What does it mean to be a Reading First school? I've seen and heard of it before, but no one has explained it to me. I appreciate any information. Thanks!
READ SOME OF THESE LINKS: http://www.readingfirstsupport.us/ http://www.ed.gov/programs/readingfirst/index.html Just do a google search and you'll see plenty
It's a grant program. It's administered by something called TIMES, I think. The schools each get a reading coach, who is supposed to help implement strategies for excellence in reading. Between you and me, it's just another layer of expectations, surveys and reports, but it's not too annoying. (There are some teachers who are rabidly opposed to having another person observing them and suggesting things, but I just go with the flow.) I'm not sure what the criteria are for which schools are Reading First, but not all the schools in my district are.
Thanks for the posts and links, y'all. I do appreciate them. I plan to do a Google search, but I am VERY interested in reading the thoughts of teachers who are currently teaching and either have been in or are in a Reading First school. Again, thanks! Another question, can Reading/Writing Workshop be integrated into a Reading 1st curriculum?
The school that I student taught at had a Reading First program. I student taught in 2nd grade and they used the Houghton-Mifflin series. I loved it! The kids seemed to enjoy it, as well.
Reading First guidelines vary depending on your students needs and the school you are working in. At my school, reading workshop is mandatory and a big part in students reading achievments. Depending on what year you are in the grant, all intensive kids require an additional hour of intensive instruction, stategic kids require 30 minutes addtional reading instruction. This is where reading workshop usually comes into play. However, my school is using a "walk to read" format next year which will seriously cut into workshop times. Kids will be leveled according to reading ability and sent to different rooms during intervention times.Each school handles it differently, though.
All I can say is THANK GOODNESS OUR GRANT IS OVER !!!!!! During the 2nd and 3rd years we were not allowed to teach ANY GRAMMAR OR WRITING during the 135 minute Reading block. You can imagine what happened to the Language Arts scores. Also if we were required to stick completely to the core (HM) and I was not allowed to suppliment for my students last year which meant that the wb pages in HM took them less than 5 minutes most of the time and then we would go over them out loud, we did fluency reading every time we turned around because we had to use something to fill up 2 hours and 15 minutes. Hopefully this year I can actually teach my kids and do activities that they will enjoy.
