• ELA Overview
    reading - owl  
     

    First-grade students will develop skills in the areas of reading, writing, listening and speaking through the use of the reading program called Wonders Balanced Literacy, published by McGraw-Hill.  This research-based program offers a balanced approach to literacy learning that incorporates shared reading, guided reading and independent reading, as well as focused skill and strategy instruction.  Systematic instruction in the five areas of reading instruction – phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, robust vocabulary, and comprehension – are included.  Wonders Balanced Literacy also integrates writing into the reading process.

     

    The students in first grade will learn to: 

    • Relate letters to sounds and blend sounds to form words
    • Break spoken words into sounds and write these sounds
    • Recognize meanings of specific words through vocabulary activities
    • Understand, remember, and communicate the meaning of stories heard and/or read
    • Develop comprehension skills:  determining main idea and details, making predictions, drawing conclusions, making inferences
    • Recognize high frequency words
    • Use a variety of decoding skills which include visual cues, structural analysis, and context clues
    • Read text with speed, accuracy and proper expression
    • Develop writing skills using journal writing, shared writing and interactive writing
    • Compose narrative and descriptive pieces of writing
    • Use the writing process:  prewrite, draft, revise, edit, publish