English Program

From english language coordinator Mia Perez

中文:   Mia老師信件的中文譯本

Mia Perez, English Language Coordinator

 

Dear Yu Ming Families,

I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to be working with all of your children. Throughout the year, your children and I will embark on a journey of reading and writing in English. In this letter, I have given a description of the English program at Yu Ming, described my goals for the year and provided some ideas and resources for supplementing the English curriculum at home.

 

Our English Curriculum

Yu Ming students will receive 40 minutes of English instruction each day. The goal of the English program at Yu Ming is to support students to develop strong literacy skills in English.  I am using the Houghton Mifflin Reading Curriculum, which is a phonics-based program, to help students develop the skills to become successful readers and writers. This is a comprehensive reading program that addresses phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. I am supplementing the Houghton Mifflin program with Lucy Calkins’ The Art of Teaching Writing and Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell’s Guided Reading. In addition, I will be incorporating the close observation of artwork into my classroom using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to help students practice close observation, develop their vocabulary, and connect their oral and written language.

 

The lessons in my English class are designed to meet and exceed the standards set forth by the California Board of Education. Specific pacing guides for all subject areas are being developed now. Below is a link to the English-Language Arts Content Standards for California’s Public Schools:

http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/elacontentstnds.pdf

 

A Typical Lesson

A typical English class would begin with a mini lesson during which I provide explicit instruction to teach an element of phonics, sight words, grammar, etc. During this mini-lesson the class as a whole works to build understanding by actively participating, sharing their ideas, and asking questions. Following the mini-lesson the students work in different centers. I typically will have five centers, which the students will rotate through throughout the week. Each student will spend one English session at a center. These centers focus on sight words, phonics, and comprehension skills . In addition, there are always two centers that allow for students to work in their writer’s notebooks or participate in buddy reading. As the students are working in centers, my goal is to pull small groups of students for guided reading.

 

Small Group Instruction

Some students will be identified to receive small group instruction either for extra English support or to provide them with an extra challenge. Children will be removed from their regular class for periods of around 30-40 minutes to receive extra English with peers at a similar level.

 

Assessments

In order to achieve the goal of meeting the California State Standards, I will be doing a range of assessments throughout the year. Many of these assessments will be informal and take the form of observation made during class. However, I will also be doing formal assessments. An initial assessment has been done prior to the start of the school year. This assessment, known as Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), is designed to assess students’ phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency with connected text, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. I am in the process of completing these assessments for children who were unable to attend pre-term assessments. The DIBELS assessments will take place once during each term.

 

I will also be administering spelling inventories to measure what students know about words, key spelling features, and patterns. These inventories are not used for grading purposes and students do not need to study the words before or after the inventory is administered. These inventories help me create lessons that both support and challenge students. These spelling inventories will take place once during each term.

 

Lastly, I will be doing guided reading with my students. Students are placed into small groups with peers who are reading similar levels of text with support. The goal of guided reading is to help children learn how to use independent reading strategies successfully. Guided reading is a continuous assessment that will occur all year long.

 

Supplementing the Curriculum at Home

There are many ways to supplement the literacy curriculum at home! Below are some ideas and resources to do this.

 

  • Read with your child everyday. Spend time each night reading with your child.  You may read to your child or have your child read to you. As you are reading, model for your child how to sound out unfamiliar words.
    • Stretch the sounds out in a word so that all of the sounds are said more slowly. For example, “bbbbbbeeeeeeddddd” for bed.
    • Use the pictures to provide clues.
    • Break the word into chunks, looking at the beginning, middle, and ending sounds.
  • Ask your child questions about the text.
    • What do you predict will happen next?
    • Why do you think the character did that?
    • What did like best about this book? Least?
  • Have your children listen to books on tape or CD as they follow along in the book. These are often available to check out from your local libraries.
  • Practice letter names and sounds.
  • Practice sight words. Students need to develop an automatic recall of these words. One of the most important goals in teaching young students to read is making sure they are completely proficient with Sight Words. Sight Words are some of the most frequently used words in the English language that are often not spelled phonetically, but must be read fluently and automatically at first sight.  Below is a link to the sight words introduced in kindergarten and first grade. These sight words can be cut out and made into flash cards or posted on the refrigerator at home.
  • Play rhyming games.  This is a great activity to do while you are cooking dinner, driving in the car, or getting ready for bed! Play around with different word families such as the “at” families (bat, cat, sat) and the “ight” family (light, right, bright).
  • Writing activities.  Get your children to write at home. I do not to place too much emphasis on spelling. I think it’s important to encourage students to get their ideas down on paper without fear of making mistakes. The only words I require students to spell correctly are the sight words that we have been practicing in class. It is great to model for students how to sound out words they do not know how to spell.
    • Writing lists (grocery lists, lists of your favorite colors, lists of reptiles, etc).
    • Journal to write fiction or non-fiction writing (make-believe stories, writing about real events, poetry, etc.).
  • Websites.  Below are two websites that support students to read with phonics. These are also great websites for English Language Learners!

 

If you have any questions please feel free to email me at mperez@yumingschool.org. I look forward to working with you!

 

Sincerely,

 

Mia Perez

English Language Coordinator