PASSAGES - Really Great Reading

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Really Great Reading

P.O. Box 46 Cabin John, MD 20818

866-401-7323



Copyright ? 2018 Really Great Reading?

Curriculum Development Team: Janeen Hergert, M.Ed., Sarah Zelenak, Amy E. Vanden Boogart, Ed.D.,

Kathryn A Sevier, M.Ed, Julie Sealine, M.S.

Graphic Design/Illustration: Ingrid Shwaiko

No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Printed in the U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION

OVERVIEW

Blast Foundations is a series of lessons focused on the essential foundational skills that students should master in their early reading education. It includes explicit instruction and progress monitoring of lettersound correspondences, phonemic and phonological awareness, highfrequency word fluency, phonics knowledge, and spelling. The lessons are designed to teach these essential skills, which promote strong decoding and fluent, accurate reading.

Blast Foundations lessons are designed for young emerging or older struggling readers. Blast is most commonly taught in Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade to students who are working to master beginning reading skills appropriate for their age and grade level. For students in 3rd grade and beyond, Blast is typically reserved for the most severely struggling readers who have not yet learned the skills they should have mastered in Kindergarten through 2nd grade.

The Blast Passages are strictly controlled stories that align with the phonics skills and Heart Words taught in Blast Foundations. Aside from the Heart Words in the passages, all of the words included are decodable; however, due to the use of some Heart Words that have not been explicitly taught in Blast Foundations according to the guidelines described below, we consider the passages to be "strictly controlled" rather than completely "decodable."

There are 22 passages, most of which are fiction: one for each unit in Blast, beginning with Unit 4. The passages provide students with longer, connected-text opportunities to apply the skills they are learning in Blast Foundations. In both sets of Blast workbooks, the Primary Student Workbook and the Elementary Student Workbook, students practice reading words, phrases, and sentences. With the Blast Passages, students extend their practice to longer sections of text. As students develop mastery and automaticity with the skills taught in Blast, the Blast Passages can be used to reinforce these skills, to provide opportunities for practice, and, ideally, to build fluency. Students will also gain confidence as readers. Reading text controlled for the specific skills students have already learned allows them to read with success, leading to confidence and the willingness to tackle more difficult text in the future.

QUICK FACTS

WHAT? 22 strictly controlled passages, one for each unit in our Blast Foundations Teacher Guides, beginning with Unit 4.

WHEN? After Lesson 4 of each corresponding Blast unit has been taught.

WHERE? Can be used in the classroom, in small groups, or sent home for practice.

For more information, see pp. 29?33 in this

document, or visit reallygreatreading. com/blast-foundations

FEATURES

Controlled and Cumulative The Blast Passages are strictly controlled. The passages consist of words containing phonics skills students have explicitly learned in Blast Foundations, Heart Words taught in Blast Foundations, and other select words from the Dolch 220 high-frequency word list.

Each passage emphasizes the phonics skill(s) students learned in the corresponding unit of Blast Foundations. Other words that are not high-frequency words are decodable according to the phonics skills students learned in

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INTRODUCTION

previous units. If a student struggles with a decodable word while reading through a passage, remind him or her to use the strategies learned in the Blast phonics lessons to read the word.

The high-frequency words used in the passages fall into one of three categories: 1) Heart Words that students have been explicitly taught in the current and previous Blast Foundations units; 2) up to 5 additional words per passage, not explicitly taught in Blast, from the Dolch 220 first through third grade lists (these are included in a "Words to Preview" section in the standard and differentiated versions of the passages since they may be unfamiliar to students); 3) additional words, not explicitly taught in Blast, from the Dolch 220 pre-primer and primer lists. In the differentiated version of each passage, the additional Dolch 220 pre-primer and primer words are limited to five or fewer. See below for more information on the Words to Preview and on the differentiated passages.

Words to Preview

As mentioned above, up to four words from the Dolch 220 list that are from the first through third grade word lists and have not been explicitly taught in the Blast lessons appear in a "Words to Preview" section at the top of each passage. In the passages, these words will be underlined. The teacher should review these words with the students several times before reading the passage. Since students are not expected to know these words (as they are above grade level for most Blast Foundations students), the teacher may read these words to the students when they are encountered in the passage if necessary. Optionally, the teacher may consider devoting some instructional time to teaching words that frequently appear in the passages. See Words to Preview A in the chart on pages vii-ix for a list of these words for each passage.

Heart Words

Heart Words the students have already learned in Blast Foundations are not marked in the standard versions of the passages. If a student struggles with a Heart Word, remind him or her this is a Heart Word he or she has learned and, if necessary, encourage the student to look at, think about, and say (Look, Think, Say) the word, or provide the word for the student.

Increasing Length

The Blast Passages increase in length as the units increase, ranging from half a page to a full page of text. The passages contain only single-syllable words (including only singlesyllable Heart Words) until Unit 14 when students are introduced to two-syllable words. The complexity of the passages and the level of vocabulary also increase as students progress.

Comprehension Questions

You can use the comprehension questions on page 23 to help students practice extracting meaning from the passages. There are three literal questions and one inferential question for each passage.

USING THE BLAST PASSAGES

The Blast Passages can be used in the classroom, in small groups, or sent home for practice. Students can begin practicing with a passage after Lesson 4 of the corresponding

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INTRODUCTION

unit in Blast Foundations has been taught. Students should practice with words, phrases, and sentences in the Lesson 4 student workbook activities for their current unit before moving on to read the passage. The passages can be read as part of the Blast lesson or at another time, such as at the beginning of guided reading groups or at a teacher-led center.

Before asking students to read the passage, review the words in the "Words to Preview" section several times. (If you are using the differentiated version of the passage, there will be two sections of words to review.) You should read and pronounce these words for your students and provide definitions or example sentences to clarify the meaning of any unfamiliar words. Students should then practice reading the passages aloud, focusing on reading each word accurately.

Additional Activities

Once students have read through a passage with you, incorporate other opportunities to practice with the text throughout the next several days. Some ideas for additional practice include:

? Underlining a new phonics concept in words, such as digraph th or 2-sound blends ? Highlighting words containing a certain feature, such as short a or Open Syllables

? Drawing a line to separate the syllables of 2-syllable words

? Circling the Heart Words

? Reading to a partner

? Reading silently

? Reading to someone at home

? Using the comprehension questions on page 23 to help students practice extracting meaning from the passages

Building Fluency

To use the Blast Passages to help build fluency, students should reread the passages multiple times over the course of several days. It is important to note that students should be reading accurately before they begin working on reading faster. A quick, informal way to check for accuracy is to have the student read the passage aloud to you. If the student can read the passage with three or fewer errors, he or she can use that passage to work on building his or her reading rate. A more precise way to check for accuracy is to calculate a student's accuracy percentage with the passage. Have the student read the passage aloud and keep track of the number of errors that are made. To find the number of words correct, subtract the number of errors from the total number of words in the passage, which can be found at the top of each passage in the gray polygon. Divide the number of words correct by the total number of words in the passage (this information is in the top corner of each passage); then, multiply by 100 to get the accuracy percentage. Many teachers consider 95% accuracy to be a good goal to have students meet before beginning to work on increasing reading rate.

To begin working on fluency, ask the students to read the passage out loud; then model fluent reading by reading the passage aloud to them. After modeling what it sounds like when the passage is read fluently, ask the students to read the passage aloud again, trying to make their reading sound like yours. This procedure can be repeated on several

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