Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Facilitating Reading Throughout the School Day

Of all the material covered in Chapter Six- Emergent Literacy of Teaching Reading in the 21st Century by Michael Graves, I found the sample “Kindergarten Scenario” to be the most interesting.  I believe that this teacher does an outstanding job of facilitating reading skills throughout the school day, which is an aspect of Education that we have learned is very important and often overlooked.

This teacher’s “warm-up” rhyming and sounding out activities, how this teacher incorporated three ability-based small groups into her teaching, and how see implements nonfiction text into her social studies and science instruction were particularly interesting.

Throughout my experiences in the classroom, I have seen many different teachers and their different styles of teaching and schedules of what they like to accomplish.  But, until now, I have never seen an hour-by-hour lesson plan of a teacher such as this one. This sort of lesson plan essentially condenses an entire day of observation into a quick glimpse into a teacher’s and student’s day.  You could arguably learn more from reading a dozen of teacher’s detailed lessons plans than observing one teacher the entire school day.

As future teachers, it is important to give thought into how we are going to incorporate literature and reading in throughout the school day. I believe that through direct observation and through reading lessons plans such as the one listed in the text, it is possible to develop a sound understanding of ways to develop readers beyond subject.  With this sound understand, we can find ways to implement reading into our lessons that is tailored to our own unique teaching style and personality.  Using the knowledge and experience of current teachers through observations or lesson plans such as the one provided in the book are both great resources to develop effective reading development practices in the classroom throughout the entire school day.

3 comments:

  1. You said "You could arguably learn more from reading a dozen of teacher’s detailed lessons plans than observing one teacher the entire school day" and I think you are probably right.

    Anita Gonzales who is in the department taught kindergarten for many years (and also taught this course for many years). I seem to recall she had lots of strategies for managing/reminding herself about incorporating certain pre-reading type activities. I will see if she can come in and talk to the class.

    nice post

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  2. Just like how every child learns a different way; every teacher teaches a different way. No two teachers have the same ways of implementing lessons and not all teachers are creative in the same way. So I definitley agree that each and every teacher needs to incorporate reading and literature into their every day lessons but do it in a way that is comfortable to them.

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  3. I also found the kindergarten scenario to be very helpful. I loved how the time was involved in the description and how she planned her day to incorporate different subjects and learning styles. I found it interesting that you thought this lesson plan layout was more helpful than observing a teacher and their students for the day. I haven't been in a classroom yet to experience this and am so excited to! Hopefully it gives more insight on different teaching styles and ways to get through to students. I think that the most helpful would be to observe a teacher but also have the lesson plan for that day to see what their objectives are and if they actually are accomplished. The comparison would not only be helpful to future teachers, but also interesting to see if the lesson plan holds true to the actual teaching.

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