Education should be an enjoyable, life-long process versus a race. In First Grade, for example, reading instruction is both explicit and developmental in order to spark student motivation and success. At Journey, students become literate through a ‘writing to reading’ approach that combines phonics and whole language approaches.
Our First Grade students routinely do the following: Listen to complex stories containing vivid imagery and high-level vocabulary; Summarize stories verbally and in writing; Reflect inwardly and in age-appropriate ways on what it means to be ethical; Recite alliterative verses for each letter; Draw beautiful pictures that represent the different letters and sight words; Write letters, words, verses and sentences in Main Lesson Books; Participate in engaging phonemic awareness activities; Write simple compositions about their experiences or the stories told; Read known texts that contain important phonics elements; and, Learn all the consonant letter-sound relationships, short vowel sounds, key sight words, digraphs, long vowels, and consonant blends.
Prospective families must understand that Waldorf educators interpret reading and spelling as a complex, gradual process. We give students adequate time to build their phonics skills over Grades 1-3. Not all students are expected to be ‘reading to learn’ in First Grade, though some certainly do. For more curricular information, please click here. We are proud of our research-based and developmental approach to reading, and the results speak for themselves.
