As mentioned by Florio-Ruane et. al in Book Club Plus (2004), “…these discussion groups, along with the other three components of the Book Club Program (reading, writing, and community share) remain central to the Book Club Plus framework” (p.2-3). Based on this information and my notes and observations of my classroom, I would say that the book club model is exceedingly similar to what I am learning about our literacy instruction. Frequently when the class is introduced to a story, my teacher integrates various forms of reading into her lesson plans for the week. For instance, the class generally has a teacher read aloud the first day, where the children listen to the story and answer questions prompted by the teacher. They may then do a choral reading one day or shared reading with a partner in literacy stations. This practice allows students to read and community share their thoughts and ideas with the class or a partner, opening up the lines of communication and thought in the room.
One main activity where I see reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and other literacies in my classroom is during literacy centers. Although a little busy at times, literacy centers are an effective way to integrate many forms of literacy into one block of instructional time. My teacher usually divides the classroom into five stations: listening center, word families, artistic drawing, writing, and reading. To break down each station briefly, the listening center is where a small group of children listen to the story on headsets and then record their favorite part and other information down on a piece of paper. The word families station allows children to use dry erase markers and an alphabet strip to write and place letters into pre-written suffixes of word families to find words that belong together. The artistic drawing center allows for children to be hands-on and draw, color, cut out, or paint an artistic representation of the story they are reading. The writing center is where children view a prompt about the story, write their response to the prompt down, and draw a picture about the response they wrote. Lastly, students go to a shared reading area on the carpet and read together in their small groups. These activities all include a form of literacy, but also open up communication, self-expression, problem-solving, and following oral directions to the pupils, making it an exceedingly well-rounded activity. The children in the classroom see to really enjoy learning about the story in different ways, not solely reading and responding in a discussion format.
One thing I really like is seeing my teacher incorporating literacy into other subject matters throughout the day. After paying closer attention to literacy in instruction over the past few weeks, I have become much more aware of the various ways she does so. For instance, as soon as the children enter the classroom, they make their way to their desks to start their morning work. Besides the morning work having writing on it that needs to be read, the students are required to look at a “morning message” board that is located on a side door to our bathroom. Here, either my CT or I will write a simple morning message that we want the children to read and process. This could be as simple as “Good morning, class! We hope you had a good weekend.” By having consistent sentences placed on the board and written in a positive message, students are inadvertently practicing literacy without even knowing so. First, they need to search for letters on the board, use fluency to read them, and comprehend what words the letters are forming in order to create and interpret a message written to them. Additionally, by frequently writing the word “morning” or “class”, students are introduced to the repetition and frequency of words, making them easier to identify every time the child views them on the board. Next, students answer the “question of the day” written directly below the message; this is always a yes/no response question and requires the children to draw a tally mark underneath the response of their choice. This process embeds a lot of literacy; children can read the question out loud, practicing oral literacy and could chorally read with a friend quietly at their tables if they choose to do so. Simply doing this task opens up communication between students and can spark a discussion about what they answered for the question or why they chose that answer. Students tend to talk with peers about this and add details to their response that may not be recorded on the daily message chart. I also feel that this activity allows the students to illustrate a form of self-expression and independence as well.
Furthermore, my students are given multiple opportunities to write into and out of texts. “In Book Club Plus, students learn to see writing as a tool that can serve many functions, such as reflecting on reading, gathering and organizing information, practicing literary forms, and sharing ideas with others” (Florio-Ruane et. al (2004), p.12). I feel that the students in our class are well on their way to viewing writing as a versatile tool that will help them throughout their many years of education and lives. Very often, students write with the “before, middle, and after” template; this is where students draw out a beginning, middle, and end picture to their story in order to help in the planning and pre-writing process. Students then can begin to write what they wish about their story, but keeping in mind the goal is to have a beginning, middle, and end to their story that correlates to the pictures they previously drew. Writing about their own personal lives and verbally connecting it to a main theme discussed in a book helps to spark interest in the children and guides them in practicing their literacy. Connecting ideas in the classroom through student writing and oral communication is a “…process of integrating and connecting who we are and what we know with what we will come to know as a function of literacy” (Florio-Ruane et. al (2004), p.80).
I read something interesting in Book Club Plus that I can attest is true based on my own classroom observations. Florio-Ruane et. al (2004) states, “as students developed a personal connection with their teacher and the stories told and read, they felt empowered by knowing their voice was legitimized. They began to take risks to push their literacy development” (p.72). Students in my class have been gradually volunteering more and offering their opinions and answers to questions being asked after speaking more in from of a group-setting. They were originally tentative and shy towards the beginning of the year, but after being able to share thoughts with the entire class on a daily basis, I feel that they have gained confidence in their speaking and literacy. Moreover, I completely agree with Florio-Ruane et. al (2004) in saying that “many opportunities must be provided in the classroom for students to construct their own knowledge” (pg.80). Children are susceptible to anything present in their educational and home communities. Because of this, it is imperative that literacy be a constant, active part of their environment and lives for growth and development.
Works Cited
Raphael, T., Florio-Ruane, S., George, M., Hasty, N., & Highfield, K. (2004). Book Club Plus! A Literacy Framework for the Primary Grades. Lawrence, MA: Small Planet Communications. ISBN: 1-931376-35-2
I really like how your CT has centers that are more literacy based. In my classroom we run 5 centers at the moment and will eventually need 8 total. There are 2 centers that consist of the students playing with clay, 2 centers that consist of the students playing with Legos, and 1 center that consist of the students playing with puppets. On Friday I changed the puppet center into a center that consisted of the students reading “big books”. The reason I changed the center was because during this time the students need to be as quiet as possible (i.e. whispering) so that when we pull students for guided reading they are not distracted by the rest of the class. The couple of days we practiced with centers the students were not capable of being quiet at all while playing with puppets. One of our missing centers will eventually become a listening center, but right now the cassette player is not working. I think the clay centers will eventually become a word making center with clay, but I am not sure how the Legos will become a center related to literacy. The Lego center is a really loud center and it is not because of the students talking but because Legos are loud when students are attempting to search for pieces in a box.
ReplyDeleteI have not experienced choral reading in my classroom yet, but hope I do soon. There are many read alouds found in my classroom like those found your classroom in which the students answer questions asked by the teacher. I also think with the partner reading that students of higher reading ability should be partnered with struggling readers so they can help them like a tutor as mentioned in the text.
Your classroom’s morning work reminds me of my Montessori placement last year. In the morning the students had a question on the board for them to answer in their writing journal. Some days the students would pick a question out of a basket that was full of an assortment of questions to write about. There was also a written list of the agenda for the day on the board for the students to see and read. In my classroom now the morning work consists of the students reading for around 15 minutes until we start math.
In regards to writing, my students do what the text calls “speed writing,” in which the students write continuously for a given amount of time without spelling guidance. I feel this helps the students work on just thinking of what to write instead of worrying about errors in spelling. The problem I have with this approach is that there are many students in the class that just write random letters that are not even close to their correct spelling. Some students are able to tell me what they wrote while others cannot. These students need to work more on their sight words and using phonics to help them with spelling.
I feel that in my class, like yours, the students are feeling more comfortable with me as a teacher and thus developing a personal connection with me. I have students that are really shy come up to me and show me their work. For them to initiate contact with me shows how our relationship has grown between student and teacher since the beginning of the year. I have not experienced them offer to share their answers or thoughts with the whole class yet. I feel this will come with time since these students seem to be afraid of talking with many of their peers.