Week #3

The first part of literacy time in Ms. Perez ‘s class is shared reading. The class begins to read a poem together. She picks a poem that is filled with rhymes, sight words, and high frequency words so they can learn many lessons from one poem. First the class reads it together which gives every child an opportunity to practice their literacy skills. After Ms. Perez asks specific children questions on their individual level of literacy development.

Shared reading incorporates many components of literacy development; oral language, phonological awareness, vocabulary, phonics, comprehension, and fluency. With every poem she connects a phonics lesson; rhyming, vowels, or sound combinations. If a child is stuck on a word she will encourage him to try to use a technique to figure it out on his own. A technique can be breaking up the word, or slowly stretching and sounding out the word. Shared reading makes reading exciting. It shows students that literacy can be enjoyable and interesting; it encourages literacy.

                Ms. Perez works with groups of students together to improve their reading skills; guided reading. She arranges the groups according to the student’s level. The goal for these groups is for the children to develop fluency and comprehension skills. She teaches the children different strategies to figure out the more difficult words. She encourages the students to verbalize the texts, so they should realize the strategy they are using and be able to use it on their own reading time. She teaches the children how to split up the words they get stuck on. Ms. Perez does not read the word the child gets stuck on but helps figure it out with him. She wants them to learn how to read the hard words on their own.

                There are many activities that can be implemented into a classroom to support and extend the learning of literacy. After shared reading the children have a chance to pick a learning center. Ms. Perez set up her classroom with many different activities to reinforce various literacy skills on the various levels of the students. There are enough centers for every child to be able to learn something on his level. In addition, the centers are designed so that two kids on different levels can perform the same activity each on their individual level. The centers are flexible. There is one center with a student-teacher to help expand the student’s literacy development. Ms. Perez creates activities that connect their writing to their reading. The students have a chance to write about what they have read. Connecting their writing to their reading, advances their comprehension skills. The learning centers are well thought out and established to help the children grow in literacy development to the fullest.

                Ms. Perez has an organized literacy assessment system in her classroom. She assesses each individually four times a year; in the beginning, twice in the middle, and a final assessment at the end of the year. Ms. Perez plans her lessons according the level of her children. She evaluates the students sees what they have learned and what areas need improvement. She implements activities into the class to improve the specific skills the students are lacking. She creates a class profile where she can view every students level of literacy development. This allows her the ability to divide the children according to their levels. Each group can be given activities that suite their level. When the students are divided by level they can gain much more from the activity because it is not too easy or too difficult for any child in that group.

Currently I do not have my own classroom but hope to be a preschool teacher in the near future. In my classroom I would integrate an assessment system exactly like Ms. Perez. I would establish quarterly assessments, so I am constantly aware of the level of my students. Additionally, I would prepare activities that can show me their level of improvement. My projects would require the students to use important skills, so I can see their development. I would be constantly observing my students every day. Specifically, I would make a classwork notebook for every student that I would look at once a week. In the notebook the students will do exercises based on what we are learning. This notebook will enable me to see how each student is progressing. I believe ongoing assessments are crucial and will implement them into my classroom.