Enduring Understandings - important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the instruction received this year.

• Different strategies and skills are required to understand a variety of materials.

• People apply critical thinking skills when reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing.

• Throughout history, humans have used literature as a record of their experiences.

Essential Questions - most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer after completing learning activities.

• Why do we need to understand what we read or hear? How do we use strategies and skills to understand a variety of materials?

• What is critical thinking? Why is critical thinking important? How do we apply critical thinking skills?

• How and why do humans use literature to record their experiences? How has history influenced literature and vice versa?

Standards
Highest Frequency High Frequency Other Standards & E-skills

Standard 1: Comprehension

1.c Identify supporting details and main idea.

1.h Use word recognition skills and resources (for example, phonics, context clues, picture clues, reference guides, roots, prefixes and suffixes of words) for comprehension.
    1.b Summarize long text passages.
    1.d Draw inferences using contextual clues.
 

Standard 4: Thinking Skills

4.d Make predictions and draw conclusions about stories.
    4.a Determine author’s purpose.

Standard 5: Research
5.a Use organizational features of printed text (for example, page numbering, alphabetizing, glossaries, chapter heading, table of contents, indexes, captions) to locate information.
5.d Sort information as it relates to a specific topic or purpose.
    5.f  Select appropriate definitions from the dictionary, glossaries, and other sources.

        5. e Give credit for borrowed information by listing sources.

Standard 6:  Literature
6.b Identify setting, plot, character, problem, and solution.
    6.d Read and respond to literature as a way to explore the similarities and differences among stories and the ways in which those stories reflect the ethnic background of the author and the culture in which they were written.

        6.c  Use new vocabulary from literature in another context.

CBLA Proficiencies

Phonics
A) Apply knowledge of letter-sound relationships to decode words in order to comprehend connected text.
B) Apply knowledge of syllable spelling patterns to decode words in order to comprehend connected text.

Fluency
A) Orally read grade level materials attending to phrasing, intonation, and punctuation.
B) Adjust reading pace to accommodate purpose, style, and difficulty of text.

Vocabulary
A) Understand vocabulary essential to text.
B) Understand and generate vocabulary specific to content.
C) Use a range of strategies.
D) Use a range of resources.
E) Recognize common prefixes, suffixes, and roots in multi-syllabic words.

Comprehension
A) Use a range of strategies when constructing meaning from text.
B) Retell, summarize/and or synthesize important information.
C) Apply information and make connections from reading.
D) Activate schema/background knowledge.
E) Determine importance.
F) Ask questions.
G) Create images.
H) Draw inferences.
I) Use a variety of strategies to monitor and maintain comprehension.
J) Read, comprehend, and listen to a range of genres: narrative texts and expository texts.
K) Retell narrative text using characters, setting, and sequence of events.
L) Retell expository text using main idea and some supporting details.
M) Generate a written or oral response to what has been read.
N) Connect information and events in texts to life experiences.
O) State the purpose for reading.
P) Interpret information from simple diagrams, charts, and graphs.
Q) Read and follow simple written directions.
R) Summarize text passages.
S) Understand literary elements.
T) Compare one text to another.

Resources

Sight Word Powerpoint:  Basic sight word recognition is essential for reading fluency and comprehension. This PowerPoint Slides will be a quick way to practice 220 essential high-frequency words with your child. Sit down and challenge your student by asking him/her how many words he/she knows. If they do not know these words yet, it will be a fun way to start.

Sight Word Powerpoint with Sentences:  This presentation includes the 220 essential high-frequency words and an example of those words used in context. This will be a great way for children to practice sight word recognition within the context of a basic sentence.

Audio Sight Word PowerPoint Slides Slides:  The following link will allow your child to work with smaller amounts of the 220 sight words children need to master by the end of third grade.  The links are divided into groups of 20 (11 lists in all).  Start with List 1 and work through List 11.  When you feel your child has mastered all 220 words (with 90%) accuracy, try out the PowerPoint Slides presentations found in slots 1 and 2. The PowerPoint Slides Slides in slots 1 and 2, however, do not have audio support. 
Sight Words Part 1   Sight Words Part 2    Sight Words Part 3    Sight Words Part 4    Sight Words Part 5
Sight Words Part 6    Sight Words Part 7    Sight Words Part 8    Sight Words Part 9    Sight Words Part 10
Sight Words Part 11

The King of Soundsound:  This challenging reading activity provides access to all 44 phonemes (sounds) that our language provides. By reading this story and practicing it with your child, you will ensure that your child is exposed to the multifaceted sounds our language makes. At the end of this story, you will also find several phonogram poems that will improve your child's fluency. Read these with your child and have a blast!

Phonogram Powerpoints:  A phonogram is a word part that contains a group of letters that are often found together (ight, ell, ought, ook, oop, ump, uss). It is important for children to recognize phonograms as part of their phonics training. These powerpoints will provide easy access to over 200 different phonograms you can practice with your child. The more phonograms they can pronounce, the more words they will be prepared to read and sound out.

Lessons