PLEASE CLICK ON THE GRADE LEVEL CATEGORIES LISTED TO THE SIDE TO VIEW WEEKLY LESSON PLANS AND OBJECTIVES.
As the grade 2-3 reading support teacher, I provide daily reading instruction to groups of students. Incorporated into the reading instruction are the Houghton Mifflin Journeys Reading Program and selected quality literature. In grade 2, students use the Heggerty Bridge to Reading Program as well. This program provides explicit, direct phonemic awareness and phonics instruction for all as students.
I meet regularly with the classroom teachers to develop both short and long range reading plans based on student progress towards the meeting of Common Core State Reading Standards. Together, we ensure that all students participate in lessons that provide practice in the skills necessary for complete literacy development, allowing students to understand and connect what they are reading to larger concepts. Students are given opportunities in reading class and throughout the day to develop independent habits which encourage a lifelong love of reading.
All second grade students will strengthen phonemic awareness and phonics skills through the lessons provided using the Heggerty Bridge to Reading Foundational Skills Program. The children continue to develop decoding and encoding strategies which improve their ability to both read and spell words accurately and more automatically. Second graders improve vocabulary by applying various strategies to learn the meaning of new words. In second grade, some students have mastered the code to reading, while others need ongoing review and/or reteaching. Students who benefit from more targeted reading instruction work with the reading specialist in a small group (~10 students) each day. During this time, students are given additional instruction on phonics, decoding and vocabulary development.
In grade three, more instructional time is placed on developing comprehension strategies that can be applied across the curriculum. Vocabulary skills include the understanding of word parts, the meaning of words and the correct reading and usage of multi-syllable words. Students extend oral and written responses to selections they read. Students learn to apply higher-level thinking skills to better understand and connect with material they are reading. Longer selections and novels provide challenge and enrichment. Silent reading comprehension is measured more frequently as students “read to learn” in all subject areas. The classroom teachers and I use flexible grouping to teach the students. In other words, all students receive instruction from both their homeroom teacher and from me on a rotating basis throughout the school year.
All students can benefit from this flexible model, as it allows us to accommodate smaller class sizes (no larger than 13 students) every day for reading class, allowing for more individual attention for students, including those at, approaching or above grade level. All students learn to navigate grade-level text and work on advanced comprehension and vocabulary skills. In addition, we work with students who need to develop fluency and decoding in smaller groups as needed.
We focus on five main areas of reading instruction:
- Phonemic Awareness (understanding sounds)
- Phonics (letter-sound relationships)
- Fluency (expression, smoothness, pace)
- Vocabulary (sight words, high frequency words, new, important, interesting, challenging or content words)
- Comprehension (making meaning of what we read)
Some important decoding skills children need:
- Sounding Out words (beginning/ending sounds, phonograms, vowel pairs, blends, etc.)
- Chunking word parts (prefixes, suffixes, roots, compound words, syllables, etc.)
- Using context clues to self-correct through meaning
Target comprehension strategies in grades 2 & 3 include:
- Making Connections
- Predicting
- Visualizing
- Sequencing
- Making Inferences
- Questioning
- Monitoring
- Summarizing
I have been teaching for 31 years, the past 24 of which have been at Holy Rosary School. I hold a Master’s Degree in Education with an emphasis on Curriculum and Instruction, endorsements to teach all subjects K-8, with additional endorsements in Language Arts and Instructional Technology. I have experience as a homeroom teacher in both 3rd, 4th and 6th grades. In addition, I have taught 5th grade Language Arts here at Holy Rosary. Catholic Schools have been my home for all of my career; I’ve taught religion, vacation bible school, confirmation classes and for seven years, I lead the HRS parent baptism preparation classes. I attended Catholic school from kindergarten through college and earned my Archdiocese of Seattle Catechetical certification in 2003. I love working with children this age and enjoy working as a team with parents. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions!
My email address is mcorrigan@holyrosaryws.org.
