Thursday, June 28, 2012

Module 4: Reading Reflection


Looking across Chapters 10 and 11, which of the understandings and strategies in the comprehensive literacy program are you already addressing/doing with your students (or have you done, or do you plan to do)?

            While reading through the different components of a comprehensive literacy program, I realized I had been exposed to all of these different techniques. My internship placement this past semester was at a constructivist based, Kindergarten school, so shared reading and shared journal was heavily emphasized. In that particular classroom, each day would begin with shared journal and midway through the day, we would do shared reading. Both of these subjects I really enjoyed because it was a great time to get the students interacting in their learning while also encouraging the students to be open about their experiences or the things they enjoy most. In the classroom I was interning in, one student would share each morning about something they did recently, a trip they have been on, or just a story about going shopping with their mom. We would encourage the students (the audience) to ask descriptive questions about the story the student shared, and then the students would be able to draw a picture and then write about the story. The head teacher or I would scaffold the drawing or writing if necessary, but all of the students always enjoyed this time of day because they got to listen to their peers and learn from them.
            In other field placements, I have interacted with these other literacy programs; in particular, read-alouds, guided reading, and guided writing. Interestingly enough, literature groups and individual writing conferences were things that we automatically did with the class I did my internship in so until reading this, I did not know they were a particular comprehensive literacy method. We used those techniques to discuss whole group and get all of the students actively thinking about the text or took the opportunity to have some one-on-one time with students. I think all of these approaches are extremely successful and necessary to implement in a classroom with young students. I have seen the benefits of these teaching methods and plan to use them in my own classroom some day. 

1 comment:

  1. Lizzie,
    I love the idea of having students share their experiences from what they did during a particular day in order to use it as a journal activity. Whenever I came into the classroom on Monday mornings, all of my students had stories from what they did over the weekend. This would be a great morning activity for students to be able to share what they did and then write about it. I have found that when students discuss an event before writing about it, they are able to gather many details and descriptive sentences to include in their writing. I feel as though this class has been really beneficial for the both of us because as new teachers we are gathering great ideas from experienced teachers.

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