Success For All (SFA) Reading Program

What is SFA?

Success For All is a comprehensive approach to reading for elementary schools to ensure the success of every child. The curriculum is based on current research on the ways children learn to read and write. Then strategic reading skills helps them take wings and read independently.

• A grade 4-5 uninterrupted reading period of 100 minutes daily.
• Students are re-tested every eight weeks to make sure they are progressing and to ensure they are in the correct level.
• Cooperative learning is used throughout the program and focuses on individual accountability, common goals and recognition of group success.

Components

The Wings Curriculum includes:

Listening Comprehension
In Listening Comprehension, teachers use fiction or nonfiction text to model strategic reading and engage students in interactive dialogue about story elements, author’s craft, or expository text structure. The teacher reads the selection interactively with the students, asks higher-order thinking questions, and involves them in discussing the story structure of narrative and expository text, literary devices, genres, and making predictions. These fundamental skills are revisited and used throughout the year. While some books focus heavily on one of these objectives, all of the SFA materials incorporate these skills throughout the year:

Clarifying
Questioning
Prediction
Summarization

Teamwork
During this time, student activities and questions are guided by Treasure Hunts that are created to support a variety of reading materials. An important part of SFA is getting along with others. Cooperative Learning, Strategies, Routines and Working Together are taught and reinforced. The lessons are fast-paced and full of meaningful activities that make sure children get enough practice and at the same time challenge them to learn to their full potential. Students will do lots of reading, thinking and discussion.

Adventures in Writing
Adventures in Writing activities are linked to the texts that the students are reading. They are designed to extend students’ thinking about certain concepts or skills, provide instruction in different types of writing, and engage students in working through the writing process in a cooperative setting.

Two-Minute Edit
Students participate in Two-Minute Edit, a whole-group activity that focuses on a grammar or mechanics objective selected by the teacher from a sentence or short paragraph in their writing.

Book Club
Book Club is for students to share the books and stories they have enjoyed with their classmates. Book Club is an opportunity to reinforce and celebrate the reading that students complete each night at home.

Levels

• In Reading Wings students are grouped by reading level from 2.2-6.2.
• Students read independently and with partners. In cooperative learning activities students work in teams to improve strategic reading comprehension skills. Writing is used for creative expression and in response to literature.

At Home Responsibilities

• Make sure children are at school daily by 8:00 and SFA is scheduled between 9:30-11:10 daily.
• Read for 20 minutes each night and write a response if required. Parents sign the form students bring home. Reading practice is essential.
• Postpone doctor and dentist appointments until after reading time . Lessons are built upon one another and are so packed that students need to be at school every day.