Literacy at P.S. 62Q
Independent Reading
Independent reading is a time where students apply their knowledge of phonics skills and sight words while building their fluency. Classrooms have a variety of resources available for students to practice their independent reading such as; decodable texts, leveled readers, and books sorted by category and interest. All students are provided time to read independently during their small group instruction / centers time while the teacher is meeting with small groups of students for targeted instruction. Students are highly encouraged to read independently at home, each night, in order to further develop their reading fluency and comprehension.
Small Group Instruction
The teacher meets with two small reading groups every day in order to instruct students at a level that is challenging to each one. Groups consist of no more than six students with each student working on targeted phonics skills and/or literacy skills and strategies. The teacher poses discussion questions and takes conference notes during the session in order to track student progress. At this time the teacher also provides feedback for each student to help them progress to the next level.
HMH Literacy Curriculum
As part of the NYC READS initiative, which began 2023-2024, the HMH Literacy curriculum has been adopted city wide. The goal of this initiative is to ensure all NYC students become strong and independent readers. HMH Into Reading curriculum was chosen for its quality texts with knowledge building, vocabulary, diversity, accessibility and assessment. Our teachers implement HMH in grades K-5 for about 30-45 minutes, where students are engaged in rich reading, writing and conversations.
Writing
As part of the NYC READS initiative, which began 2023-2024, the HMH Literacy curriculum has been adopted city wide. This curriculum is all inclusive of reading and writing. HMH Writing is being implemented in grades K-5, which builds a uniform learning environment schoolwide. This program is a writers workshop model; mini-lesson, work time and share time. Students go through the many steps of the writing process throughout the modules, building confident and independent writers. HMH is a cyclical program. As students progress through the year and grades, they are constantly revisiting and solidifying skills learned.
Phonics and Phonemic Awareness
In grades K-2 at PS 62, we use a science of reading backed program From Phonics to Reading written by Wiley Blevins. This program focuses on the key aspects of the science of reading; phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. From Phonics to Reading is a comprehensive foundational program that encompasses Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction. Students are regularly exposed to a systematic, instructional scope and sequence that builds from the most simple to most complex skills. Students are engaged with daily application of phonics skills in both reading and writing as well as formal review and repetition of prior learning.
Fluency
When students read too slowly, the text becomes a struggle for students to remember and extract meaning from. Building fluency in students is a crucial part of their reading development. Fluency is assessed and recorded formally by teachers three times a year through a one minute Acadience benchmark assessment. While students are formally assessed only 3 times, beginning, middle and end of year, they are informally assessed regularly through small group instruction and daily observations. Students fluency is assessed through a variety of skills that begin with first sound fluency in kindergarten progressing up to oral reading passages in 2nd grade.
