Elementary Reading

Description

Reading

Melamed Academy’s Elementary School Reading curriculum incorporates the Five Pillars of Reading:

• Phonics
• Phonemic Awareness
• Fluency
• Comprehension
• Vocabulary

Emerging readers are introduced to letters by their sound, and then practice the letter formation. Didactic practice includes dot-to-dot tracing, clay molding, and fun games that test letter recognition. Students learn vocabulary words using that letter, in addition to sight reading common words.

As they progress to Kindergarten and First Grade, students read first for accuracy, and then read for meaning. Audio visual vocabulary lessons boost their word banks, even before reading skills kick in.

Every lesson contains phonically decodable words, high frequency sight words, and also vocabulary words that are read aloud and drilled.

Content word groups, such as colors and numbers, are learned as units. Students create picture cards and build their word banks by connecting with words in many hands-on activities.

Learning to read becomes an enjoyable challenge filled with successful milestones and incentives. Jingles teaching reading rules and ensure they’ll be remembered.

Students feel a sense of achievement as they progress from one level to the next, earning Golden Eggs to buy educational games in the built-in incentive program.

Within the Reading program, students can personalize their online character (avatar) and decorate their “house”.

Reading Activities:

Online library books span a large range of interests, at every reading level, with thousands of both fiction and nonfiction titles. Students read books, earn points, and take quizzes.

Reading comprehension strategies stress factual, inferential, and literal understanding. Figurative and descriptive language comprehension skills are taught with reading exercises.

Reading Genres include:

• Literature Communicating an Idea or Feeling
• Literature and Tales Teaching a Lesson
• Narratives
• Dialogue
• Short Stories
• Novels
• Poetry

Reading Comprehension Skills:

• Finding and Defining the Story Elements
• Differences between Fiction and Nonfiction
• Recognizing Fantasy and Realistic Fiction
• Historical Fiction
• About the Author
• Vocabulary and Being a Word Detective
• Using a Dictionary
• Poetry Styles and Conventions
• Connecting with a Character
• Take Offs on Literature – Writing and Discussion

Informational Text skills include:

• Reading and Following Instructions
• Understanding News & Current Events
• Research Projects
• Discerning Fact from Opinion
• Discerning Points of View
• Using an Encyclopedia
• Using an Index