6th Grade Language Arts Observation

Throughout my degree I have taken subjects that provide various strategies for developing engaging learning for diverse classes. While my year 9 English class was organised based on grading and performance of students all other classes were of mixed ability, interest and learning styles. Within my observation week I took note of the teaching styles that were primarily used; year 11 Standard were primarily learning through presentations and note taking, while year 9 English worked well through discussion and sharing of information. Other things I noted was that year 7 needed primarily short activities that link but are different to engage the range of students and ensure they were taking in the appropriate information. My year 11 Drama class

As a future teacher of a fast-changing generation that searches restlessly for new interests, I believe that old and new must meet to keep the basic values of a balanced literacy. Focusing on prior knowledge, collaborating with colleagues, peers, families, and community, creating connections with our surrounding, and empowering students’ learning style throughout the process of gaining knowledge of reading and writing. Foremost, my personal philosophy of teaching literacy is based on constructivism and sociolinguistic, where hands on experience and guidance are priority in an informational world. To facilitate a child’s acquisition of literacy skills , as I plan for literacy instruction for my future classroom, I will take into consideration

The literacy block should consist of a balance of whole-group, small-group, and independent practice. Tyner states, “The challenge in orchestrating the literacy block can be best described as putting together a literacy jigsaw puzzle.” (Tyner,2009). The components of a balanced literacy block should include modeled reading such as a read-aloud which should include texts above the students’ reading level, modeled writing so that teachers have the opportunity to demonstrate how a writer thinks while writing about a text, shared reading which includes the teacher reading most of the text but also allows the students to engage in choral reading with grade-level appropriate texts, shared writing to be used to focus on comprehension but may include the writing process as long as it is used together, small-group differentiated reading and writing, and independent reading and writing so that students can use the skills learned previously to produce a final product.

I have always been surrounded by teachers, and I have invariably been fascinated by the amazing feats they are able to accomplish. I admired how they were able to captivate an entire room of rowdy

Just as the needs of students vary teachers methods of instruction should vary. Meeting the literacy needs of students should be done through a wide variety of instructional strategies that meet the needs of students and meet the requirements of a balanced literacy program. The following information shares 12 instructional procedures to be used in a third grade classroom. The procedures are from the Tompkins’ Compendium shared in the text Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach (6th ed.).

As I arrange this reflective analysis paper on topics that relate to a foundational course and specifically searching for the modules that have given me the most information, taught me something new or expanded my knowledge on a specific topic of reading, I have come to realize how far I have come since I began this adventure. I began these courses after graduating from Marshall with my bachelors. I chose this path because of my love for reading and teaching reading. I have come to realize that these courses have enabled me to become a more effective reading teacher and I now have been given the skills, strategies and techniques that I needed to teach a child to read. I know that I will always need to keep up with classes and new techniques, but feel that I am much more capable of teaching reading than before I started these courses. The course 653 Literacy Acquisition helped me to improve and further develop my educational philosophies and beliefs. So, I chose to speak about the first lesson that was expected of me in this class, Module 1 Literacy Theories, Beliefs and Practices.

Each student first takes a preliminary test to determine their recommended reading goal and level. While accelerated reader may seem beneficial, it can hinder children

For a read aloud the teacher is in control, so the teacher will be reading the book while the students will be listening to the story. The level of the book should be at or above the students level. The stories that are read to the students should include a wide variety of genres for the students to enjoy. The teacher should be modeling what good readers do. Students should be able to see the pictures/text.

For the next read aloud I would definitely do things different. For an examples I would read the book aloud before I do it in front of the class, to see how long it takes. Then I would come up with questions and have the questions simple enough for them to understand whats being asked. But keep the question good enough for them to know if they comprehension the story. And ask questions throughout the story to keep their interest with me. I could tell some of the student was not interesting with the book I reading to them.

Sometimes I have the girls read a page altogether, at times all the boys read at once, sometimes I read a page aloud and other times the east or west half of the class. I can see that this takes the attention of the student who isn’t such a good reader and it this strategy does well in my classroom. There is good comprehension questions listed in my teaching manual that I use. After the execution of the new joint center standards, I have learned that I should have the students review the story. This is an issue I plan to add to the lesson.

The shared book reading program is a teacher-directed literacy program designed to allow the educator the opportunity to model developing comprehension, alphabetics, and general reading achievement skills. The program aligns with the CCSS in that is focuses on the development of comprehension, alphabetics, and general reading skills. Furthermore, the program’s flexible design allows the teacher to utlize formative assessment to create targeted lessons focused on group and individual achievement (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2012).. Additionally, teachers are encouraged to use open-ended questions as well as student’s background knowledge to engage leaners during the lesson. The program encourages the use of quality trade literature

The course is a READ 180 intervention program. Currently, the students are on Workshop 1: Eyes on the Graduation Prize.

This chapter opened my eyes to a variety of things to consider when students are learning to read and write. I never heard of these eight principles that lay the foundation for literacy instruction prior to reading this chapter. One prevalent theme in these principles is the idea of giving students some control over their learning through collaborative or independent assignments. I’m in favor of this because a classroom where the teacher is the central focus for instruction is boring.

Most of the other students in her 2nd grade classroom are able to read classroom text and complete work independently. They also read books for enjoyment on their own. The reading time in her classroom consists of a block during which the teacher works with small groups and the children are expected to work quite independently when they are not working directly with the teacher. The class uses a trade book format and this is utilized across the curriculum. Students are provided with short skills building lessons in large and small groups. Most of the time spent during explicit reading instruction is targeted to helping students develop reading fluency.

Literacy instruction should provide students with a variety of opportunities to read, write, listen, and speak. Getting to know my students is extremely important to me because I believe students’ interests need to be considered when developing literacy lessons. It also helps when choosing books to read aloud to the class and when choosing books for the class library.