Reading/Writing

In class, children read for pleasure, for information, and to build skills. Through both all-class workshops and independent reading sessions, teachers help children focus on becoming closer readers, comprehension, vocabulary, spelling and grammar, and good writing techniques.

During independent reading, children find a cozy spot with a good book. This allows the teachers to circulate and identify individual needs. Through this one-on-one discussion and practice, students gain stronger understanding of both reading and writing techniques.

Throughout the year children also form book groups to discuss storylines, characters, and themes of curriculum related stories and novels and then relate what they learn to their writing. As an example, while studying Native Americans, students read and listened to tales, practiced identifying story elements and summarizing, and then wrote their own tales in a similar format.

Writing is practiced everyday in many forms. In their writing journals, students compose personal and poetic reflections which is the basis of their individual spelling lists. Science and math journals are used to document and organize work and to record observations. In Theme, journals are used to record information to create reports on theme-related projects.