Blog 3

Hello Fellow Bloggers!

I chose to listen to the “Class Act: Phonics through Shared Reading” podcast and “Connecting Skills to Text” video.  In the first podcast, she was explaining the 5 steps process for a shared reading using a poem.  First, the teacher will read the poem to the class.  The class will continue to practice reading the poem over and over again.  The teacher can come up with a variety of ways for the students to continue re-reading the poem without losing interest.  Once the class feels comfortable with reading the poem the next step comes into play.  The second step is when the teacher introduce a skill to the class.  For example, you can find a rhyming word pattern and have the students help you find the rhyming words throughout the poem.  The third step is when the students have an opportunity to work with the words.  Students can practice building the specific word patterns or create more words that can join the group.  The fourth step is when the class moves into writing time.  Students can write a connection or answer a specific topic question inside of their writing journals.  The last step is when the students get a chance to reread the poem.  The teacher can place the poem near the classroom library so students can have access to it during literacy stations.  During this time, students can build their reading fluency when they practice reading the poem(s). 

I made a connection but at the same time had an “Aha” moment while viewing my second video.  Mrs. Evans has some wonderful pointers that you could use inside of your classroom.  In my previous year, I had my students do several word wall chants to review our sight words.  For example, I would let several students choose a word from the wall and we would “snap” on the vowels and “clap” on the consonants while spelling the specific word.  Another chant the kids loved is when they pretend to be like cheerleaders.  A student would pick a word such as big.  The student would say “Give me a B” and the class would say B.  The student would continue with the rest of the letters and at the end he or she would ask the class “Now, what is the word?”  The class would say “BIG”.  My “Aha” moment was when her class played the Word Wall game show.  She had a cute microphone and she gave certain students an opportunity to speak in the microphone and tell the class the name of the word that she was holding.  Within this video, Mrs. Evans had several teaching strategies that a teacher could incorporate inside of their classroom.

Within the chapter readings, I was able to make connections with Chapter 4 since my grade level is still within the Emergent Literacy stage.  I currently teach phonics and phonemic awareness with my students each and every day.  I conduct read alouds and shared readings with my class.   During Literacy stations is when I try to conduct at least 1 guided reading group.  I wish I could have more guided reading groups in one day but time really don't permit it in my schedule.  Last year I did the name of the day activity with my students.  They really enjoyed it and during Writer’s workshop time they could look at the word wall and figure out how to spell their classmates’ names.  This year I just didn’t start off on the right foot but I am going to add some time in my instructional day to do it again this year.  I feel that activity is worthwhile and useful for the younger students. In chapter 5, the authors mentioned some activities that can be used inside of your classroom.  My students loved doing word sorts during literacy stations block.  This year I want to try and use flip charts in my stations when it comes to working with word families.  My students always constructed a word wheel for a specific family but we never created a flip chart.  This learning model helped me to reconnect with what I already do inside of my classroom.  But at the same time I was able to gather some new information that I could use in my classroom.