All About Literacy

This page talks about many of the different aspects of literacy development. It will address various genres of writing that help paint the picture of not only some of the writing we will do in class, but provide wonderful information to families and fellow future teachers. I will also include different examples of valuable games and activities that I have completed this semester in school.

Descriptive Genre:
                     Sponges

It has been calculated that 16.15 days per school year are spent on transitions. Sponges are short activities or games that are used during these transition times. There are three specific requirements that need to be met to be considered a sponge. They must use very few materials, be brief (less than five minutes), and be a game or activity that represents skills as a review. There should never be new information used during a sponge activity. The written sponge activities must be very durable because they will be handled daily. They are also a very valuable resource for substitute teachers who may need an activity between any type of transition or extra small amounts of time during the day. Sponges are essentially a great way to turn wasted time into meaningful learning time. Below is an example of a sponge activity I completed and would work great for either kindergarten or first grade students.

Activity: “Flashlight Sight and High Frequency Words”

Materials:

Flashlight

Sight/high frequency words written on star shapes

Procedures:

Sight and high frequency words will be written on star cut outs and placed on designated walls around the classroom. The teacher will turn out the lights and have the class sing their flashlight song.

“Flashlight, flashlight, Oh, so bright! Shine on the word ______ (teacher chooses the sight word) With all your light!”

Teacher chooses students to find the “star sight word” on the wall with the flashlight.

Words I chose for my activity:

May, Put, Know, Fly, and Ask

Standards:

Concept 3: Phonics

Decode words, using knowledge of phonics, syllabication, and word parts.

PO 5: Recognize high frequency words and irregular sight words.

Expository Genre:

Choosing Books

My students will be able to check out and take home books from our classroom's personal library. There are a few simple steps that need to be followed in order for the children to be able to take the books home to read. The first item they each will be given in an index card with their name written on it. When they go over to our classroom library during "book browse" time they will put their card in the place of the book. The second thing that my students will do is put their book directly into their backpack right after they have chosen it. When they get home and finish reading the story with their family as much as they have wanted, themselves or their parent will write the name of the story on the card. When they are finished with the book and ready to check out a new one the third thing they will do is find their card and put the book back into its place. They will repeat this same simple process every time they wish to check out a book and take it home to read. We write the names of the books the students have already read so that they can choose new books and work on different words with different pictures. (If the card becomes full I will provide the student with another blank card with their name on it).

Narrative Genre:

                                          Practicum

This semester I am observing in a kindergarten classroom. I was given the opportunity to work one-on-one with a little girl named Jada. This experience was very rewarding and important to me. She was very shy at first, and it took a couple of days working individually with her to get her to open up and talk to me. Once we talked about some of her favorite interests, she seemed to really trust and enjoy me working with her. Jada was very happy to help me with my "homework" and told me that she wanted me to do very good, so she would try her best on everything we did together. I truly think that students need to feel one hundred percent comfortable with their teacher, and noticed that she improved in reading, writing, and spelling as we worked more with one another. I was very excited to go to class every day to work with all of the students, but particularly loved working on improving Jada's reading and writing. It was amazing to see the change in how comfortable she was at the end of my practicum compared to how shy she was at the beginning. When I become a teacher, I will absolutely work towards having this type of relationship with each and every one of my students. I don't think that I can expect them to grow to their full potential if they do not first feel safe and comfortable with me. It was a very rewarding experience that I will always cherish!

Persuasive Genre:

                      Communication is Key

Communication needs to not only exist between a parent and teacher, but be excellent to ensure their child's needs are being met. There are a number of ways to make sure that this happens, and I will discuss what I think works the best. Both the student's parents and teacher directly effect their development in all areas of school, including literacy. When communication is strong, both parties are able to scaffold the learning of their child and get them to the next level of their development in literacy. I believe that teacher blogs, journals sent home, and a few phone calls are some of the best ways to communicate with one another (other than parent teacher conferences in person). A teacher's blog, such as this one, allows parents to check what is going on in their child's life on their own time- everyone is busy at different times and this is a convenient way to always be available with information. Each child will also have their own writing journal which will be sent home every Friday. This leaves an opportunity for the parents to not only see their child's writing samples, but a place to write a small note or comment to the teacher. If the teacher wants to write what a great job the student is doing they can here, as well as if they need to let the parents know they are having some trouble (which would be done in a separate note, not in the child's journal). Short phone calls are also a great way to let parents know how their child is doing, and as stated before if they need a little extra support and practice at home. Communication ultimately benefits and has the student's best interest at heart, which is what everyone wants!

Poetry Genre:

I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

I can read in red. I can read in blue.
I can read in pickle color too.
I can read in bed, and in purple. and in brown.
I can read in a circle and upside down!
I can read with my left eye. I can read with my right.
I can read Mississippi with my eyes shut tight!

There are so many things you can learn about.
But…you'll miss the best things
If you keep your eyes shut.
The more that you read, the more things you will know
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.

If you read with your eyes shut you're likely to find
That the place where you're going is far, far behind
SO…that's why I tell you to keep your eyes wide.
Keep them wide open…at least on one side.

~Dr Seuss

 

Technical Genre:
                   Comprehension

What exactly is comprehension? How do we know if our students are understanding what they read? There are many strategies that teachers can use to help students comprehend, or understand, a story. There are eight reading comprehension strategies that we want our students to use when they read. They are predicting, questioning, visualizing, connecting, monitoring, summarizing, inferring, and using text. All of these concepts work off of one another to support reading comprehension. There are actually two definitions for comprehension when teaching a student to read, they are behavioral and cognitive. Behavioral comprehension is being able to answer questions about a passage that has been read (being able to act according to the text). Cognitive comprehension is being able to connect new information to old information (connecting what you read to what you know). The two types of questions that can be associated with comprehension are literal (ask a reader to repeat answers directly from the text) and higher order (require the reader to infer from the text about what they already know). Given this information it then makes sense that literal questions relate to behavioral comprehension and higher order questions relate to cognitive comprehension. These are the broad categories that help our students think in a different way, but there are even more specific types of questions for comprehension that allow our students to think even deeper. These types of questions include: main idea, detail, cause and effect, sequence, and inference questions. The types of questions a teacher chooses to use depend on the level of her learners and what types they have discussed or worked on yet.

**Please fill out the parent information/communication form, located through the link below**

Parent Communication Form