Catharine Blaine K-8 School

Welcome to Literacy at Blaine!

Catharine Blaine K-8 School

Principal: Heather Swanson heswanson@seattleschools.org

2550 34th Avenue West Seattle, Washington 98199 

Office: 252-1920 Fax: 252-1921

24-hour Attendance Line: 252-1924

Literacy: Building Competent Readers and Writers

 

Catherine Blaine K-8 staff are dedicated to supporting all students in becoming competent readers and writers.

 

Throughout the day, students are reading.  Students build their comprehension of text by discussing what they have read in large and small groups or with a buddy.  They also write about what they have learned through reading, analyzing main ideas, characters, and the author’s purpose for writing the piece.  Teachers orally read to students and lead group discussions that challenge students to think not only about the author’s message and big ideas, but to analyze how the author expressed his/her ideas.  Word study, including phonemic awareness, word recognition/decoding and vocabulary, and fluency in reading are core components of reading across the curriculum.

 

Students at all grade levels are writers.  Through Writers Workshop, students engage in prewriting, drafting, editing and revising their work.  Celebrations of writing are big events held at the end of units of study, with student work published in common areas of the building for all to read.  Writers Workshop includes teacher-directed minilessons, teacher-student conferences about writing, and student-directed time spent writing.  Skills developed through Writers are applied across the curriculum, as students engage in writing in reading, math, science, social studies, and the arts. Please check back often as we add informational links below.

 

 

 

All About Reading

All About Writing

All About Blaine’s Reading Support Programs

Definition of reading                                            Advanced Readers

 

Big 5 of reading                                                    Struggling Readers

 

Grade level expectations for reading

 

Assessment of reading skills

 

Strategies for the classroom

 

Strategies for home

Grade level expectations for writing                  Advanced writers

 

Assessment of writing skills                                Struggling writers

 

Writers Workshop

 

Strategies for the classroom

 

Strategies for home

Reading Club (K—4)

 

Literacy (5—8)

Catherine Blaine K-8 staff are dedicated to supporting all students in becoming competent readers and writers.

 

Throughout the day, students are reading.  Students build their comprehension of text by discussing what they have read in large and small groups or with a buddy.  They also write about what they have learned through reading, analyzing main ideas, characters, and the author’s purpose for writing the piece.  Teachers orally read to students and lead group discussions that challenge students to think not only about the author’s message and big ideas, but to analyze how the author expressed his/her ideas.  Word study, including phonemic awareness, word recognition/decoding and vocabulary, and fluency in reading are core components of reading across the curriculum. 

 

Students at all grade levels are writers.  Through Writers Workshop, students engage in prewriting, drafting, editing and revising their work.  Celebrations of writing are big events held at the end of units of study, with student work published in common areas of the building for all to read.  Writers Workshop includes teacher-directed minilessons, teacher-student conferences about writing, and student-directed time spent writing.  Skills developed through Writers are applied across the curriculum, as students engage in writing in reading, math, science, social studies, and the arts.