Curriculum Overview
What makes Read It Once Again more effective
than other early childhood curriculums?
We offer an intense focus on Level 1 Foundational Skills to ensure success in kindergarten.
Early Childhood Literacy Curriculums
Introduction
Read It Once Again is an early childhood comprehensive curriculum that uses familiar children’s literature to provide a solid educational foundation of the basic skills necessary for children to be successful in kindergarten. Our curriculum consists of Level 1 and Level 2 units. Read It Once Again Level 1 units systematically include activities that provide explicit instruction on the most basic foundational skills. They include activities for the common domains of speech/language, cognitive, gross motor, fine motor, daily living skills, and socialization. The comprehensive curriculum consists of 30 different Level 1 units, each based on familiar children’s literature and typically requires one month per unit for implementation. With 30 available units, a teacher may select the units in any order and implement the curriculum over three school years without repeating a story/unit. Read It Once Again Level 2 units concentrate on higher level of foundational skills and are based on the same familiar stories used with our Level 1 units. Each Level 2 unit includes activities for phonemic awareness, math, science, creative writing and social studies. Read It Once Again Level 1 and Level 2 units provide the educator with student goals and objectives based on developmental milestones with structure and rationale. The comprehensive curriculum includes detailed lesson plans, opportunities for individualization, and on-going progress monitoring. The curriculum also provides a structure for engaging the parent/guardian in the educational process and fosters the communication process between the home and school.
Curriculum Units Based on Over 30 Popular Story Books
Unique Approaches to Learning and Teaching Strategies
Read It Once Again Level 1 units systematically include activities that provide explicit instruction on the most basic foundational skills in the pyramid of educational learning. Read It Once Again recognizes that some children enter our school systems without many of the very basic foundational skills in place. Other early childhood curriculums may touch on beginning basic skills, but Read It Once Again uses rhyme, rhythm and repetition in our Level 1 units as a strategy to ensure that there is an intentional, extended focus on the most basic skills necessary for future academic success. Research has proven that having a firm understanding of these basic essential skills is necessary to achieve educational success in higher academic learning. Read It Once Again activities reinforce basic fundamental concepts and are systematically offered in a variety of literacy based lessons throughout every unit and in each domain. Read It Once Again uniquely provides a flexible structure where the environment and teaching strategies are solidly predictable with elements of creativity and exploration woven into each day. Read It Once Again Level 2 units concentrate on a higher level of foundational skills. Our Level 2 units combined with our Level 1 units ensure that the young child will have a solid knowledge of foundational skills and be prepared for success in the kindergarten setting.
What Makes “Read It Once Again” Curriculum Your Best Choice?
Affordable, effective, and all inclusive
- Meets the needs of a wide range of abilities in a single classroom
- Literacy-based using familiar children’s literature
- Provides a structure for parent involvement
- Research-based and aligns with typical state standards/ developmental guidelines
- Staff training available
$400 buys one year of curriculum with:
- No required yearly re-occurring costs
- All materials being reproducible and reusable
- Materials can be shared with other professionals and parents
How Will “Read It Once Again” Benefit Your Program?
Promotes literacy- Provides continuity for your Early Childhood department
- Easy to create long range planning
- Follows state standards and developmental guidelines
- Can be used alone or in conjunction with other curriculums as a supplement
- Supports special education IEPs (Individual Educational Plan)
- Documented record of student success
- Coordinates classroom activities with special therapy services (SLP, OT, PT)
- Provides guidance and structure for inexperienced teachers
- Motivating and flexible format for experienced teachers
What Will “Read It Once Again” Do For Children?
- Improves speech and language skills
- Incorporates language into these Level 1 early childhood domains:
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- Cognitive
- Gross motor
- Fine motor
- Daily living
- Socialization
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- Incorporates language into these Level 2 early childhood domains:
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- Phonemic awareness
- Math
- Science
- Social studies
- Creative writing
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- Creates an atmosphere combining literacy with fun and learning
- Promotes early literacy by introducing them to familiar children’s literature
- Age appropriate materials promoting success
- Captures the fun of using rhyme, rhythm and repetition as a tool for promoting language
What Is Included In Each Level 1 Unit?
Each unit is structured in this format.
1. Introduction:
Teaching strategies and guidance for implementing each unit
2. Speech and Language:
Vocabulary activities and concepts
3. Cognitive:
Colors, numbers, shapes and more
4. Motor:
Gross motor covers large muscle activities
Fine motor covers cutting, pasting, lacing and pre-writing
5. Daily Living:
Dressing, hygiene and recipes relating to the story
6. Socialization:
Activities dealing with emotions, group games for peer interaction and reward certificates
7. Music and Rhymes:
Mother Goose rhymes, songs and finger plays
8. Assessment Tool/Parent Letters:
Parent Letters including goals and objectives to introduce and conclude the unit
Learn more about Curriculum Assessment and the Assessment Tool included with our units.
9. Assessment Tool:
Student achievement based on goals and objectives in each domain are monitored by a numbered rating scale.
10. Graphics/Lesson Plans/Grids
Simple graphics of characters and objects found in the story
Assessment forms, plus one month of sample lesson plans
The following sample activities are from our Level 1 Unit based on the storybook, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle.
Paint Master (Lesson Plans) (PDF)
What Is Included In Each Level 2 Unit?
The following sample activities are from our Level 2 Unit based on the storybook, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle.
Making Sense of Butterflies – Approaches to Learning (PDF)
Caterpillar’s Favorite Words – Early Literacy (PDF)
Caterpillar Rulers – Mathematics (PDF)
Parent Letters and Assessment Tool (PDF)
What is Caterpillar Doing in his Cocoon – Creative Arts (PDF)
Keep Me Safe – Social Studies (PDF)
Each unit is structured in this format.
1. Introduction:
Teaching strategies and guidance for implementing each unit
2. Phonemic Awareness:
Activities that help children to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words used in storybook text along with letter recognition, rhyming, identification of sight words
3. Higher Math Skills:
Number concepts to 30, measuring , simple addition, simple subtraction, graphing, estimating, quantitative concepts
4. Science:
Simple investigations, predictions, conclusions
5. Creative Writing:
Drawing, dictation and writing ideas
6. Social Studies:
Community helpers and services, self-awareness and awareness of others
7. Assessment Tool/Parent Letters:
Letters including goals and objectives to introduce and conclude the unit
Learn more about Curriculum Assessment and the Assessment Tool included with our units.
8. Assessment Tool:
Student achievement based on goals and objectives in each domain are monitored by a numbered rating scale.
*** Color CD included with every unit
CD contains printable graphics in color or black and white which will decrease teacher prep time
Do the Units Include An Assessment Tool?
Each unit is structured in this format.
Our assessment piece is found within the Assessment Tool/Parent Letters section in each unit.
It is to be used in conjunction with the WORD feature on our Color CD, which comes with every unit.
The assessment feature is uniquely designed so that teachers may tailor the goals and objectives for the individual needs of each student, or the needs of your entire classroom.
For children with an Individual Educational Plan (IEP), you may amend these goals and objectives to create a very parent friendly IEP.
Our assessment tool uses a 1-5 rating scale to assess the progress of your students based on the goals and objectives from the unit, or those that you have amended. A handy assessment grid is included in each unit for your convenience.
It is most beneficial to share a copy of this assessment with parents along with a copy of the storybook. When parents read with their child at home, they will be able to emphasize the same goals and objectives that you have been working on in the classroom.
Providing the assessment information as well as the storybook creates an important communication link between home and school!
Storybooks may be obtained at a discount from Scholastic Literacy Partners.
How Does the Read It Once Again Curriculum Support Family Involvement?
Each unit includes a section entitled Assessment Tool/Parent Letters containing information intended to be used with parents and care-givers. As teachers begin each unit, parents are to be provided a “Parent Letter Packet” which includes an introductory letter, an “At-A-Glance” and the goals and objectives from each domain. The “At-A-Glance” is an overview of the unit listing key vocabulary words, phrases, and teachable concepts. Following each “At-A-Glance” page you will find the goals and objectives from each domain. Parent letters, “At-A-Glance” and goals and objectives are also found on the CD included with each unit. Using the WORD format on the CD allows teachers to modify any of the written information. Teachers or therapists may modify the parent introductory letter, delete or add goals as necessary to create a “parent friendly” Individual Education Plan ( IEP.)
One purpose of the introductory parent letter packet is to promote parent’s understanding of the daily activities and experiences used to accomplish the goals and objectives. This understanding helps foster ongoing, meaningful communication between parents and teachers throughout the duration of the unit.
In each Assessment Tool/Parent Letter section there is also an assessment parent letter intended to be used at the conclusion of each unit. As with the introductory letter, there is also a copy of the “At-A-Glance” and the goals and objectives from each domain. The letter explains the use of a 1-5 rating scale (1= Mastery 2= Significant progress 3= Some progress 4= No progress, and 5= Not attempted) to assess the levels of progress for each of the goals and objectives included with the letter. Read It Once Again’s ongoing monitoring tool gives parents monthly feedback at the end of the unit to inform them of how their child mastered the goals and objectives covered in the unit. If the teacher/therapist has amended the goals and objectives to match the IEP, they have now updated the IEP.
Read It Once Again promotes giving each child a copy of the storybook at the end of the unit and has partnered with Scholastic Literacy Partners to make books affordable. Through the Scholastic Literacy Partners program, the teachers and school districts can purchase the storybooks at a 43% discount with free shipping.
Having the storybook available at the end of each unit encourages parent and child to read together in the home setting. Because of repeated readings in the classroom, the child is familiar with the book and often initiates the request for parents to read the storybook just as it has been read at school. This sets a framework that will establish positive reading habits with parents and young children in the home. Our mission is to create life-long readers.
There is another advantage of sending the storybook home along with the parent assessment letter. The assessment letter contains updated information about their child’s progress. Parents are empowered with the knowledge to know which skills they should continue to emphasize as they read with their child at home.