Being a Reader: Early Reading Instruction

Being a Reader is a research-based early reading curriculum for grades K-2 designed to both teach foundational skills and foster engagement with and love of reading. Being a Reader systematically develops both early reading competencies and comprehension through whole-class, small-group, and independent work lessons.

The Being a Reader instruction intentionally creates an environment in which all students can grow as readers, independent learners, and caring members of the classroom community.

Whether used as a stand-alone program or integrated in Collaborative Literacy, the Being a Reader program structures build success:

• Differentiated Small-Group Instruction – Giving every teacher the ability to differentiate Tier 1 instruction so students receive the support they need to develop as readers at their own pace.
• Whole-Class Instruction – Learning together with fully articulated instruction in shared reading, handwriting, letter names, independent work, and word study, depending on grade.
• Independent Work Rotations – Designed to provide opportunities for students to practice what they are learning in whole-class and small-group lessons.Independent work also provides students with choice and fosters self-efficacy.
• Authentic Reading Experience – Lessons are based around high-quality children’s literature, and students have opportunities to apply their learning to texts at their appropriate reading levels.

Being a Reader also features:

Intentional alignment with SIPPS (Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words) intervention – Being a Reader and SIPPS were designed to work together seamlessly in a powerful multi-tiered approach for readers moving between Tiers 1 and 2 in the RTI/MTSS framework (Response to Intervention-Multi-Tiered System of Support).

Systematic Decoding Instruction – Explicit and systematic lessons develop phonological awareness, spelling-sound relationships, decoding, and sight word knowledge that  build the foundation for accuracy and automaticity that lead to fluent reading and comprehension.

Integrated Social and Academic Development – Research shows that developing social competencies prepares students to be productive contributors to learning experiences and increases their capacity to learn.

Meaningful Assessments – Being a Reader offers a comprehensive set of formative and summative assessments that are designed to help teachers make informed decisions about instruction and track student progress throughout the year.

Research-based and Standards-aligned – Our unique pedagogy has grown out of years of research on reading development, vocabulary acquisition, best practices in reading and vocabulary instruction, and child development. Visit our correlations site to search for correlations to the Common Core and other state standards.