New Non-Fiction Reading Unit

This week students have begun our new non-fiction reading unit. We are excited about this, as it is part of our new curriculum and the unit is more robust and thorough than we've had in the past. This unit builds on a child’s natural curiosity to learn about the world.   It supports first-graders as they learn all they can learn from their books and share their learning with others.  This unit focuses on comprehension strategies, such as previewing the text, predicting, noticing text structure, and synthesizing information from multiple sources (the picture, the print, the text boxes).  With a continued emphasis on comprehension and basic reading processes, there is also a spotlight on vocabulary.  First-graders will develop good habits for decoding unfamiliar words and for working to understand new vocabulary.  This unit also supports building fluency and studying craft, teaching students how to revisit texts to reread in smoother voices, to sound like experts, and to notice craft moves authors make that they also can make and discuss.