Young Readers


Word Work & Phonics

In the early grades, children carefully study how words are put together.  They learn specific phonetic rules, spelling patterns, word endings, and decoding strategies.  They read words by sight, take dictation, study word families, complete practice work sheets, and memorize common words. This kind of word work is the means by which children become independent word-solvers who are eager and able to approach new situations. Without it, any early reading program is incomplete.

Small Groups

In small groups, children do, in cooperation, what they will one day do alone.  Together with a teacher, they learn to listen deeply to the printed word, to understand its meaning, and to make thoughtful responses. By reading together, children begin to see through the eyes of others and hear through others’ ears.  They come to know experiences and possibilities that are different than their own.  At the same time they come to understand rhyme, meter, sentence structure, descriptive language, directions, exaggeration, punctuation, grammar, and all other possibilities and intricacies of the written and spoken word.  The small group is where children are supported in the most critical aspects of language comprehension.

Independent Reading

Each day, time is set aside for independent reading.  This time is carefully guarded and only very rarely set aside to make room for some other activity.  It is one of our most significant classroom rituals at school. During this quiet reading time, children simply spend some uninterrupted moments with a collection of good books every day.   As the weeks go by and reading levels increase, the contents of the chosen books naturally change to match the readers’ interests and abilities.

Reading Partnerships

In the classrooms, we are becoming, day by day, a literate community – a clubhouse for readers and writers.  Our purpose is to make sure that every child is given a full membership in that club, together with those of us who are passing down the habits and roles of full-fledged readers. Throughout the year, “book buddies,” visitors, and teachers meet with children, share their favorite books, celebrate reading accomplishments, and continue the process of enticing children with the beauty, humor, knowledge, and power of written words.

Classroom & School Library

Without exception, children learn to read only by reading.  For this reason, the maintenance and enrichment of the classroom library is of primary importance.
Numerous studies have indicated that the mere act of providing children with more books can double the amount of reading they do – as long as we also provide guidance in the task of choosing books that match personal abilities and interests.  The prevalence of interesting and challenging books in a child’s life is essential.
With this in view, children are provided with a variety of books in the classroom:

  • Multiple copies of carefully leveled books that have been purchased from a curriculum company
  • Collections of chapter books that can be read aloud to all children and read independently by some children
  • Collections of books by significant authors
  • Collections of non-fiction books
  • Collections of children’s literature
  • Collections of poetry
  • Multiple copies of common favorites
  • Various dictionaries & atlases

Early in the year, each child is given a collection of books to ponder.  Later in the year, many of the books will become organized according to topic, author, genre, or reading level in order that children may make wise an independent choices.

Reading Aloud

Reading aloud to children really matters.  It makes a real difference.  Virtually all the experts agree on this: children need to listen to the best literature being read aloud to them if they are to reach their potential as young learners.  Reading aloud is at the heart of any good reading program.

In the report, Becoming a Nation of Readers, the U.S. Dept. of Ed. sets a priority that is followed even now.  “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”   Adults, they urged, should read aloud to children from the preschool to the high school years.  Throughout the seasons, children need to listen to stories being read aloud both in school and at home.  Just twenty minutes a day over many years, will add up to a substantial boost in reading skill and overall student performance in school.

For this reason, we often read aloud to children in the classroom.  We read chapter books, picture books, poems, articles, essays, announcements, and letters.  We read with expression, we pause to respond, and we invite children to join us in the thinking.  We notice, question, predict, and make connections out loud.  In the process, we mentor children in the thoughtfulness, skill, and habits that good readers live by.  Even more, by reading aloud to children every day, we introduce children to the humor, knowledge, love, joy, beauty, power, truth, and good that words can offer.  We entice them with good reading.

Guided Reading

Students need guidance in small groups to talk, think, and question their way through the reading process. In Guided Reading, books are leveled according to the children's instructional level and, with guidance, the children read increasingly challenging texts.  In the process, teachers actively help children to develop multiple skills and strategies.

Guided Reading is an essential part of an early literacy program.

  1. It is a context in which a teacher supports each reader’s development of effective strategies for processing text at increasing levels of difficulty (Fountas and Pinnell*).
  2. The goal of Guided Reading is for students to become fluent readers who can problem solve strategically and read independently and silently.


What are the principles of Guided Reading?
The teacher supports children in reading materials they cannot read totally independently. The Guided Reading is to help students learn reading strategies to apply to other reading situations.

  • May be done individually or with a small group (no more than six) to support understandings of any aspect of reading.
  • The teacher makes Guided Reading decisions based on observations of what the child can or cannot do to construct meaning.
  • It is usually done with a text not totally familiar to the child.
  • The children in the group need further work on the same type of problem.
  • The children learn from and support each other.

*Adapted from: Fountas & Pinnell (1996)