Emergent Student Readers Set 1 & 2 UPDATE

I have been busy updating and revamping my Emergent Student Readers!  

This has been something I have been meaning to do for quite awhile now.  I wasn't really pleased with the order they were listed in, because they weren't listed in the order I teach them to my own students.  So I went ahead and fixed that.  Now they are listed in order of difficulty.  Each reader builds upon the previous reader as the sight words are reviewed and new words are slowly introduced.  The sentence patterns change slightly from line to line, to ensure the students focus on the text and do not just memorize a patter that is repeated over and over again.

Set 1 now consists of 7 Emergent Student Readers.  Each reader includes a copy for the student to read in class and also a Home Reader to take home.  

Also included are sight word flash cards and pocket chart picture cards to go along with each reader.

The following sight words are reviewed in Set 1:

I, see, a, my

I, see, a, the

I, see, a, and, the

I, see, a, and, the, my

I, see, my, the, can, go, you

I, see, my, the, can, go, you, is, in
I, see, a, my, can, is, it, no

In addition to introducing sight words, this set is geared to help students develop their concept of word.  I have placed dots under each word in the first five readers to remind students where to point with their finger as they read.  I also use this set to introduce the reading strategies of looking at the pictures for a clue and also using beginning sounds to determine unknown words. Rhyming pairs can be reinforced with the 1^st, 2^nd,  and 4^th readers in this set. 

You will find 6 different readers in Set 2, which continues to build upon Set 1.  

The following sight words are reviewed in Set 2:
I, see, my, the, can, is, no, in, on, me, like, look, it
I, see, the, can, you, is, on, me, like, little, we
I, see, the, can, you, is, in, on, look, it, at
I, the, my, is, me, look, at, this, that, am
a, is, this, that, he, she, has, have, do, or
a, my, the, you, is, on, this, that, he, she, do

In addition to introducing sight words, this set is geared to help students develop and apply additional reading strategies. I generally reinforce the following with this set:  checking the pictures for a clue, using beginning sound knowledge, thinking about all of the sounds to decode simple words, and making sure what they are reading makes sense.

If you want to learn more about how I use these Emergent Student Readers in my classroom, please click here.

Also, stay tuned because Set 3 is currently in the works!  

Flipping

I am flipping over the fact that my spring break has officially started!!  

Because of this, I thought it was appropriate to post the "Flip the Sound" chart I created using graphics from Scrappin Doodles to remind my students to try different sounds for the letters listed when they are decoding puzzling words.

Is anyone else on break as of today also?  I am very excited to spend some quality time with my family, to scrub my house from top to bottom, and to get some much needed odds and ends completed!  Plus, I am hoping to have some extra time to stalk some of my favorite blogs!!

Thanks so much!
~ Mrs. Mc

Anecdotal Notes

The last two years I have been tweaking the form I use to record anecdotal notes on my students and I think I am finally happy with it! (Well, I haven't changed it yet since the beginning of this year at least!)  Here it is:

The top half includes two blank boxes to write notes and the bottom half includes an area to record a running record (RR).  A colleague of mine had shared a print-out of a RR for 100 words using 100 boxes. To get the student’s accuracy you would just subtract the number of errors from 100% (ex. 7 errors would equal 93%).  How easy is that?  Since I try to complete a RR on each student at least once per week, I wanted to include it on the same form as my notes.  I also document the student’s words per minute (WPM) and circle/comment about their phrasing and expression.

The bottom of the form has simple codes that I circle for each reading strategy the child uses.  My district has adopted these strategies from Donna Scanlon’s Interactive Strategies Approach (ISA).  You can read more about the ISA in a book they recently published called, Early Intervention for Reading Difficulties: The Interactive Strategies Approach (Solving Problems in the Teaching of Literacy)

Here is a list of what the codes mean:

        CP=Check the Pictures

        TS=Think about the Sounds in the word First, Last, Medial

        MS=Think of words that might Make Sense

        WP=Look for Word Families or Parts you may know.

        RP=Read Past the word

        SA=Go back to the beginning of the sentences and Start Again

        DP=Try Different Pronunciations for some of the letters.

        BW=Break the Word into smaller parts

        IC=Uses multiple strategies in an Interactive and

                Confirmatory Way

~  Mrs. Mc