Literacy

If I were to profile the literacy methods in our classroom, it would look as follows:

Weekend News
Journals
Share Time
Daily Five

and a myriad of other opportunities.

Children have book baskets at their shared tables, which they are free to read from anytime they finish their other work early. There is also a classroom library, where students may choose books from during the Daily Five.

Labels are everywhere in the classroom, as well as posters, which together create a print-rich environment.

Every Monday (which I am not present for, due to Methods classes), students write in their Weekend News folders. These entries are always about what they did over the weekend, and several students are chosen at random (using sticks) to share their journal entries.

Tuesday through Friday, students have free choice for what to write about in their journals, but this is always the first thing that happens in the morning. Parents stick around and help their kids, as well as encourage other students. It gives the teachers a chance to touch base with the families before class begins, and makes for a great transition into the day.

Again, several students are chosen at random to share what they have written in their journals with the class. This promotes literacy not only in writing, but orally as well. Additionally, students are making connections between what they have written and what they are reading. They take ownership of their words.

The Daily Five is a method that Christin uses to cover reading, writing, and spelling. While Daily Five only occurs 3 days a week, it gives Christin a chance to read with each group of students at their reading level, as well as helps students to take responsibility of their work independently. The five categories that our students participate in are: read to self, partner read, read with teacher, spelling work, and writing.

During read to self, students choose "good fit" books from the classroom library and read quietly on their own around the room. With a partner, they may read to each other or read back and forth, "elbow-to-elbow, knee-to-knee."
Spelling is based out of their spelling book (we have two spelling groups, red and blue), and their writing is usually a teacher-given or picture prompt (free choice writing happens during journals).

Currently in writing, we are talking about the concept of ideas and continuity within a written work. Children are working on making sure that the same idea is carried throughout their writing, for at least 3 sentences.

Lastly, read with teacher is our reading groups. These are leveled according to their DRA scores from the beginning of the year, with a few adjustments based on observation.


Share Time occurs once a week, on Thursday afternoon, and children may bring anything to share that fits in their backpack.
I consider Share Time to be a literacy activity, because students must say 2 things about their share item. This works on oral literacy and public speaking skills. It also builds classroom community, and the children are allowed to play with their share item during Choice Time, which immediately follows Share Time.

Overall, I would say there is a very positive approach to literacy in our classroom. We work strongly to support writing skills, and every aspect of our literacy curriculum is differentiated, meaning that it's tailored to each student specifically.