Students work independently or within groups during center time which allows teachers to differentiate instruction according to student’s needs. Literacy centers give students control of their literacy tasks while providing the teacher time to work in small groups and focus on specific skills. “Choice is an important feature in making literacy work stations successful” (Diller 2003). Using Big Book’s as a literacy work station in the classroom provides students a place where they can practice reading new text and reread familiar text previously taught.
Content area teachers can implement strategies and scaffold learning when planning and designing instruction so that students will actively engage in literacy. According to Dobbs, content area reading instruction includes: the information present in the text, and the instructional plan teachers use to help students understand the content (2003, p.3). Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz explain that in order to plan instruction effectively, teachers must be aware of the explicit and functional dimensions of content literacy. The explicit aspect of content literacy involves the development of skills and strategies that enable students to comprehend what they are reading. Functional instruction focuses more on the application of strategies needed to derive knowledge from a variety of sources of information.” (2014, p. 134). Forget defined literacy as “listening, thinking, reading, and speaking in such a way that information and ideas are processed and communicated to the benefit of self and society” (2003, p. 5). Content area teachers need to plan and design lessons so that students will actively engage in literacy. Forget goes on to discuss that poor performance in schools can be do to a lack of basic literacy skills. Therefore, teachers need to implement the skills and strategies found to be successful in literacy to ensure
Within “Rearticulating the Work of the Writing Center” Nancy Grimm asserts that writing centers “be less tuned to helping writers master community conventions and more tuned to developing the capacity of the staff to entertain multiple perspectives, to resist binary alignments, to think in systematic and complicated ways about literacy practices, to manage emotional reactivity, to gather evidence, and to explore the contradictions in literacy work” (Grimm
Shared book reading focuses on developing comprehension, alphabetics, and general reading achievement to enhance student literacy achievement. The teacher selects a text and reads it aloud to a student and/or group of students. The shared book reading program allows the teacher to model reading strategies, increase alphabetic skills, and activate and increase comprehension skills through targeted questions, prompts, and strategies. During the reading the teacher prompts students with strategic prompts and/or questions to engage the students in the text. Moreover, the teacher directs the students to key elements within the pictures, words, and/or text features. The teacher tailors the shared reading experience to meet the needs of the participants (International Reading Association Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Committee, 2012). Hence, educators are able to alter prompts, questions, and strategies to enhance the learning needs of
Literacy is a vital part of all later learning. Because of this, the children will engage in hands on activities that relates to what they have read and give them opportunities to make up their own versions, as well as make up their own stories. They will have a large group story time and a partner reading time. An ample variety of books will be available at all times. Signs with words and pictures will be posted around the classroom showing, daily activities, objects that are used daily, and the placement of toys and
Within my school teaching literacy takes place in everyday classroom. The format of this teaching varies to include different activities for each day. Certain aspects of literacy are taught every week. The teachers are to ensure that the work planned is appropriate for the age stage and ability of the children. They use strategies such as talk partners and small group work to allow children to develop their oral skills and ability to communicate and cooperate with their peers. Emphasis is placed on the acquisition of effective oracy skills in the early years and foundation phase. Role play areas are set up in partnership with the children so that they can practice speaking Listening and drama based activities within a meanful context.
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.
The STARS unit plan and teacher work sample address ILA Standard 5 by showing how I can differenciate instruction, create a varriety of learning opprotunities, and display a literacy rich classroom enviroment. The STARS unit includes several lessons I created to teach a variety of learners in many different ways. The unit also includes several photographs of the literacy rich enviroment I created with the students. The teacehr work sample exhibits my ability to use literacy routines and scaffold instruction to meet the needs of learners. These artifacts can be connected to Holdaway's Theory of Literacy Development. Holdaway's theory states there should be a plethora of literacy related materials in a classroom including labeled materials, the
I will use the Literature circle to enhance the student’s ability to collaborate on a higher level so that they can move toward independent readers, molding them to integrate in a powerful classroom activity that will activate their critical thinking skills. I will do a book study and have students to meet and discuss the importance of rotating their roles giving everyone an opportunity to share the responsibility. I will teach how to highlight in different colors distinguishing each student reading.
Picture Books are widely used by children in order to introduce certain topics and lessons. Children in general do no attain the necessary attention span needed to read non-picture books. The bright colored pictures and easy to read words make it easy for children to understand what the general idea of the book it about. Certain kinds of children books get recognized by different types of medals to show that an author or illustrator did an outstanding job. “Working Cotton” by Sherley Ann Williams and illustrated by Carole Byard, “Rosa” Nikki Giovanni and illustrated by Bryan Collier, and “Seven Blind Mice” by ED Young, was awarded the Caldacott Medal for “most distinguished American picture book for children”(ala.org). “The Tale of Despereaux”
This chapter provided me with literacy areas that I will incorporate into my future classroom and recommendations for setting up and designing the classroom environment. Some of the areas I plan to set up are a book area, listening area, and writing area. These are the areas of the classroom that I am most excited to create for my students. I hope to create an environment that motivates my students to want to visit each area. I love the tips for the writing area and it is a space that always draws my attention in a classroom. I usually observe a writing area in each classroom, but it seems when it is time for centers students seem to skip over that area and attempt to blend in with their friends in the reading area. I think that if I create
The components of my literacy program will work together. I will incorporate shared reading and writing, guided reading and writing, independent reading and writing, read alouds and write alouds, and cooperative reading and writing within my classroom.
I will start off by informing teachers that a part of building a classroom that produces academic proficiency in literacy development, it is imperative to comprehend that all students learn and read differently. By identifying their instructional levels, educators can plan accordingly and accommodate the needs of their students. Small groups guides in expanding student perception, familiarity, vocabulary, and composing aptitudes, moreover, it binds to Read Aloud guideline instruction ( Fien, Santoro, Baker, Park, Chard, Williams, & Haria, 2011). Numerous studies have demonstrated that small group teaching is viable and proficient for instructing students with and without incapacities Ledford, J. R., & Wolery, M. (2015).
The literacy-rich classroom environment must be designed with the students’ needs in mind, meaning it is student-centered with teacher guidance, integrates technology, and is flexible to allow for differentiation. The classroom should have a flexible design that can be “adaptable and easily changeable based on what the students are working on” (Sadlier School, 2017). This means that the seating arrangement is not based on individual desks, but rather tables or clusters of desks to encourage students to collaborate and communicate in small groups or pairs, promoting oral language mastery (Sadlier School, 2017). It should also promote hands-on, student-centric learning
I left amazed. Our literacy block routine runs at the same time as the other class. However, the class I visited wastes no time at all. I arrived at 8:30 and the students had finished unpacking and were on the rug. The teacher led the pledge and the morning message. Then the centers were explained. The class had four different groups. One group went to computers, one group was independently working on writing their spelling words, one group was working at her table, and one group worked at the assistant’s table. The teacher and the assistant both differentiated so smoothly for each group. It was incredible and I took seven pages of notes.
the students do not have to be responsible for all of the reading all of the time. It is a