# data[].attributes.body
Thematic Units:
They are interdisciplinary units that integrate reading and writing with social studies, science, and other curricular areas. Children explore topics that interest them and find answers to questions they've posed and are genuinely interested in answering.

# data[].attributes.body
Diagnostic Tests:
Teachers administer commercial diagnostic tests to inform their instruction. In particular, these tests determine children's reading levels and identify children who are struggling.

# data[].attributes.body
Charts used to arrange information to highlight big ideas and relationships among them. There are many different types and ways to set up the charts to use. As students use them more, they will learn to recognize text structures and how to represent them in charts, without being given a specific one.

# data[].attributes.body
Journals in which children write their reactions to books they're reading or listening to the teacher read aloud. Within these entires, children clarify misunderstandings, explore ideas, and deepen their comprehension. Children can choose topics for entires and at other times, they response to questions or prompts that teachers have prepared.

# data[].attributes.body
Quick writing- Children choose a topic and reflect on paper on what they're learning about the topic. They generate ideas and the words to express them, make connections among ideas, and draw conclusions. They only take about 5-10 minutes to complete.

# data[].attributes.body
Evaluation- it is summative; it's final, generally administered at the end of the unit or a school year to judge quality.

# data[].attributes.body
Homophones- These are words that sound alike but are spelled differently.

# data[].attributes.body
learning logs:
Children use learning logs to record and react to what they're learning. Learning logs are "a place to think on paper". Children write these to discover gaps in their knowledge and to explore relationships between what they're learning and their past experiences.

# data[].attributes.body
Running records:
are authentic assessment tools because children demonstrate how they read using their regular reading materials as teachers make a detailed account of their ability to read a book. Teachers take running records of children's oral reading to assess their word identification and reading fluency.

# data[].attributes.body
Word Maps- Children create a diagram to examine a word they're learning. They write the word, make a box around it, draw several lines from the box, and add information about the word in boxes that they make at the end of each line.

# data[].attributes.body
Poetry Picture Books- Children create picture-book versions to celebrate favorite poems. Each child chooses one line to write on a page and illustrate. Then the pages are compiled and made into a book, and the published book is placed in the classroom library for children to read.

# data[].attributes.body
academic vocabulary:
The words that are frequently used in language arts, social studies, science, and math. These words are found in books and textbooks that children read. Children's knowledge of academic vocabulary is part of their background knowledge, and it affects their school success.

# data[].attributes.body
Idioms are groups of words, such as "in the dog house" and "raining cats and dogs", that must be interpreted figuratively. Its crucial that teachers provide explicit instruction so that children move beyond their literal meanings of phrases.

# data[].attributes.body
First person viewpoint- This point of view is used to tell a story through the eyes of one character using the first person pronoun "I".

# data[].attributes.body
Reading factors- include the background knowledge children bring to the reading process, the strategies they use while reading, and their engagement in the reading process.

# data[].attributes.body
Story Boards: Cards on which the illustrations from a book have been cut and put onto cardboard. Then students use the illustrations to sequence the events from the story by lining the cards up in order. This helps with sequencing, and retelling of the story for comprehension purposes.

# data[].attributes.body
text factors:
stories, informational books, and poems can be easier or more difficult to read depending on text factors that are inherent in them. The three most important text factors are genre, text structure, and text features. When children understand how authors organize and present their ideas in texts, this knowledge about text factors serves as a scaffold, making comprehension easier.

# data[].attributes.body
KWL chart- Teachers use KWL charts during thematic units to activate children's background knowledge about a topic and to scaffold them as they ask questions and organize the information they're learning. They are graphic organizers that help students organize information before, during, and after unit or lesson plan. They can be used to engage students in a new topic, activate prior knowledge, share unit objectives, and monitor learning.

# data[].attributes.body
Prosody- the ability to read sentences expressively, with appropriate phrasing and intonation. The ability to read in expressive rhythmic and melodic patterns.

# data[].attributes.body
Comprehension strategies:
thoughtful behaviors that readers use to facilitate their understanding. Some strategies are cognitive; they involve thinking, or cognition, others are metacognitive they require reflection. Children learn to apply these cognitive and metacognitive strategies to ensure that they comprehend what they're reading.

# data[].attributes.headline
Baylee Fee, Ch. 8: Interactive Read Aloud

# data[].attributes.subject
Baylee Fee, Ch. 8: Interactive Read Aloud

# data[].attributes.body
Teachers use interactive read-alouds to share books with children. It enhances children's comprehension by engaging them in the reading process before, during, and after reading.
1. Teachers introduce the text and activate children's background knowledge before beginning to read.
2. Teachers then include children during reading through conversation and other activities. Teachers can stop during the story to ask questions and discuss.
3. After the book, children respond to the book.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Discover new ways to enhance reading comprehension in Pre K students. This video showcases how teachers can use an interactive read aloud program to help young students with reading comprehension.

# data[].attributes.body
Automaticity- the ability to recognize familiar words without conscious thought, and to identify unfamiliar words almost as quickly.

# data[].attributes.body
Invented spelling- Children's attempts to spell words that reflect their developing knowledge about the spelling system. Children grow more quickly in phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling when they are encouraged to use invented spelling as long as they are also receiving spelling instruction.

# data[].attributes.body
high-frequency words:
the most common words that readers use again and again. Most children learn the majority of the 100 highest frequency words in first grade and the rest of the words during second and third grades.

# data[].attributes.body
Children practice reading a story or script to develop reading speed and expressiveness before performing it for classmates. Students can use the script during the play, and should focus on their performance and not memorization. This has been found to significantly improve children's reading fluency.

# data[].attributes.body
High-frequency words:
These words can be displayed on one of the types of word walls. It is recommended that children learn to spell 100 of the most commonly used words because of their usefulness. The most frequently used words represent more than 50% of all the words children and adults write!

# data[].attributes.body
Word sorts are a word study activity that students group words into categories. This can be done individually, small group, or whole class. Depending on the grade level, students my do this using written words or pictures/ objects.

# data[].attributes.body
Phonological awareness-
refers to an individual's awareness of the phonological structure, or sound structure, of words.

# data[].attributes.body
Consonant digraphs: these are letter combinations representing single sounds that aren't represented by either letter; the four most common are 'ch', 'sh', 'th', and 'wh'.

# data[].attributes.body
Consonant blends- This occurs when two or three consonants appear next to each other in words and their individual sounds are "blended" together. For example, grass and spring.

# data[].attributes.body
Teachers often post lists of words children are working on to create a word wall that is posted so all students can see it. Each phonogram and the words made using it are written in a separate sections. Then the words can be used for a variety of phonics activities and the students can refer to it to spell words when they are writing. Each wall will look differently depending on grade level.

# data[].attributes.body
Phonemic awareness-
children's basic understanding that speech is composed of a series of individual sounds, and it provides the foundation for phonics and spelling.
Children's ability to break words apart and reassemble them, and make other changes as well.

# data[].attributes.body
Metacognitive strategies:
They involve children's thinking about whether they're successful and understanding what they're reading. When children realize that they're not understanding, they use monitoring, repairing, or another metacognitive strategy to solve the problem in order to continue reading.

# data[].attributes.body
Partner Reading- Students will read or reread a section of a story with a classmate or an "older buddy". They can take turns reading to each other or they can read in unison. At the end of reading, partners can discuss what they just read and identify unfamiliar words.

# data[].attributes.body
Alphabetic Principle:
The awareness of alphabetic principle occurs in stage 2 beginning reading and writing. It means that letters represent sounds. Children learn about phoneme-grapheme correspondences, phonics rules in words, and word families. They also apply their developing phonics knowledge to spell words.

Pictured is an alphabetic principle activity kit for teachers to use in their classroom to help practice this principle.

# data[].attributes.body
Shared Reading-
an interactive reading experience that occurs when students join in or share the reading of a book or other text while guided and supported by a teacher. They use enlarged picture books known as big books so that children can see the text and read along. The teacher explicitly models the skills of proficient readers, including reading with fluency and expression.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning logs are booklets in which children record information, write questions, summarize big ideas, draw diagrams, and reflect on their learning. The writing is impromptu, and the emphasis is on using writing as a learning tool rather than creating polished products.

Teachers monitor learning logs quickly and can see how well the children understand the big idea's they're learning.

# data[].attributes.body
word consciousness- children's interest in and awareness of words and their meaning.

Children can learn new words, figure out their meaning, find multiple meanings, and build their vocabulary.

# data[].attributes.body
Interactive writing-
a teaching method in which children and teacher negotiate what they are going to write and then share the pen to construct the message.

Interactive writing is a cooperative event in which text is jointly composed and written.

# data[].attributes.body
Discussions about stories in which children explore the big ideas, deepen their comprehension, and reflect on their feelings. It is child centered conversation - no hand raising, just more of a group discussion. It will have both open ended discussion about their reactions and also teacher involvement to bring attention to one or two topics that were not yet discussed. Attached is a more detailed procedure of how to go about this type of discussion.