Another time where I have seen literacy in this classroom is before lunch when the teacher or I read a book aloud to the kids. The book always ties in with something that the kids are learning about that day. I feel like my teacher does a really good job with asking the kids questions about the text and about how the characters may feel. The way that she interacts with the children during the read aloud certainly goes along with what I learned in one of my classes, Literacy 273, last semester. Our professor taught us how important it is to engage the kids during read alouds and to ask them questions throughout it to get them thinking about the characters, storyline, and choices that the author made. The kids really love this time of the day and they are always eager to answer questions about the story.
After lunch, my teacher has the children lie down on towels for a rest and the kids get to listen to a couple short books on tape. She allows a different student to pick the books everyday. I think that this is great because it gets the kids excited that they will get to choose a story that they really like. It also helps to keep the kids calm and quiet during this rest time. There is also a time of the day where my teacher does literacy centers. There is a center where the kids listen to a book on tape, a center where they read quietly, a center where they work in a small group with the teacher, and a center where a parent helper does an activity with the students. This worked so well! The kids rotate two times and then go to the centers they miss the next day. Doing centers like this definitely goes along with what I have learned in classes at ISU because the kids do not work on any one thing for too long and also they get to work on literacy in a variety of ways.
The only times I have seen my teacher do actual assessments of the students literacy is during one of these small group lessons that she gave. She had copies of a short book made for each child. The children were learning about the letter “J” so the book was called “See Jack Jump”. The kids had to write in the words “Jack” and “jump” at certain parts of the book, they had to circle the sight word “with” and they had to add in periods in the appropriate places. After they had all finished this, she had the kids read the book as a group, silently, and then to two partners. This assessment goes along perfectly with what I have learned throughout my classes because she teaches the lesson and then allows the students to practice independently and with others.
After these first few times at my clinical setting I am eager to see how consistent my teacher is with all of these literacy activities and assessments. I feel like there is so much focus on literacy and math that it makes me wonder if she teaches science or social studies lessons very often. I am hoping to see more of these other subjects and more hands-on activities in the future!
Eva,
ReplyDeleteI was particularly interested in reading your blog posting about literacy instruction in your classroom because we are both at Olympia West. Even though we are in different grade levels, I was still curious to see if there was some sort of consistency with literacy instruction throughout the school. I first liked that your teacher practices literacy skills during your morning meeting. In my clinical classroom, we do not have a morning meeting and this is something that disappoints me. I think a morning meeting would be a great time every day to talk about things going on in our classroom as well as outside of the classroom. As your teacher has done, this would also be a great time to quickly assess or practice different skills. I would like to hear more about how your class responds to practicing flashcards as a whole group. From the outside, this looks like a great way for all the students to practice a skill at the same time but on the other hand it would be hard to assess which specific students are actually getting the concept. I also think that a read aloud is something that is underestimated in my classroom. Even though I am in third grade, I have not seen my teacher implement an actual read aloud and it is nice to read about how well your teacher implements them and how well your class responds. It appears to me that your teacher sets a very good example of how to interact with the students! I also like the idea of letting your students rest while listening to stories and I like that your teacher allows a different student each day to pick the stories. We have learned how important it is to allow students choice with all activities but I think this applies a lot to literacy because by allowing students to read what they’re interested in, this could cause them to love reading for life. The picture you have included in your blog post is something I think would be really helpful in any classroom! There are so many times during centers in my classroom that students ask me where they are supposed to go. Something visual like this telling the students what center they are working in would really help students know where to go during centers.
Eva,
ReplyDeleteThanks for breaking down the literacy happenings in this Kindergarten classroom. I appreciated the detail with which you described the various parts of these times of day, which come up throughout the day--wow! Because literacy takes up so much of the day, do you find that other subjects are pushed aside? I'm also wondering what you think about the centers. Are the kids learning a central concept like in a workshop model, or are they all learning different concepts with a different focus? I'm not sure if I like this model, even at a Kindergarten level. Where is the collective focus on learning genres, strategies, etc.? Hmmm, something to consider.
I agree with Kristina about your idea to offer this class! I loved the visual display idea that you presented with your image and description above. This shows that not only are you thinking critically about what you're seeing, but also practically about what would be most beneficial. I agree that a visual display would help greatly, not only for the kids, but also for the adults! I had a similar chart in my classroom, and I've seen ones that are on the interactive whiteboards too.
I'm wondering what you think about the letter books. This is a practice that was also done last semester while we had a clinical student in this classroom, and I would be interested in hearing your perspectives about the usefulness of the little copied books. Let's chat about this in the next few weeks!
:)Kira
Eva,
ReplyDeleteIt was really awesome to see how your kindergarten CT implemented literacy in her classroom. I really like that she does a lot of different literacy activities throughout the day. It also seems like the children enjoy the activities because there is such a variety of different activities. I would also question whether or not this much literacy takes away from science or social studies. From what you've said, you haven't seen science or social studies in the classroom, does this mean that she doesn't teach much of it at all? I am just curious. I was in a kindergarten classroom last semester, and I also struggled with this. We've learned throughout our semesters at ISU the importance of teaching all of the different strands of education, and I think it is important that this applies in kindergarten as well. One thing that you said in your blog was that the children do center-time, and there is a parent volunteer. I LOVE that. I think it is so important to have parent integration in the classroom, and this seems like a great way to do it. Overall, reading about your literacy experiences is awesome for me to compare and contrast mine too. I look forward to reading further posts from you this semester :-)
Eva,
ReplyDeleteI really like that your teacher does so many different literacy activities throughout the day. First, I think its great how she implements literacy centers for kids to have time to listen to books on tape. Its a great way t encourage choice and independence when allowing them to choose the book. Also, I really like that you had referenced Literacy 273 and that you are seeing your teacher use interactive read alouds in your classroom. I think one of the most important parts of reading aloud to kindergarten students and younger grades is keeping them engaged in the text by asking questions and making predictions while reading aloud. I think its awesome that your teacher is not only allowing time for students to work independently during literacy time but that she is also doing guided reading groups in her class that encourage students to focus on skills like sight words or using punctuation. I really like that you added the piece about not seeing much science and social studies. Do you think it ill be difficult for you to implement your to lessons if you continue not to see much of this instruction time? how do you think you will teach your lessons based on what you know they have learned in these subjects and what do you think are your biggest challenges when teaching science and social studies to your kindergarteners?