grade 1 reading By Cathy-Dee

As far as reading goes - do not try to finish your readers - let your students set the pace. Some years my students get through all the readers easily and other years we don't even hit the last book.

Right now I would be focusing on reinforcing the letter names and really learning those letter sounds. Start teaching them sight words - a good rule of thumb is to learn 5 new words each week, and again the pace should be decided by your students based on how well they learn those words. Practice on a daily basis. Using the Dolch sight word list is a good place to start.

Words like juicy and delicious would be beyond most grade 1 students at this time of year.

Another good strategy is to work with word families - have them learn how to make words with the an, am, ap, ip, etc., families. This also helps them with writing in the end.

Also do a lot of other type of reading if you can - little books, stories, etc., Your readers should just be one of the resources you use, not the only resource if possible.

General in the first month we will only read 2 or 3 stories total out of our first reader. We use the Networks series, Jump In, etc., and I like to focus on the stories and the words (as many of the words are our sight words). I will have them do simple guided writing activities as well.

September to November is when I do what I call readiness skills - they are not really readers yet, but by the end of September they should be reading simple patterned sentences using the sight words they have learned.
My first sight words last week were
I a am boy girl

So we made sentences

I am a boy.
I am a girl.

This week we are learning big, little, the, look, jump.

I am a big boy.
I am a little girl.

Slowly I will add more words and we will make more sentences. By mid to late October most will be able to transfer this learning to new books.

I hope this helps.

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