1st Grade

In Reader’s Workshop, our first graders move from reading simple leveled books at the beginning of the year to early reader chapter books by winter and spring. It’s a very exciting year, and we begin with a short unit called Good Readers Have Good Habits. In this unit, we ask the students to help “teach” the class about the important habits every reader should have. These are:

• Choosing a just-right book (not too easy, not too hard, just on your level)
• Getting ready to read by previewing a book – looking at the cover and the pages inside to get an idea about who and what the story might be about.
• Stopping to solve tricky words by tapping them out, reading to the end of the sentence, then reading it again to figure out the word, putting your own word in there, or pointing to what the word might be in the picture.
• Reading with fluency and expression.
• Retelling our books by naming the character, the setting, the problem (if there was one) and the most important parts.

At home you can support this unit by creating a place and time for quiet reading each night. It is of utmost importance that your child read the books in their baggy for 20 minutes each night. 20 minutes a night, multiplied by the number of school days, leads to much more comfortable, confident and skilled readers by the end of first grade! Keep in mind, in September, your child might be more comfortable reading TO you than alone.
 
At the beginning of October, we take one week for complex text reading. In this week, students are given the opportunity to hold a text that’s slightly harder than they are used to reading, and they are invited to really find and problem-solve around the tricky words they find. This is wonderful because it helps everyone know that ALL readers find tricky words – and together in the class we discover or learn strategies to solve all of these words.
 
At home you can support this by celebrating when your child stops to solve a tricky word, or by sharing some of the tricky words YOU find in your reading too.
 
Finally, the rest of October is dedicated to a unit we call Getting to Know Our Characters. In this unit, the students explore different ways to infer (figure out) characters’ feelings, and they become experts at identifying important feelings across a story. They then use the important feelings across the story to help them give a more mature retelling of the stories they read.
 
At home, you can support this unit by making sure to name your own feelings across the day, and ask your child how they feel at different times too. Remember that people often have two different feelings at once-  excited and scared, frustrated and sad, etc.
 
In Reading Workshop in November, we focus on reading in the nonfiction genre.  This unit builds on the knowledge and skills introduced in Kindergarten, and supports students in reading nonfiction at higher levels, and with more complex contents and formats.
 
We begin by discussing and naming how nonfiction is similar but different from fiction – it has words and pictures, but sometimes the pictures are photographs, diagrams, or close-ups to teach the reader even more information. It has tricky words, but the authors often give you a glossary or very clear context clues in the text to help you learn any words that are truly important to the topic. It’s organized in some way – often with chapters, or section headings.
 
The students will be reading some texts with the teacher, as part of their lessons, and they will also have the opportunity to choose their own nonfiction texts to read. It’s important to note that during the nonfiction study, we still ask students to keep up with their leveled fiction reading, so we take time in class to read both. At home, we encourage students to read at least one or two of their fiction books, along with any other nonfiction reading they choose as their nighttime reading.
 
In December, we begin a shared reading unit, where students have their hands on a text slightly above their level, and the teachers facilitate the student’s previewing, reading for comprehension, and reading for fluency and expression. This is a wonderful unit where students get exposed to series and reading strategies that are right where they need to go next – and it sets many students up for reading the next level by the time they return to us in January!
 
How can parents help at home?
Consider ways to make reading a quiet, focused, and positive time at home. Ask yourself: what does your child need to be a productive reader at home?
Do they need an audience? Ask your child to read their books aloud to you or another family member.
Do they need a cozy reading nook? Consider getting a reading pillow or a lap desk to help them read comfortably, but still with good posture.
Do they need a snack? Offer it!
 
As you read with your child, you can ask them….
What is the story mostly about?
What is your favorite part?
What is one word that was tricky, but you solved it? How did you solve it?
What is one word that was too tricky to sound out, but you think you know what it means? How did you figure that out?
Did the main character remind you of any other characters you’ve read before? How?
 
In the new year, we begin a unit on Envisioning without pictures – this is a very important unit where we prepare students to read with less and less picture support. They learn to notice key signals in the text that help them know WHERE a scene is happening, WHO is there, and WHAT they are doing. Then they practice making a movie in their mind (and on paper) of those things. Finally, they look at place where the author adds body language, facial expression, and special dialogue tags (yelled, cried, etc) to think about the feeling a character has, even if the author didn’t name the feeling for us. This is called inferring, and it’s a very crucial skill for reading without pictures.
 
In the spring of the First Grade, we begin a study of Character Journey in Reading Workshop. This means learning to identify our character’s journey – usually their main problem – and then track their steps along this journey as they reach a solution or resolution. The students learn that when authors create a story, they plan their scenes out carefully – in each scene, something important happens. Students learn to recognize a new scene by noticing if a character moves to a new place, if a new character enters the scene, or if time passes. The students learn to “get a strong start” at the beginning of a scene by asking, “Who’s here? Where are they? What’s happening so far?” and then they learn to pause at the end of the scene to ask “What’s the big thing that happened in this scene? Is my character’s problem better or worse? Why?” This is a crucial skill for for our readers as they begin reading longer and longer books. Following our character’s journey helps the readers keep track of all of the important parts of a book, and it gives them questions to consider as they read each scene, which helps them remain active in their reading.
 
Then in the end of March, beginning of April, the students read and write poetry. They learn that poets can write about anything, but they often write about something that gives a strong image or feeling, or both. Each day, they studied a different type of poem or craft, and then tried that out by writing their own poems.
 
Finally, in late spring, we ask students to develop ideas about their characters. Are they adventurous? Are they shy? Are they bossy? Do they change? This unit invites students to watch their characters closely and to look for patterns in behavior, and to develop an idea about their character that they can substantiate with evidence from the text.
You can support this at home by modeling and discussing ideas about the characters in books you read aloud together, or do the same with characters in movies you watch. An idea can be a simple character trait – brave, loyal, persistent, etc, or it can a sentence – this person is a good friend, this person always reaches out to family members to help him/her through her problems. The big goal is for students to envision the story, notice patterns, and talk about these patterns in their own words.

Each Monday in First Grade, our students continue with their Weekend News. This is a special time of the week when they can share a memory they have from the weekend and they hold onto it by putting their memory into writing. This is also a time of the week where teachers put specific emphasis on handwriting, punctuation, spacing, and other mechanics they see needing attention.
 
At home, you can support this by talking with your child about the weekend and by planning some simple things to do together. Weekend news does not have to detail a trip to Disneyland. It can be something simple – you made pancakes together, you went to a street fair and danced to new music, you had a sleepover at Grandma’s house. But it does help to take time on Sunday evening or Monday on your walk to school to ask, “What’s a special memory from the weekend that you’d like to write about for weekend news?
 
Tuesday through Friday in Writing Workshop, the students will be writing Small Moment stories. These are true stories, focused on one moment (not a whole day or a whole week) that have a beginning, middle, and end. Students will gather ideas by thinking about important people and places and things they like to do, then list possible story ideas around these lists. Then students will “storyboard” their stories by drawing each part, then writing the stories themselves. All the while, students will recall what they know as writers – start each sentence with a capital letter, and end with appropriate end punctuation. Leave small spaces between your words. Use the word wall word list and using your tapping strategy to help you spell tricky words.
 
At home, you can support this work by telling stories from your own childhood. Children love this! In your stories, make sure to tell where you where you were, who you were with, and then give the blow-by-blow of the story, including what people said, what you did, and how you felt.
 
The students just wrapped up a series of fiction writing pieces – they wrote funny stories, then scary stories, and for each of these they began by gathering ideas in their Writer’s Notebook, then they planned and drafted their stories on writing paper. We will return to fiction writing in the winter – it’s a wonderful way for students to be creative, while still working on all the structural and mechanical parts of writing – composing an idea, planning out the idea, drafting and revising to convey their story in a meaningful way, and editing to make their writing readable.
 
Mid-November, we begin our How-to unit. In this very hands-on writing, students study procedural writing – writing that teaches the reader the steps of how to do something. We begin by exploring the genre as readers.  Children read and follow the directions for making Smores Casseroles and a Thanksgiving centerpieceJ As they study and follow the how-to, they notice and talk abut what makes a how-to helpful and easy-to-follow. From this discussion, the class decides on what all of our how-tos should include…A list of materials, steps broken down, specific action or command words, tips and warnings to help the reader do a really good job, and pictures that are clearly drawn to help the reader each step of the way.
 
This how-to unit continues into the December months, where students continue to read and write how tos, culminating in a project where students will transfer their how-to skills to a video format, making how-to videos for all to see!
 
In January, we write problem solution stories. These are made-up but realistic stories about characters who have everyday problems, and who solve these problems in realistic ways – no magic, no superheroes involvedJ They’ll create a character, imagine their likes and dislikes, as well as important people in their lives (parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins, neighbors, friends). Then they’ll imagine problem stories connected to these topics. Students will plan and write their stories, focusing on using dialogue appropriately (with quotation marks and tags to show who is talking), using capitalization and end punctuation, and by showing not telling their characters’ feeling. We will help students make a connection between their read aloud studies – paying attention to characters’ actions, words, and thinking – to help them write their stories.
 
In the spring of first grade, students begin by writing All About books on topics of personal expertise. This means they think of something they know a lot about….Babies, Soccer, Being A Good Friend, Cats, Playgrounds, etc. Then they write a book teaching all about that topic. This writing gets them used to using their “teaching” writing voice in stead of their “storytelling“ writing voice, which they will use again later in the spring when they research a topic they want to learn more about.
 
Then, the students spend a few weeks reading and writing poetry. Please see the classroom walls and hallways in our school for beautiful examples of their poetry!
 
In the end of April, students have a week to read across our nonfiction library collections and to carefully choose a topic that they want to study in depth. Then they learn develop questions about their topic, which soon become chapter titles…..”What is a Bear? Where do Bears Live? How do Bears Protect Themselves?” etc. Then, they read across many different sources to collect information about each question, and they take organized notes. Finally, they turn these notes into a well-researched Nonfiction All About Book.
 
At home, you can help your child by asking them what topic they are choosing to research, and then supporting their research. You might go to the library and borrow books to read together, or to the bookstore. You might look at PBS kids or National Geographic kids to see if there is a video or short movie about their topic. 
 
We end the year with a brief but fun exploration of Fairytale Writing, which builds on the children’s first exposure to the genre of writing in Kindergarten.