apps for Early Readers and Spellers (Kindergarten through 2nd Grade)

Are you looking for ipad apps to help your student read and/or spell?

I have some free and fantastic suggestions!

There are a series of apps called Spelling Magic.
Level 1 has students build cvc (consonant vowel consonant) words with short vowel sounds. Level 2 works on consonant blends. Level 3 focuses on multisyllabic words that contain short vowel sounds and Level 4 focuses on the silent e as an introduction to long vowel sounds.

Phonemic awareness is important in the development of early reading skills and strong Phonemic Awareness has been linked to future reading success.Phonemic awareness includes the ability to listen to sounds in a word and blend them to determine the word. Segmenting is the ability to determine each individual sound in a word. If your student struggle with phonemic awareness, the apps Reading Magic 1 and Reading Magic 2 give students experience with these isolated skills.

We will be adding the apps to student ipads here at Roberts. While apps do not take the place of good instruction, it does give students opportunities to practice and improve their skills in a fun and easy way.

A Closer Look at Level 10

A Look at Levels 9-10

A DRA Level 10 is considered a middle of 1st Grade Reading Level. Many of our Robert's Kindergarten students read at level 10 and a majority of our 1st Graders are at least a level 10 by the end of December.

As your student reads levels 9 and 10, you will notice that picture support decreases and that the text becomes more complex. Students use the words more than the pictures when reading at levels 9 and 10. Students will develop flexiblity with long and short vowel sounds, decode 2 and 3 syllable words and begin to read with expression and intonation, paying attention to punctuation.

When will my child be ready to move to levels 11 and 12?

We look students to consistently exhibit some of the following behaviors. Each is followed by some things you can say to help your child with these skills if they are struggling when practicing reading at home:

-Notice punctuation and use it for phrasing

If you notice your child not using punctuation you can say, "Did that sound right?", or, "Read that again and pause at the period".
You can also model correct phrasing for students and have them practice.

-Search for visual cues to read new words

If your child gets stuck on a word, you can ask if they see any parts that they know. If your child misreads the word, you can say, "It could be _____, but look at _____ (the beginning, the end, a part etc).

-Use syntax to predict

Usually students self correct with syntax errors, but if not, here are some prompts you can use:
"You said ___________. Does that make sense?"
"Can you think of a better way to say ______________________(repeat student words)?"
"Would _________ fit there?"

-Move quickly through text

If your child sounds "choppy" or reads text word by word, have your child reread the sentence/section again and then have them "Read it faster".

-Self correct by using multiple sources (picture clues, syntax, word parts, prior knowledge etc.)

"Does that look right? soud right? make sense?" or "There is a tricky part. Can you find it?"

You can also check with your child's teacher to see what other prompts she uses that may be helpful at home.

Sometimes teachers will try students at a higher level to see how the student performs and determine readiness to move up. We are flexible and careful not to celebrate moving up a level because we want students to be okay with changing back down if they are not quite ready or if they come back from a break needing to relearn/solidify skills.

Starting the New School Year

At the start of each school year teachers begin by assessing student reading levels. At Roberts, we use the Developmental Reading Assessment or Fountas and Pinnell reading assessment. These are oportunities for teachers to listen to individual students read and discuss reading with their teacher in order to determine their level of understanding. Teachers use this information to set reading goals with students, group readers together for small group instruction and to monitor progress. Changes in reading levels/skills often occur over the summer, depending on how much students have read. The beginning of the year assessment gives us an opportunity to determine current reading skills and levels in order to plan instruction.

As required by the State of Texas, students in grades Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd Grades, need to be assessed in all aspects of reading development. School districts can use the Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) or istation. The Houston Independent School District assesses all Elementary School students using istation. This is an on-line assessment that students take on the computer. We will be starting the Beginning of the Year (BOY) istation assessment next week during Academic Skills Lab. Parents will receive a letter in the Tuesday folder regarding their child's performance by the end of September. This assessment is completed for all students at the beginning of the year, middle of the year and end of the year.

For more information on these assessments and Student goal setting, see the earlier posts on this Blog.

I will be continuing with a deeper look at Reading levels as the beginning of the school year progresses.

A Look at Level Levels 7-8

In contrast to level 6, level 8 narratives move from a repeated series of episodes that repeat to text that has a definite beginning, middle and end. Sentence structure becomes more complex and may include clauses, prepositional phrases and adjectives, and language structure is less repititious. Dialogue becomes longer and a wider range of vocabulary is used in level 8 text.

Strategies Teachers are Looking for on a Level 8

-use meaning to solve new words
-self correct using illustrations, intial sounds, other words that look the same and personal experience
-makes predictions and reads to confirm predictions
-rereads to check, look at clues, and confirm
-makes connections to other text sources

Here are some prompts that may help you help your child practice reading:

"Check the picture"
"Does that make sense?"
"What do you think it might be?"
"Does that look right?"
"How did you know it was _____?"
"Does that match what is happening?"
"Look closer"
"Read it again and see if you are right"

Check with your child's teacher, she may use additional prompts or provide the same prompt with a variation in the language.

Moving from a level 8 to a level 10

We look for a variety of skills to be in place before moving students up in DRA Reading levels. We look for solid skills in Phonics, Vocabulary, Comprehension and Fluency. When ready to move from a level 8 to a level 10, students consistently read at 95% accuracy or higher and consistently read a variety of text while demonstrating the following skills:

Phonics-
longer word decoding
read compound words
read words with long vowel sounds, including vowel pairs (ay, ee, ea...)

Vocabulary-
use new vocabulary
increase reading of high frequency words

Comprehension-
predict and check
rely less on illustrations and more on words
reread to check for meaning
remember and retell
made connections between other text

Fluency-
begin to read in phrases
reading sounds more fluent
use finger pointing only on the more difficult words

Sometimes teachers will try students at a higher level to see how the student performs and determine readiness to move up. We are flexible and careful not to celebrate moving up a level because we want students to be okay with changing back down if they are not quite ready or if they come back from a break needing to relearn/solidify skills.

Reading Levels 4-6

A Look at Levels 4-6Students reading at levels 4-6 begin to move away from finger pointing and start to track words with their eyes. Students who are ready to move from a Reading level 3 to a 4 are recognizing high frequency sight words when in text without a repeated pattern or in isolation. Students use picture clues, initial sounds and ending sounds when reading unfamiliar words. They may also start to look for and/or notice words that look like other words they already know (example: he/we) or look for parts of words that they know (pond). You can expect students to begin sounding out and blending CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words like “cat”.

What to expect to see in text at Reading Levels 4-6
-familiar/easy topics (pets, school etc)
-pictures support the text
-repeated language patterns but with more complex patterns
-simple dialogue
-longer sentences (some may be questions)
-sentences may have prepositional phrases
-some words with common endings (-s, -ing, -ed)
-high frequency words are repeated in varying sentence structures

Some ways that you can help your student at homeStudents who practice reading every night at home make steady progress and here are some ways that you can help your student when they make an error or are “stuck” on a word.

“What letter does it start/end with?”
“If that word was _______, what would you expect the first/middle/last letter to be?”
“Do you know another word that looks like it?”
“Do you know a part in that word?”
“Read it again and see if it sounds right”
“Does it make sense?”
If you are looking for your child to read more fluently, you can model it for them the way it should sound and then have them try. And then they can try a little faster.

Remember to continue to have your student read their level 4, 5, or 6 book at least 2 times each night. Also, ask your student’s teacher what cues they are using in class that are similar to the suggestions above so that you can use them with your child at home.

Enjoy watching your child notice all the parts of words and begin to make connections.

A Look at Levels 1-3 (Developmental Reading Assessment Levels)

Grade Level Equivalency

Levels 1-3 are considered Kindergarten level text. Level 1 is beginning of Kindergarten, Level 2 is the middle and level 3 is the end. We look for students to end Kindergarten on at least a level 3 so that they are ready for First Grade Reading skills acquisition.

Level 1 Books-
Have a repeated pattern on each page with one word that varies from page to page. Readers use the pictures to help determine the word that varies. “Picture walks” of the book prior to reading help set the stage for determining unfamiliar words. Students are working on pointing to each word while he/she is reading that corresponding word. This builds visual tracking and sight word learning. More difficult level 1 books have return sweeps, when the text continues onto a second line.

Level 2 Books-
They are still text with patterns, with the exception of the last page, where one or two words may be different. Also, more than one word may be different from page to page, may include a preposition change as well as another change.

Level 3 Books-A more complex version (a little more variation between pages) of a level 2.
Look for students to know their sight words from levels 1-3 in isolation before they are ready to move to a level 4. Level 4 books will no longer have a repeated pattern.

How to Help Your Child Read-
When students bring a leveled reader home for practice, they have read it at least twice with their teacher. They should read their book at least two more times at home (while pointing to the words) and will then read it one more time in class the next day. When you are listening to your child read, you can wait for them to finish a page before correcting errors. Some of the things you can say are; “Does that make sense?” or “ That word does match the picture and in this book they use the word ________” or, “Look at the first sound” or “Get your mouth ready with the first sound”. You can also ask your child’s teacher about visual or verbal cues she uses. Once your child has fixed the error, have him/her go back and reread the sentence.

Students reading a level 1-3 are still not sounding out words, but may be ready to begin using initial consonant sounds along with the pictures to read unfamiliar words.

Read only on the days you eat!

istation Reading Assessment and Intervention

I would like to let you know about a new Reading assessment tool being used by the district. Parents of 4th and 5th Grade students may have heard about istation last school year, as all 3rd-5th Graders participated in the assessment and some participated in the interventions offered. All students in Grades Kindergarten through 5th Grade will be participating this school year. HISD has chosen the assessment tool within the istation program to assess students in K-2nd and this will replace the Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) starting this school year. Third through 5th Graders in the district will continue to participate. In fact, all the students at Roberts have completed the on line assessment over the past 3 weeks.

The assessment and interventions are being used by the district to identify and target students who are struggling to acquire critical Reading skills. All students are monitored for continued progress throughout the year with a beginning(BOY), Middle (MOY), and End (EOY)assessment. Students indicating a need for intervention will be assessed at least once a month.

The areas of Reading that are assessed varies based on grade level. Kindergarteners and some 1st Graders are also learning to work with a touch pad on the laptops and working to negotiate the test. Teachers are working with students to best observe and assess that Reading skills are being determined and sorting out the computer skills from academic skills.


Teachers will evaluate to determine instructional goals for students and use the data to plan for future instruction.
If your child has been targeted for intervention after taking the istation assessment, a letter will be sent home in this coming week's Tuesday Folder. If you have further questions and/or concerns, you can contact your child's teacher or myself.

Happy Reading,
Carol Rivers