I am a K & 1 EC Teacher in a diverse and high-need district. I am requesting materials for students in my 1st grade collaborative/co-taught classroom inclusive of students with special needs.
I constantly try new things in my classroom on a small, individualized scale. I’m excited about completing a Teacher Action Research project which would allow me to implement such interventions on a slightly larger scale, thereby better enabling me to reliably measure success with these initiatives (on account of a larger sample population). One of the “best practices” I experimented with recently was focused on daily drills to build fluency. Fluency is one of the key indicators of a proficient reader, as it is necessary for true comprehension of a text. The disfluent reader expands cognitive energy primarily on finding out words and pronunciations. This leaves little memory capacity to focus on comprehending the information. When a reader’s decoding skills are automatic, his/her cognitive energy can be spent on making meaning of the text. Because they no longer have to focus on decoding words, they can use all of their energy to think critically about what a story means. Truly, fluency is the bridge that moves readers from simply decoding words to understanding and enjoying texts. Comprehension is my end goal, but getting there necessitates building fluency.
How I intend to build fluency, is (in part) by arming my students with a repertoire of high frequency/ sight words. Most teachers agree that in order to attain fluency, it is essential that students master high frequency/ sight words as comprehension, the main goal of reading, is contingent upon fluency, but oftentimes we rely on Word Walls and a sight-word test administered every 9-weeks to assess student knowledge of sight words. My students need index cards to write their words on, along with individual timers for use at school and at home. Daily drills at home are important so my students receive direct one-on-one attention and having their own materials will make meeting their academic contracts for daily practice possible. This approach would be a more proactive approach. Using donated boxes we will decorate two boxes (one for home and one for school). In the boxes we will add high frequency/ sight words. For example “is”, “see”, “me”, and “you”. I then match books, often pattern books where the words are repeated time and time again (for example, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See,") to compliment the practice.
“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
- Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!" Thanks in advance for your help!
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