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Elementary
Foundational Reading
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The Foundations of Reading course provides additional practice and support for students in kindergarten through grade 2 struggling with essential reading skills. Students will receive focused mini-lessons on specific reading skills during weekly meetings, and they will continue to practice these skills independently in between meetings. Students will also have access to a digital library of leveled books to practice their reading.
Note: The Foundations of Reading course is designed to help students develop the skills they need to become successful readers. By providing focused instruction and practice on foundational reading skills, the course can help students catch up to their peers and reach their full reading potential. It is not a replacement for grade-level English Language Arts courses. Completion time and credit will vary based on the competencies taken.
Major Topics and Concepts
The course covers the following topics:
- Phonemic awareness: Students will learn to identify and produce rhyming words, isolate individual sounds in spoken words, and change sounds to make new words.
- Phonics: Students will build their letter/sound knowledge and learn about common phonics patterns.
- Sight words: Students will learn strategies for learning the most common “high frequency” or “trick words.”
- Decoding: Students will learn strategies for decoding tricky words, including using picture clues, context clues, and phonics patterns.
- Comprehension: Students will learn strategies for understanding what they read, including making predictions and connections, using context clues, and making inferences.
Competencies
Beginning Decoding Strategies
Students will demonstrate an understanding of decoding strategies through the use of picture clues, letter sounds and context clues.
Beginning Phonemic Awareness
Students will demonstrate an understanding of Phonemic Awareness by rhyming, segmenting, blending, counting syllables, isolating beginning, middle and ending sounds, and manipulating individual sounds of spoken words.
Beginning Phonics
Students will demonstrate an understanding of phonics by naming all upper and lowercase letters, and identifying and blending the sounds of all letters and digraphs.
Kindergarten Sight Words
Students will demonstrate an understanding of grade level sight words by recognizing and reading the sight words taught in the VLACS Kindergarten Language Arts Course.
Emerging Comprehension Strategies
Students will demonstrate an understanding of comprehension strategies by making predictions, asking questions, making connections, visualizing, retelling, and using nonfiction text features.
Emerging Decoding Strategies
Students will demonstrate an understanding of decoding strategies through the use of context clues, phonics patterns, syllabication, and self-correcting strategies.
Emerging Phonemic Awareness
Students will demonstrate an understanding of Phonemic Awareness by segmenting, blending, manipulating individual sounds, and identifying long and short vowel sounds of spoken words.
Emerging Phonics
Students will demonstrate an understanding of phonics patterns by identifying and applying the sounds of beginning and ending blends, long vowel patterns, digraphs, inflectional endings, and syllabication rules.
Grade 1 Sight Words
Students will demonstrate an understanding of grade level sight words by recognizing and reading the sight words taught in the VLACS Grade 1 Language Arts Course.
Developing Comprehension Strategies
Students will demonstrate an understanding of comprehension strategies by making predictions, asking questions, making connections, visualizing, retelling, making inferences, and using nonfiction text features.
Developing Decoding Strategies
Students will demonstrate an understanding of decoding strategies through the use of context clues, phonics patterns, syllabication, word parts (prefixes, suffixes and root words), and self-correcting strategies.
Developing Phonemic Awareness
Students will demonstrate an understanding of Phonemic Awareness by segmenting, blending, and manipulating individual sounds of spoken words.
Developing Phonics
Students will demonstrate an understanding of phonics patterns by identifying and applying the sounds of long vowel patterns, r-controlled vowels, soft and hard sounds of “c” and “g” , complex vowel patterns, prefixes and suffixes, glued sounds, and syllabication rules.
Grade 2 Sight Words
Students will demonstrate an understanding of grade level sight words by recognizing and reading the sight words taught in the VLACS Grade 2 Language Arts Course.
