Catholic School

St Mary Star of the Sea Catholic School

Catholic Education and Values for a Lifetime

Located in Beverly, MA on Boston's North Shore
Accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Reading at St. Mary Star of the Sea School

Grade Level Notes Skills Focus
Kindergarten Early years of reading instruction focus on “Learning to read” that is the phonemic, sound symbol constructs. These include specific comprehension skills beginning with literal and moving to the more sophisticated.
  • letter identification sound
  • symbol / phonemic awareness
  • sight words vowels (intro)
  • literal comprehension (5Ws)
1st   
  • letter identification
  • sound symbol
  • relationships/phonemic
  • awareness
  • sight words
  • vowels
  • digraphs
  • contractions
  • prefixes, suffixes
  • decoding skills/strategies
  • comprehension:
  • literal
  • sequencing
  • main idea
  • drawing conclusions
  • predicting
  • inferences
2nd   
  • Decoding / phonics skills:
  • vowels
  • digraphs
  • contractions
  • suffixes, prefixes
  • syllabication
  • sight words / oral reading
  • Comprehension:
  • Literal (5Ws)
  • Main idea / details
  • sequencing
  • main idea
  • drawing conclusions
  • predicting
  • inferences
3rd   
  • Syllabication 2-3 syll. wds
    fluency
  • word attack-application
    prefix / suffix
  • following directions- multi-step
  • dictionary skills
  • comprehension:
  • main idea
  • literal - 5W’s
  • context dues
  • story elements
  • genres – independent reading
  • lengthier text
  • re-read for information
  • story elements
4th   
  • Main idea – theme
  • Using context clues for inferential and abstract thinking
  • Summarizing
  • Story mapping
  • Identifying / reading variety of genre
  • Thesaurus skills
  • Identifying and understanding figurative language
5th   
  • Characterization
  • Understanding and identifying themes of different genres
  • Outlining and note taking
  • Summarizing and story mapping for different literature
  • Making connections text to text
  • Making connections text to self
  • Making connections text to world
  • Evaluating connections
6th, 7th, 8th By middle school, all the hard work of the early years of learning to read pays off and children should have the skills in place to be able to use reading for study and pleasure.

Middle school is the time your child develops the sophisticated reading skills that allow him/her to analyze literature and master the content of the entire curriculum — social studies, science, math, health, and foreign languages. Reading becomes a powerful tool to find information, make sense of complex material, and find enjoyment in literature and popular media.

Students in middle school need to learn how and when to skim and when to study thoroughly.

Additionally, students need to develop different reading strategies for mastering the content in a U.S. history textbook, analyzing Lord of the Flies, or breezing through Sports Illustrated.
 
Students also need to know which words are the most important for understanding the meaning of what they are reading.
  • Getting below the surface of facts on the page and evaluate critically
  • Drawing conclusions about why certain things happened
  • Considering cause and effect
    Connecting new information to other knowledge and personal experience
  • Understanding point of view
    Reading actively, asking self, "What do I already know about this topic?" "What do I need to learn?"
  • Reading with a purpose, knowing when it's important to understand every detail and when she can read quickly for pure enjoyment
  • Reading selectively, scanning chapter headings and introductory sentences to find necessary information
  • Skimming a chapter in a textbook to form an overall impression — what is the topic? Is it familiar?
  • Checking the table of contents and index to determine if a book is relevant to a topic
  • Determining when it is important to stop and figure out the meaning of a word one doesn't know, and when it's okay to keep reading
    Reflecting upon moral and ethical implications in literature
St. Mary Star of the Sea School
13 Chapman Street
Beverly, MA 01915
Tel: 978-927-3259

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