Second Grade Program

Central Boulevard’s Guided Reading program for second graders reinforces the strategies taught in first grade during Reading Recovery lessons and first grade Guided Reading. Meeting in small groups, the students read whole books, or chapters of longer books daily. Children read in groups that have similar reading strategies under their control. New books are introduced that have some new learning, but the children should be able to get to most of the story using strategies they already have. This means there will be new material to work on, but they should be able to use what they know about our language (grammar), stories (comprehension) and how words work (phonics) to figure it out.

Our program includes:

Rereading familiar books--This helps children develop fluency and hear themselves "sounding like a reader".

Working on words--We break words apart and build words, discovering the relationship between letters and sounds and how to make words and take them apart for easier reading and writing.

Reading whole text--After a brief introduction, which gives the children some support to get to new words, unfamiliar language structure and/or meaning in the new text, the students all read in quiet voices on their own. The teacher goes from one to the other listening, reinforcing good strategies and taking notes.

Comprehension check--Understanding of the text is demonstrated through discussion and/or writing.

Teaching on tricky items--The teacher, using her notes, may have a child she noticed using an effective reading strategy to figure out something "tricky", describe what he did to the class. If the teacher noticed a common difficulty for her students while they were reading, she will teach the children a strategy to help them handle it independently.

Assessment--A running record will be taken of a student's reading to monitor reading level and use of strategies.