Confidentiality, The Names Of Individuals And Locations Are Pseudonyms

There is an ongoing battle over how to teach reading in preschools in the United States. The argument is over whether schools should be teaching students the whole language or phonemic awareness. This argument causes distress among schools and within the schools themselves. Teachers may have

Author note: This paper was prepared for the American Federation of Teachers by Louisa C. Moats, project director, Washington D.C. site of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Interventions Project, and clinical associate professor of pediatrics, University of Texas, Houston, Health Sciences Center. Her work is supported in part by grant HD30995, “Early Interventions for Children with Reading Problems,”

This is a very important component in education to be aware of and when you are a teacher. I interviewed a first-grade teacher at my local elementary school to gain more information about the processes that our local schools go through for professional training, interventions, and in the classroom to ensure that students are developing their abilities in reading. My main focus was on what our school’s process was, how support is given, professional training offered, and what more is needed to be done to increase success for students.

A newly licensed teacher walks into her empty classroom on the first day of school. She has her curriculum guide, her pacing calendar, her unit instructional plan, and her lesson plans for the first week. She has her copies made and in her mind she has stored the countless hours’ worth of instruction she received for four years. The bell rings, and it is time for her first class. With a somewhat nervous breath, she watches as students begin pouring in.

Cate came into kindergarten already reading because of the incredible support of her fours teachers. Learning was fun for her and she loved going to school. Given her abilities, my husband and I wanted her to be challenged to move forward as she was able. However, the critically decisive factors that compelled us to choose Second Pres kindergarten were its developmentally appropriate curriculum and individualized education. We believe without the experience of Second Pres kindergarten, our oldest, Holly Jane wouldn’t be a third grader reading

In order to create a positive classroom culture, teacher need to promote positive relationships between students and with students by taking an interest and have respect for each other. It is extremely important for teacher to get to know the students, their families, and their culture. When a student knows their teacher cares about them, then a relationship of trust will exist between a student and teacher. According to Sayeski and Brown (2011), “teachers who had positive relationships with their student had 31 % fewer discipline problems and rule violations over the course of the year than teachers who did not” (p. 12). In order to know more about them, I will send home a poster board where the students can fill it with any information they would like me and their classmates to know. This constructivist approach gives them the opportunity to be creative and choose what they want to share. The essentialist approach of sending home a questionnaire for the family to fill out will help collect information important to understanding the student. This is the only category where I consider myself an essentialist and constructivist due to how information will be gathered about my students, but this will allow me to build the framework for a positive learning environment for everyone. Having students create a poster will allow their peers to get to know them as an individual. Another way to create a positive environment is having students work together to keep

Alice Peterson drove to work mentally agonizing over the same dilemma that faced her every school day: how to help her students learn. Alice taught a class of prefers-grade children at the Mason Elementary School in Eastvale, a small town outside Chicago. This year was proving to be the most challenging and the most frustrating of Alice’s twenty-eight-year career. The Eastvale school district served a heterogeneous school population. More than 40 percent of the

As an Early Childhood Education major I believe that it is very important for beginning teachers to understand the history of reading instruction in the United States because comprehending how all the techniques, organizations and strategies that developed throughout education's history will supply a teacher knowledge and wisdom from past educators' trials, errors and successes. This understanding will allow teachers to meet the goal for every need a student requires to educate them for their future in education and civilian life.

The classroom follows a partial day inclusion program. Ms. Welsh’s classroom on the second floor of Village School is considered their base area. The student’s belongings are all kept in the classroom upstairs and they spend the majority of their time there throughout the day. All students are taught by both teachers for math, science, and social studies. For reading and writing, Ms. Wilush teaches three students in a pull-out resource room on the first floor of the building. When it is time for students to review those lessons, the three students make their way down to Ms. Wilush’s classroom with the folders and other materials they may need. Once reading and writing periods are completed, the students either return to Ms. Welsh’s classroom or go to an alternate room for specials such as art or music. Ms. Wilush and Ms. Welsh’s relationship can be described as both friendly and professional. Ms. Welsh is currently going to graduate school for special education, so she is learning a lot from Ms. Wilush’s work. At the same time, Ms. Wilush is taking the opportunity to learn from such an experienced teacher as Ms. Welsh who has taught for ten years. They believe that the best way to work efficiently and achieve the most success for each student is

By the mid-1980s emergent reading/literacy became accepted among researchers, early educators, and reading teachers. Emergent literacy appeared as an ERIC descriptor and was recognized as a justifiable area of work in the conventions of the National Association for the Education of the Young Children, the National Reading Conference, the International Reading Association, and other professional organizations (Teale, 1995). According to Teale, the emergent literacy model for preschool reading instruction had far-reaching implications. Daily interactions between parents or other caregivers and children in the home environment were emphasized. The shift to an emergent literacy perspective in the preschool and pre-kindergarten environments meant that reading needed to be taught in those settings (Teale, 1995; Roberts, Jurgens, Burchinal, 2005). In other words, adults in those environments must be considered as the child

Foundational Knowledge, also known as Standard 1 emphasizes that educators “understand the theoretical and evidence-based foundations of reading and writing processes and instruction.” Foundational knowledge is essential for preparing educators for roles in the reading profession. It consists of the major theories, research, and the best practices that share a consensus of acceptance in the reading field. Educators who become a part of the reading profession should understand the historically shared knowledge of being a part of the profession and develop the means needed to call on that knowledge. The elements that make up Foundational Knowledge set expectations for theoretical and practical knowledge, and in the development dispositions for the active, ethical use of professional knowledge. These expectations are established on the concept of a profession as both a technical and moral endeavor. It’s important to note that Foundational Knowledge is domain specific and contextualized. Social experience and context play a role in the construction and development of knowledge. It includes: research-based and practical knowledge. Candidates learn from their own experiences (Piaget, 1973) and reflect on their own practices/belief systems. (Metacognition, Ann Brown, 1985) The most important characteristic of Foundational Knowledge is that it is malleable, because it’s subject to change as time goes on and new understandings are acquired. (Rupley, Logan, Nichols)

While primary grade, general classroom, teachers are keenly aware of the importance of early literacy instruction, with increasing class sizes and diverse populations of students in our classrooms, teachers find it difficult to recognize which strategies are most effective for instruction especially for struggling readers. What’s more, teachers may not fully comprehend the implications of students struggling at such an early stage of literacy acquisition and may assume at some point students will “catch up” with peers. However, as research indicates, “…there is evidence that children’s early reading skills in preschool and early elementary school are related to reading skills and achievement later in elementary, middle and high school.” (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002, as cited in Baroody & Diamond, 2016). Therefore, it is imperative educators intervene as early as possible with effective literacy instruction strategies to engage, motivate and support developing readers.

Although the story of my outlook on reading initiates in preschool, it didn’t genuinely develop until the following year. Kindergarten, the year succeeding preschool; kindergarten, the year I uncovered the answer to my year long enigma; kindergarten, the year when the oscillating battle between discouragement and encouragement emerged. All seemed well throughout the beginning, though maybe excitement just blinded me, and I failed to see the underlying problem. Nevertheless, ignorance is bliss and pleasant activities lasted for a curtailed while

Putting it all together: from one first grade teacher to another; The Reading Teacher, 2002, talks about how to create a seamless instruction with a theme based environment. It also gives descriptions of routines, centers, how the rotation systems are established and of how a classroom should be managed while incorporating a balanced schedule. Children will be taught Literacy, Journal Writing that allows children to write regularly in both a formal and informal way, Learning Centers that allow the students to explore educational areas arranged by the teacher, Lesson Plans, Education, and Reading Strategies that can be used or taught to facilitate reading proficiency. The combination of these will immerse children in their learning

I utilized a concept map to depict the six principles in the two culturally responsive teaching frameworks. When considering what my classroom looks like physically, the principles that are centered on this are “learning with the context of culture” or “cultural sensitivity” (Education Alliance, n.d). These two principles come alive in my classroom via trackers and graphic organizers that are displayed in the classroom. Students of all cultural background are able to reference the charts displayed in our room that have both pictures and words. My classroom is also print rich. This print rich environment (word wall, language frames, sentence starters) assist my scholars in their independent work and in communicating with each other. Because I have a handful of students that are English language learners as well as students with low vocabulary, having a print rich environment provides them with several tools to utilize during instructional time (Education Alliance, 2008).