedded in these time allotments for a minimum of 10- 15 minutes at least three times weekly. (Note: time spent on word study will be in addition to the allotted time for reading/writing workshop(s).)

The goal of a BALANCED reading program is to encourage students to develop strengths in these key areas:

1. 
   Accuracy – independent, instructional, fluent
   
2. 
   Fluency – expression, phrasing, punctuation, rate
   
3. 
   Comprehension – literal understanding, deeper comprehension (making connections, questioning, inferring, visualizing, determining importance, synthesizing)
   

Teachers in Tri-County Regional School Board are encouraged to use a workshop model of instruction. In keeping with this model, each lesson in the Reading Workshop usually begins with a mini lesson. This short, focused lesson allows the teacher to instruct the students in concepts such as book selection, comprehension strategies, word-solving strategies, vocabulary etc. Great examples of mini lessons can be found in:

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  Grades 1-2 Teacher’s Resource Book, Miriam Trehearne
  
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  Comprehensive Literacy Resource for Grades 3-6 Teachers, Miriam Trehearne
  
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  Reading for Real, Kathy Collins
  
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  Beyond Levelled Books, Sibberson and Symusiak
  
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  Catching Readers Before they Fall, Pat Johnson and Katie Keier
  

It is important to read both fiction and non-fiction during read-aloud.

Read-aloud can take two forms: traditional read-aloud and interactive read-aloud. Both are essential and have slightly different purposes.


In a traditional read-aloud we come together as a community and the teacher models for the children what the language of books sounds like, what loving a book looks like, and what being lost in a story feels like. This time may not be attached to any curriculum objectives or academic standards. Rather it is simply a time to share and enjoy a fabulous book with your students.

In an interactive read-aloud, the teacher reads the text with a clear instructional purpose in mind, engaging the children in conversation before, during and after the read-aloud. Teachers use this type of read-aloud to model comprehension strategies, such as making connections, activating prior knowledge, questioning, and so on. (Johnson and Keier, p. 73)

Component	What is it?	What Does It Look Like?	What is Needed?
Shared Reading	Supported reading time where teacher and students read a common text ( Big Book, Morning Message, chart, poem) Context provides support for all readers in a safe comfortable learning community Text is at instructional or independent reading level Opportunities to reinforce effective reading strategies (predicting, confirming, monitoring, self-correcting, word-solving, sampling, gathering, maintaining fluency) are provided Whole or small group can read aloud together chorally with or without the teacher	Students and teacher read all or parts of a text together Specific instructional focus is included Explicit teaching of effective reading strategies, word-solving strategies, and comprehension is included Teacher may use jigsaw (or other group sharing strategies) Teacher may use reciprocal teaching techniques (refer to Reciprocal Teaching at Work, by Lori Oczkus)	Teacher uses enlarged text, overhead, charts, LCD, or multiple copies of text Variety of genres Range of reading materials including poetry, song, readers’ theatre, chants, prose, information text Comfortable meeting location required

The purpose of shared reading is to make texts available to all children, allowing them to experience what it feels like to be a proficient reader. It is a time for us to teach about the reading process and serves as a gateway to guided reading and independent reading.

Johnson and Keier, p. 74

I find that children, even very young ones, can read independently for extended periods of time when they are matched with books they can read with a 95 percent of higher word accuracy rate. They are also more successful with books that interest them.

…Knowing my books and my children, and making a match between them, is one of the most important things I do – and one of the most demanding.

(Taberski, pp. 136-137)

Component	What is it?	What Does It Look Like?	What is Needed?
Reflection	Thought, discussion and possibly written response to a lesson or activity	Conference, whole or small group discussion, jot notes, written response, KWL etc.	Any effective form of formal or informal notes of observations of student progress, learning and attitudes Any form of formal or informal notes on observations of teaching practices, feedback, and next steps to inform instruction

Assessment:

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  Assessment of reading is ongoing.
  
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  Assessment may be formal (reading records, cloze activities) and informal (conferring, note-taking, conversing).
  
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  Teacher observes students during read-aloud, shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, and reflection.
  
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  Teacher confers/converses regularly with individuals and small groups.
  
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  Teacher administers ongoing running records and analyzes them to determine cueing system(s), comprehension, fluency.
  
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  Students complete interest inventories, participate in discussions, submit written responses and other products, co-create rubrics and checklists.
  
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  Teachers in Grades 2 and 3 are encouraged to use Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Systems at least twice yearly. Teachers in Grade Two are expected to submit results to Central Office in February and in May/June.
  
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  Teachers must have a solid grasp of instructional and independent reading level targets for Grades two and three.
  
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  Teachers must understand the developmental stages of reading and plan instruction accordingly.
  
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  Teachers must understand text difficulty scales: Independent (easy), Instructional (just right), and difficult (hard).
  
• 
  Teachers must keep ongoing notes about student progress and maintain efficient records.
  

Grade Two
Indicators of Comprehension in Grade Two:

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  Uses names of authors and illustrators
  
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  Can identify and record whether a text is fiction or nonfiction
  
• 
  Accurately represents information, concepts, setting, characters, and story problems through drawing and writing (visualizing, determining importance, synthesizing)
  
• 
  Notices and sometimes uses new vocabulary words from a text (synthesizing)
  
• 
  Summarizes text in several sentences identifying significant events or ideas (determining importance, synthesizing)
  
• 
  Describes characters’ feelings and motivations, inferring them from the text (inferring)
  
• 
  Expresses connections to prior knowledge, to other texts, and to personal background or experience (connecting)
  
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  Expresses opinions about new learning or interesting facts (synthesizing)
  
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  Produces some simple graphic representations of a story (information web, story map, timeline etc.) (determining importance)
  Ask any teacher “What’s it all for?” and we’re sure he or she will tell you that the end goal of all reading instruction is for the students to be able to comprehend what they read. Highly proficient readers, having developed a functioning reading process system, will automatically and flexibly apply that system to any text in order to understand it. Our job is to see that every student eventually develops a reading process system that will help him or her comprehend text and fix up any problems that arise while reading.

  (Johnson and Keier p. 132)

  
  
  

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