Decoding Meaning

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I found it interesting that knowing 37 spelling patterns will allow children to read and spell over 500 words that children commonly use. I knew there were a lot, but I guess I didn't realize how many there actually were. Another fact that I found interesting while reading Classrooms that Work was that it is estimated for every English word you know, its possible to decode, spell, and find meanings for six or seven other words just from that one original word. An activity that I liked from chapter 5 was The Wheel game, similar to Wheel of Fortune. This probably really stuck out because my mom was actually on the game show back in 2002 and she absolutely dominates at the game. This activity allows the students to use context clues from sentences to figure out what the word is. I think this activity would also become competitive among the students and competition=motivation. Context clues are important. I don't think students understand how much meaning context clues actually give to words. My high school students figured out how much context clues mean this past week with a vocabulary lesson. They couldn't understand why in their stories they needed to include context clues with their vocabulary words, so my mentor teacher gave them a quiz using simple sentences without context clues. The students were so mad that they couldn't figure out the meaning of the words. Lesson learned. 

To learn it, do it!

"Anyone who makes a distinction 

between games and learning doesn't 

know the first thing about either." 

- Marshall McLuhan

There is a huge variation in the classroom among the students compared to the past. The article states that the some children do preschool so they have been exposed to the ‘school setting’ and some haven’t, some students speak different languages, some students have disabilities, and while all of these are not bad things, it makes teaching more of a challenge and teachers now have to face more obstacles when it comes to teaching students to read and write. A good way to expose children to the alphabetic principle and the understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds is by comparing letters and nursery rhymes. Different strategies should be implemented in the classroom to ensure that students are learning to read and write to the best of their ability. I think a fun way for little kids to practice letters is with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Who doesn’t love this book?

Something I really liked about the second article was one of the activities to relate letters and words in books to letters and words the students already knew. The activity talked about was taking the students pictures and attaching it with the first letter of their name and then another word.  We’ve heard in every class and most of have experienced first hand that relating learning to real life situations will make it more enjoyable and is usually successful. Something else this article discussed that I REALLY enjoyed was about handwriting. I have terrible writing so the activity discussed is something I will probably implement in my classroom so that my students aren’t afraid of writing due to “not knowing how.” What Donna B. and Donna J. did with making children comfortable taking risks is incredible. I hope that’s something I am able to do in my future classroom.

Article 3 discussed involving the students in games in order to support phonemic awareness development. Everyone loves games, so I think that’s a great way to get students actively participating and engaged in academics. They have a lot of fun and learn at the same time. Will you be a teacher that includes games in your teaching?

Reading is Succeeding

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Students come from all parts of the community and each child will have their own background and as teachers, we will be responsible for teaching the student how to read and write and the important connection between the two. If we are able to relate the material to our students, they will become more interested in learning, and hopefully understand it. Interested is key. The more literature that students are exposed to, the more they will know and learn. I remember a fun activity in Kindergarten that helped me learn to read—my teacher would have little books with pictures stapled together for us and we would get to color the pictures and then we would take them home and read to our parents. This obviously wouldn’t be beneficial for parents who weren’t involved, but my parents made sure to read those with me and I think coloring the pictures made me pay attention to what I was actually reading. What are some ways that you can include literacy in a childs day?

Effective Classrooms and Enthusiastic Readers

Chapters 1 and 2 and the article all touched on the same topics, effective teachers and classrooms and how to create enthusiastic readers. I feel like I read how important it was for teachers to create opportunities for their students to read over and over.  Time management in a classroom is crucial because there must be time to read and time for the students to discuss what they are reading. Results from one of the studies reported that teachers in the highest achieving classrooms used every single minute of every single day. The text talked about how a good way to spend the last 15 minutes of the day is to converse with the students about what they are reading and how they like it. Another point that was largely discussed was how important it is for many different books and materials to be made available for the students to CHOOSE to read. A sentence that really stood out to me in the reading was, “ It is important to give children books they can read and choices regarding which books they will read.”  

Also, it is important for teachers to implement reading all throughout the day and cross-curricular so that reading and writing are implemented in math and science. Teachers should also encourage their students constantly as they read. Effective early reading instruction must involve helping students identify words and knowing their meaning. I think it is important to make the students feel welcome to ask questions about their books and vocabulary if they don’t understand. An important way to ensure this happens is to encourage your students. I think that encouragement is critical, students' motivation increases when they are encouraged. “Readers are not just children who can read—they are children who do read”