Before I could start teaching the students, I had to spend hours reading the program so that I could be become familiar with it. There was so much to read that sometimes I would omit some of the program. The Cooperating Teacher told me that it was ok to omit portions of the program that I chose too. The materials reflect a focus on explicit, direct, systematic skills instruction and are touted as a method to boost sagging standardized test scores and narrow the achievement gap between children growing up in poverty and those who are more affluent (Coles, 2002). The scripted program makes teaching reading easy for reading teachers. Open Court Reading is a core reading program for grades K-6 developed by SRA/McGraw Hill. The program was designed to teach decoding and comprehension. Initially, it only focused on primary grades (Open court website). This eventually changed because of the great amount of success of the program. The early success of the program in reaching beginning readers prompted the expansion of the program to the sixth grade. In the upper level of the program, it focuses more on the actual text. Open Court is known for its heavy emphasis on comprehension. It provides comprehension strategy and skill instruction that scaffolds learning so students would become actively
Before I could start teaching the students, I had to spend hours reading the program so that I could be become familiar with it. There was so much to read that sometimes I would omit some of the program. The Cooperating Teacher told me that it was ok to omit portions of the program that I chose too. The materials reflect a focus on explicit, direct, systematic skills instruction and are touted as a method to boost sagging standardized test scores and narrow the achievement gap between children growing up in poverty and those who are more affluent (Coles, 2002). The scripted program makes teaching reading easy for reading teachers. Open Court Reading is a core reading program for grades K-6 developed by SRA/McGraw Hill. The program was designed to teach decoding and comprehension. Initially, it only focused on primary grades (Open court website). This eventually changed because of the great amount of success of the program. The early success of the program in reaching beginning readers prompted the expansion of the program to the sixth grade. In the upper level of the program, it focuses more on the actual text. Open Court is known for its heavy emphasis on comprehension. It provides comprehension strategy and skill instruction that scaffolds learning so students would become actively