What is a 1B Reader?
1B readers take a huge jump forward in reading. Not only do they have a sight word bank of 200–300 high frequency words, they are now able to use these known words, and knowledge of regular vowel patterns, to figure out unknown words (e.g., ride/ pride). 1B readers have their fingers out, covering parts of unfamiliar words to find something they know inside them. 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. If it doesn’t work out they have to start all over again. The phonological awareness skills required for this level are tremendous.
