In this ongoing Reading class for "automatic readers", students will have an opportunity to build their fluency and comprehension in reading. We will focus on a new story each week from the Reading A-Z series. These stories will follow the adventures of children, animals and other fictional characters as they explore the world around them every day. Topics will include, family, home, school, the park, the zoo, friends, pets, the store, etc. Students will gain vocabulary and understanding that they can use to make useful connections to their lives every day. I will teach completely from slides to ensure that students can clearly see the content being presented. Each class will consist of some letter activities, vocabulary review, story reading, comprehension and writing. Some writing will be on the screen which will require students to be able to access their writing tools on their computer. Some writing will require a paper, pencil, crayons and/or markers at home.  I believe that reading should be enjoyable, so we will delve into each adventure in a fun way by talking about what is happening, exploring our curiosities throughout the stories and relating what we learn to our own experiences. Students will interact with myself and their classmates continuously throughout the lesson through talking, writing, reading and completing activities on the slides. 

Here is a look at what an "Automatic Reader" looks like according to the Reading A-Z program that we will be using in this class: 

Automatic Readers (Levels Q-Z2)
Readers at this level might display the following characteristics:

-Use phonics, syllable knowledge, and morphology to decode unknown multisyllabic words
-Recognize words they repeatedly see in text by sight
-Use fluency and prosodic reading at an appropriate rate
-Focus on comprehension as decoding becomes automatic
-Rely on text for directions, content knowledge, and general information

Text to support readers at this level may include:

-More text
-Less familiar, more varied topics
-Challenging vocabulary
-More complex sentences
-Varied writing styles
-Few, if any pictures
-Text features to support understanding (graphs, charts, infographics, etc.)
-Text structures (compare and contrast, cause and effect, problem/solution, sequence, descriptive)

The first four weeks of class will address the following topics: 
Week of July 22nd: The Ant in the Photograph 
Week of July 29th: The Boy Who Couldn’t Save
Week of Aug. 5th: Getting Around the City
Week of Aug. 12th: Arthur’s Bad Day