How HighScope Teaches Reading in Kindergarten Through Third Grade (continued)

How teachers promote reading and overall literacy in High/Scope classrooms

• Conduct large-group sessions (which may be called circle time, gathering, or story time) that include activities such as studying phonemes and words, identifying and creating rhymes, reading stories aloud, singing, and engaging in dramatic play and other productions. New concepts and skills are introduced, and previously introduced skills are briefly reviewed and practiced. For example, teachers may use a large-group setting to draw children's attention to the letter patterns for sound blends from a recent story they've heard, such as /br/ and /tr/. In the same session, children might practice these letter-sound patterns by thinking of additional words with these sounds to add to a word wall.

• Organize daily, small-group instructional workshops involving word study, writing, guided reading, and application or representation of text. Each small group involves a language arts or reading task assigned by the teacher. Small-group activities are planned around printed curriculum materials or teacher-designed activities based on language arts and reading standards. A language workshop, for example, might consist of four small-group stations: a guided reading from a trade or other graded storybook; a word- and picture-matching activity based on beginning, ending, or vowel sounds; buddy reading; and journal writing. The small groups rotate through all the stations until each group has completed all the activities planned. Alternatively, all the small groups can work on the same workshop activity at the same time, then all can change to the next planned activity, and so on.

• Read aloud daily to children, or have a child or other adult read to the class. Teachers also provide daily times for buddy reading, in which children read to a partner, or a period of sustained silent reading when children read a book from the class or school library that is of interest to them and is at their current reading level. Teachers use this time for one-on-one guided reading and for individual assessment of reading development.

• Use computers and computer-based learning materials, when available, to support reading and writing activities. Computer programs provide language- and reading-based activities for small-group workshops and for child-initiated activities. Programs offer multimedia games and creative activities that encourage practice with letters, letter sounds, rhymes, word recognition, and comprehension. Children also use computers in writing and publishing projects and in exchanging e-mail with teachers, friends, classes at other schools, and experts in various subjects being studied. High/Scope makes computer software recommendations to help teachers identify programs that provide user choice, link sight and sound to build phonics connections, provide supportive feedback, and monitor student progress.

• Use periodic assessment of individual reading levels to guide the choice of reading selections and instruction for each child. Teachers keep running records of children's oral reading in graded materials; they use these records along with other reading-level measures to determine children's independent reading level and instructional needs. Using observations, anecdotal notes, and portfolios to assess children's letter-sound skills, phonemic awareness, word recognition, and comprehension skills, teachers track individual literacy progress and plan suitable instructional activities.

• Work with parents and families to develop a print-rich environment at home that will develop children's skills and instill a love of reading and writing. Activities may include borrowing books from community or school libraries, keeping a parent-child journal, doing family histories and interviews, and playing literacy-related games such as word scavenger hunts. Teachers also keep parents informed about children's reading and writing progress at school.

Frequently asked questions: What is High/Scope's position on ...

Using phonics?Learning letter-sound patterns and the relationships between speech sounds and written words is a fundamental part of learning to read in High/Scope classrooms. Teachers first emphasize children's awareness of the individual sounds in words through activities involving rhyming; matching words with similar beginning and ending sounds; breaking words into sound units; combining, deleting, and changing sounds to create new words; and synthesizing words from individual sounds. Along with these phonemic awareness activities, teachers give children experiences connecting speech sounds with letters and letter patterns in printed words. Children apply these phonics skills as they read and/or write stories and other kinds of texts.

Using direct instruction?High/Scope teachers present some concepts and skills directly (for example, letter sounds, vocabulary, handwriting, punctuation) by describing them and presenting examples orally and in print. High/Scope teachers also engage children with content by asking them to recall facts or skills, and by practicing it in application activities. High/Scope teachers do not rely on verbal transmission or scripted lessons to convey information that can be learned inductively, nor do they rely on repeated practice of skills in isolation when these skills can be acquired more effectively through use in practical contexts. High/Scope teachers balance their instructional initiatives with children's initiatives by providing choices, asking children to plan learning projects of their own, and encouraging children to use creative thinking and problem solving in teacher-assigned tasks and activities. Teachers plan large-group activities and small-group workshops, while children plan their own learning activities during the plan-do-review segment of the daily routine. Teachers maintain a consistent schedule and set high expectations for children's work and for children's care and support of one another.