Week 7 Assignment 1

Teachers use shared reading large texts, familiar texts, and texts with familiar words to develop student's reading fluency. These texts may be books that the class has already read, and students can read them on their own during independent reading. They may also be posters that students are familiar with; students can "read the room" to work on their reading fluency. Teachers also make sure to provide students with texts on a variety of levels; this way, students an practice reading fluency on their reading levels.
Teachers introduce their students to new vocabulary words all the time. Usually, teachers teach new words to broaden their students' vocabulary by choosing words in the learning unit. For example, the students may be working on a unit on the solar system. The teacher will subsequently introduce new words such as planets, astronauts, comets, and the Milky Way. Teachers also select vocabulary words that will help students comprehend a text. This might happen during a shared reading activity, guided reading group, or read-aloud.
Teachers include word study in their learning schedules daily. It is important for students in early childhood classrooms to work on word study every day. During those years, students need to work on alphabet knowledge, phonics, sight word vocabulary, and phonological awareness. Teachers typically spend an hour each day focusing on word study.
As a teacher, I teach and encourage my students to identify the vowel sound before attempting to decode or encode a given word. Once students have figured out the short or long vowel sound, they can easily decode or encode. Creating a word wall is also a great word study routine; the words on the word wall are categorized by their endings. Having a sight word wall is important as well. Sight words are high frequency words that don't really follow any rules. By creating a sight word wall students can become familiar with the way these words are read and spelled.
It is important for teachers to differentiate their instruction to ensure that all their students are learning. Teachers assess their students formally and informally to assess where they're at. Teachers group students with similar needs during guided reading so they can help each group work on their learning deficits. Teachers can also provide a short one on one instruction session to help weaker students. Learning centers are also a great way to differentiate instruction; weaker students may be matching pictures to sounds, while stronger students can work on independent writing.

View my Fluency Chart here.