Targeted Assistance Groups
Lower Dauphin School District
The purpose of the Targeted Assistance Groups Program is to supplement classroom reading instruction by targeting specific skills. Three big areas are addressed: word solving, fluency, and comprehension. Continual progress monitoring helps to guide instruction in the classroom and in TAG sessions.
What guides TAG
reading lessons?
As I plan for each reading group, I am continually evaluating students’ strengths and needs. By observing a student’s reading and response to reading in TAG sessions, in the classroom, and on reading assessments, I am able to determine needs of the particular group. Lessons are then planned for the group to target these areas of need.
Since skills are best taught during the process of reading, we are always reading. Research also tells us time and time again that learning is a social act so we spend a lot of our reading sessions talking about reading skills, words, and texts.
What is different about TAG this school year?
The main difference in the TAG program this year is that in addition to pulling students out of the classroom for small group instruction, I have also been going into many classrooms to co-teach small group and whole group reading lessons. In this way, classroom reading instruction is supported in the classroom as well. These lessons are a part of the language arts curriculum which is already in place in the classroom.
Another change is that I have been sending TAG Summaries for all pull-out sessions so parents have a better idea of what is being done in small group sessions.
What topics have we been working on this year?
Each group has been working on targeted areas that fit the group’s particular needs. Some of the most popular topics include:
· Text Purpose
· Figurative Language
· Summarization
· Cause and Effect
· Timelines
· Fact and Opinion
· Synonyms and Antonyms
· Main Idea and Details
· Making Inferences
How Parents Can Help
1. Look for reading material that matches your child’s interests
2. Read to your child, read with your child, listen to your child read
3. Talk about what your child reads
4. Set aside regular time for reading
5. Build a home library
Helpful Websites
www.studyisland.com
Study Island
http://www.childrenslibrary.org/
International Children’s Digital Library
More than 500 titles in 28 languages
http://www.nea.org/parents/index.html
National Education Assoc. for Parents
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/pde_internet/cwp/view.asp?a=3&Q=74434
Pennsylvania Department of Education
for Parents
http://www.pbs.org/parents/readinglanguage/
PBS for Parents (to 3rd grade)
http://www.readingrockets.org/
Reading Rockets
Provided by U.S. Department of Education
How is reading changing
for my child?
Reading in the intermediate grades is a big change from early elementary reading! Students are now expected to read longer texts in a shorter time. More non-fiction texts are used. Vocabulary is more content-specific and there is less support from illustrations.
Reading in schools has changed too. Students are asked questions that require more thinking about the text instead of just recalling facts from texts. Readers must make comparisons and connections between texts and understand the purpose and organization of a text. Students must be prepared to write organized and thorough responses after reading.
Our schools are responding to these changes through initiatives such as Learning Focused Schools. As parents, it is important for you to be aware that education is going through these changes too.
Please contact me through email if you have any questions or comments about the TAG program.
Mrs. Klinger
Jokes Just for You
Q: What has no beginning, no end, and nothing in the middle?
A: A doughnut!
Q: What always ends everything?
A: The letter 'G'!
Q: What can a whole orange do that half an orange can never do?
A: Look round!
Q: Why do you always find things in the last place you look?
A: Because when you have found it you stop looking!
Q: What always falls without getting hurt?
A: Rain!
Q: What word is always pronounced wrong?
A: Wrong!
Q: What is full of holes yet can still hold water?
A: A sponge!
Q: What happens after a dry spell?
A: It rains!
Are you Reading?
Remember, it is so important to read every day and to talk with a parent or friend about what you are reading.
Read now
Read later
Read about
An alligator
Find a book
Grab a paper
Read the comics
With a neighbor
You can do it!
Be a reader!
You deserve it!
Be a leader!
Questions to Ask
as You Read
Who wrote this? Do I believe what I am reading?
Why did the author write this?
What other text does this remind me of?
Did the author use figurative language? If so, what did the author really mean to say?
How can I summarize this text in a sentence or two?
What would be a good title for this text?
What is the turning point in the story?
What do I picture in this part of the story?
Poem Parade
by Jack Prelutsky
Draw pictures to illustrate these poems.
My mother makes me chicken’
her chicken makes me cough.
I wish that when she made it,
she took the feathers off.
Eureka! At last I’ve succeeded,
my experiment’s finally done.
I’ve made an incredible creature,
the only one under the sun.
There’s never been anything like it,
part puppy, part kitten, part mouse –
and now I must learn how to stop it
from chasing itself through the house.
TAG Challenge
Here are four words that stump kids all over the country.
tough – A gorilla is tough.
through – He walked through the door.
thought – I thought I saw a snowflake.
though – It seems as though the concert is over.
tough / through / thought / thoughChallenge: Write each word on the chart under the word it rhymes with. You may ask for help from a parent or a dictionary. Turn in a completed challenge for a prize!
although
bluff
brought
caught
clue
cough
dough
enough
fought
go
know
low
new
rough
stuff
taught
thorough
throw
toe
yacht