One-Blue (B)

What is a B Reader?

One-Blue readers take a huge jump forward in reading. Not only do they have a sight word bank of 100–300 high frequency words, they are now able to use these known words to figure out unknown words (e.g., ride/pride). They must be able to use their sight word bank, spelling pattern “chunks,” and most vowel teams to read the one-syllable words common to One-Blue text. Once they find a chunk that looks familiar, they have to recall what known word it is part of, take off the first letter of the known word in their mind, vocalize the isolated chunk, add the beginning sound of the new word to the chunk, and see if it works out to be a sensible word. The phonemic awareness skills required for this stage are tremendous.

Standards-based Objectives for B

Wide Reading and Motivation

• Reads regularly and independently in the B Reading Zone for 15 minutes every day in the classroom without fatigue
• Has established a home reading habit and reads for at least 15 minutes each night without prompting
• Enjoys both fiction and nonfiction materials

Phonemic Awareness/Phonics/Decoding/Word Solving Strategies

• Orally segments a two-syllable word into its syllables
• Notices, stops reading, and uses repair strategies when something doesn’t look right, sound right, or make sense
• Is able to decode almost any one-syllable word that follows a regular vowel pattern (hid/hide) or is built from a familiar chunk (lift/if)
• Is able to use regular spelling patterns to read long and short vowel sounds Decodes words containing vowel digraphs (ee, ea, ai, oa, ui)

Fluency

• Reads comfortably and with confidence
• Reads with 98–100% word accuracy in B-level texts and self-corrects all errors that interfere with meaning
• Is beginning to use a whisper voice

Vocabulary and Background Knowledge

• Knows 100–300 high frequency words by sight and can use them as “islands of certainty” while reading in B-level materials
• Has enough background knowledge to name and talk about the content common to B-level books

Comprehension of Informational and Literary Text

• Makes reasonable statements and conclusions about a text, supporting them with evidence from the text
• Thinks critically about an author’s writing and supports opinions with examples from text