Partners in Literacy
At Detroit Prep, we have an incredible team of interventionists who support every learner in and outside of the classroom to meet their reading and math growth goals! Ms. Kira, Ms. Gloria, Ms. Lindsay, Ms. Johari, and Ms. Alissa work urgently and tirelessly to ensure that every student is growing every day through small group and one on one instruction.
This year, you may have also seen a few new faces working with our students on everything from letters and sounds to phonemic awareness – the fabulous Ms. Valorie and Ms. Helena!
Ms. Valorie and Ms. Helena are partners from Michigan Education Corps who worked with students in first through third grade to supplement and accelerate classroom learning and intervention. We are so lucky and thankful to partner with the Michigan Education Corps (MEC) through a generous grant from the Skillman Foundation to have one on one reading supports for students within the school day. Ms. Valorie and Ms. Helena also go above and beyond, working with students during their lunch breaks, and staying late on Fridays to join Community Crew!
Here are some of our students’ favorite activities to work on with Ms. Valorie and Ms. Helena in their sessions, that you can try at home with your learners!
Phonemic Awareness: Knowing that oral language is made of individual sounds and parts of words.
Blending - Say a word out loud and use chips, cubes, or pieces of paper as a visual model for each sound. Then, ask your child to blend the sounds orally to make the word!
Segmenting - Say a word out loud and ask your child to break it down into its syllables.
Phonics: Knowing letters and sounds, and being able to use these to decode words.
Letter/Sound Games - Say a sound, and have your child point to it and name the letter. Then try the reverse - point to a letter, and have your child say the sound it makes!
Word Blending - Write a list of simple words, or lay out some flash cards of simple words. Touch under each letter and ask your child to make the sound of that letter, then drag your finger under the letters and have your child read the word.
Fluency: Accurate, smooth, well-paced, and expressive reading of a text.
Duet Reading - Have your child read a simple, decodable passage (like these!), then take turns reading every other word together, and finally have your child read the passage again independently.
Newscaster - Practice reading with expression by asking your child to read a simple passage more than once, first to decode, and then with expression like a newscaster!