The Reading Stages – a good refresher

Reading Stages

(adapted from the State College Area School District Language Arts Continuum)

Emergent Readers

• Display curiosity about books and reading
• Pretend read and write
• Rely on pictures to tell the story but are beginning to focus on print
• May know some letter names and sound associations

Developing Readers

• Can read predictable books (The Very Hungry Caterpillar or  The teeny Tiny Woman)
• Can identify letters by names and know most letter sounds
• Begin to use spaces between words in writing but not consistently
• Will recognize familiar words such as labels and names of classmates
• Can participate in books discussions, will use personal experiences to make connections to literature

Beginning Readers

• Begin to apply reading strategies (sentence structure, meaning, phonetic clues)
• Rely on print more than illustrations to create meaning
• Understand  basic punctuation such as periods, exclamations, and question marks
• Read a range of early-reader series such as I Can Read, Little Bear, and Amelia Bedelia
• Can retell the beginning, middle, and end of stories,
• Participate in discussions about the story’s characters, setting, events, and problems

Expanding Readers

• Use a variety of decoding strategies independently (sentence structure, meaning, phonetic clues)
• Read known and predictable favorites while also stretching into a variety of new materials: may choose to read a range of beginning  chapter and picture books such as: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Amazing Grace, and The Boxcar Children  books
• Silent read for a longer period of time, perhaps 20 minutes or more
• Participate in guided literary discussions and are able to retell settings, characters, problems, major events, and solutions of the stories they read or hear
• Also read non-fiction materials such as New True Books, or Ranger Rick

Bridging Readers

• Strengthen their skills by reading longer books with little repetition of vocabulary
• Integrate sentence structure, meaning and phonetic clues to identify words
• Independently read medium-level chapter and picture books such as James and the Giant Peach, Charlotte’s Web, Bunnicula, Murfaro’s Beautiful Daughters, The Babysitter’s Club books, and American Girls books
• Increased knowledge of literary elements and genres may allow them to describe character’s traits and growth over time, understand the importance of the setting and plot in a story, and compare and contrast books
• Broaden their interests by choosing a wide variety of material such as World Magazine, Eyewitness or Explorer books.

Fluent Readers

• Can deal with more complex issues and topics
• May read preadolescent literature such as Fighting Ground, Old Yeller, Stuart Little, My Side of the Mountain, Number the Stars, and Words of stone
• Select and finish a wide variety of materials and silent read for 30 or more minutes
• Participate in teacher-guided or student-led literary discussions
• Can analyze and debate the relationships among literary elements

Proficient Readers

• Avid readers who can silent read for at least 30 minutes
• Independently select challenging and complex pre-adolescent literature such as the trilogy by Tolkein, Monkey Island, Early Thunder, and  Maniac Magee
• Move between genres with ease, although they may have strong preferences
• Can become deeply involved in complex literary discussions through literature circles
• Can plan appropriate strategies for conducting information searches as they integrate information from various resources of material

Independent Readers

• Select, read, and understand materials of a sophisticated and complex nature, such as The Giver, Jacob Have I Loved, This Boy’s Life, Watership Down, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
• Evaluate, interpret, and analyze literary elements in depth
• Investigate related issues by generating ideas, questions and posing problems