Best Practice in the Classroom



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We see young minds learn new things. We see the future of tomorrow overcome challenges, embrace new ideas, and ultimately develop what it takes to lead our country and this world years from now. Some days my impact on these happenings feels small, other days the job seems insurmountable, but every day the rewards are worth the hard work! I enrolled in the Reading Education program because of my awareness that there is always more to learn in the field of teaching reading! I was interested in the latest research, best practices, and not allowing myself to fall behind in my field. My coworker was in her last semester in the program. Daily she brought new things to the table. My desire to continue to learn grew and grew. The things that I have learned in the program daily influenced the decisions that I made in my classroom and our efforts as a grade level to give the Kindergarteners at Pilot Elementary a developmentally appropriate education that focused on best practice and not just what the county and state thought looked good on paper. My experience in the classroom has paused briefly upon the birth of our little girl, but even now, I find myself striving to incorporate best practice into the experiences to which I expose my nine month old and the students I tutor each week. One day soon I will return to the classroom and will continue to encourage best practice as I have before. This paper is written based on my experiences and instruction in the classroom that I loved, left for a season, but will return to as a better teacher!AssessmentAssessment is perhaps one of the most important things that happens in the classroom. Assessment is an ongoing thing. It happens every single day and takes on many different looks all day long. Assessment is what drives and motivates all of the instruction that happens in my classroom (Paris & Hoffman, 2004). Through assessment, I gain an understanding of where each child is and I then make decisions on how to proceed to ensure that each child learns successfully. In Davidson County we administer a Fountas and Pinnell formal running record three times a year—beginning, middle, and end. During this assessment kindergarten students read a book (they can choose fiction or nonfiction) aloud to the administrator. The administrator marks down any miscues that are made. Following the reading the administrator asks the child several questions about the story and they respond verbally based on the story (Fountas, & Pinnell, 2007). There is a place on the recording form where the teacher is to consider fluency and make a checkmark on the description that captures how fluent the child sounds, but there is no focus on computing a fluency score. As long as a child scores 90% or higher on the level that he or she is being tested on, that level is considered the instructional reading level. If a child scores 95% or higher, the administrator is encouraged to test the student on an additional level. I enjoy administering this formal assessment as it shows me just how much my students have grown in this area! After administering the assessment, I go back and analyze if the errors were meaning, semantic, or visual errors. Analyzing the errors in this way allows me to see what is causing the student to make mistakes and helps me to make decisions about areas where a student needs more instruction. This running record also shows me how well the student comprehends what he or she is reading. If the child is unable to answer the comprehension questions and carry on a meaningful conversation regarding the book, I know that comprehension is an area that needs our attention next. When I administer the Fountas and Pinnell running record there are a few things that I look for because of what I have learned in the program that are not recommended as a county. First, as learned in the program, fluency should be monitored in students reading on a first grade level or higher. We do not focus on fluency at all in Davidson County. I feel like we often send students to the next grade with highly inflated running record scores because of the fact that we ignore fluency. The way we do it, students can read VERY slowly but still read at a high reading level if they are a good word caller. Once my kindergarten students are reading at a level that is considered a first grade reading level I begin calculating a reading rate for them. If they cannot read the number of words per minute that Dr. Morris has deemed appropriate through his work, I do not advance them to the next level. They remain on the lower level (which is already higher than they need to be able to read in kindergarten) until their reading rate and expression are such that they are considered fluent (Samuels, Ediger, & Fautsch-Patridge, 2005). This focus on fluency is important as students who read in a choppy manner often lose their understanding of the story and are not able to comprehend with success (Allington, 2009). Another change that I make is that I do not test students on the next level book unless they can read the prior level at 98% or higher. I do not feel like the county’s standard of 95% is high enough to merit another text. I do not feel that there is any reason to rush students through the levels if they are not ready for them, so I once again stick to Dr. Morris’s standard for this as well (Morris, 2008).Davidson County also requires several other literacy assessments as part of our K-2 portfolio. These are given at the end of each quarter. One is the letter identification assessment. Students are shown alphabet letters out of order and asked to identify the letter, the sound that it makes, and a word that begins with that letter. We do this for upper and lower case letters. We also administer a letter production test. We call out a letter and a word that begins with that letter and the student must write the upper and lower case forms of the letter. Both of these assessments give us an idea of the child’s understanding of alphabetic principle. We feel this is an important assessment following the study of Adams, Stahl, and Murray (as cited in Morris, 2005). We also assess a high frequency word list. Students are required to know these words in the amount of time congruent with what is allowed for the flash word assessment given in the IRI (Morris, 2008). In kindergarten we assess the 25 words that Fountas and Pinnell suggest for kindergarteners, but in the classroom we teach many, many more high frequency words (Jasmine, & Schiesl, 2009). We also administer a phonemic awareness assessment. Some of the tasks in this assessment focus on beginning and ending sounds, some on medial sounds or on rhyming. Many of the tasks assess the child’s ability to delete or manipulate phonemes in different parts of the word. An assessment that shows book and print awareness is also required. It demonstrates the student’s ability to differentiate letters from words, identify punctuation, identify front, back, spine, direction to read, and it also shows the child’s concept of word as described by Morris, Bloodgood, Lomax, and Perney (as cited in Morris, 2005). I often get frustrated at the many, many assessments that are required. I often feel like if we administered the IRI specially designed for emergent readers that we could cut out several of the tedious smaller assessments that we are required to administer. In the meantime, in an effort to be positive, all of these assessments are helpful in determining to what degree the student has developed beginning reading skills.A state writing test is administered three times a year. The students are given a prompt and asked to write and draw a picture that answers the prompt. The piece is then graded by the teachers on the grade level according to a rubric generated by the state. This test is a way to see the growth in developmental spelling patterns used by the student across the span of the year. It is amazing to see the difference in the writing that my students produce at the beginning of the year in comparison with the writing produced at the end of the year. This assessment also shows how well students are generating ideas, progressing through the stages of the spelling inventory, (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2008) and using punctuation in writing. Informal assessment is something that happens in the classroom every single day. A teacher who waits for results to formal assessments is way behind. The hundreds of decisions that I make every single day are impacted largely by the informal assessment data that I collect. Each time that I meet with a reading group I administer an informal running record so that I can see to what degree the child is progressing through the Fountas and Pinnell levels, to note what errors are being made, and to calculate a reading rate if necessary. Each time I also ask some brief questions to assess comprehension. All of this is recorded on a post-it note and organized by date in a notebook where I keep similar records for each child. In another notebook, I have a checklist that entails all of the strategies and skills that I hope to see a kindergartener using in reading. As I listen to students read at different times throughout the day I check and date the strategies that I see them using. If there is a strategy that I have taught until I am blue in the face and a child is still not using it, or using but confusing it, I note that too. A quick glance at this checklist shows me how far the child has come, where misunderstandings lie, and any skills that need to be reviewed or retaught. I also have a log where I record conferences that I have with students during self-selected reading and writer’s workshop time. On these logs I record a complement that I give each child regarding their reading or writing, a teaching point that I have asked them to focus on, and any anecdotal notes that are important in my making wise, productive decisions regarding where to go next in my instruction of each student. Formal assessment is important (and required!) but the informal assessment data collected is irreplaceable because of the role that it plays in planning curriculum.At our school, we record all reading progress on an Assessment Wall. The assessment wall has a place for all reading levels—Emergent through level Z. These letters represent the Fountas and Pinnell guided reading levels. Each student in the school is represented by a post-it note with their initials. Each grade level is represented by a different colored post-it note. Each child’s post-it is placed on their current reading level at the beginning of the year. Colored dots are placed on post-its to show if a child receives ESL, EC, or Title 1 services. Every two weeks we mark on the back of the post-it note the date that the child was given an informal running record and the level where they are currently reading. If the child moved up a level, we move their post-it note to the next place. If not, we have documented that we do know where they are reading. Every two weeks we meet as a grade level with the principal, lead teacher, title 1 teacher, and any specialists involved with teaching the specified student. One struggling student is chosen and as a grade level we discuss ideas that we could use to help the student progress. This is a pain in the tail to teachers, but it is nice to be able to see the school at a glance. It takes away from worrying about my students alone and promotes a school wide feeling that we are looking for ways to meet the needs of all children every day in a meaningful way. We look for ways to help each other with struggling students by pulling from everyone’s ideas of best practice and recently read research. In some cases this means tutoring (Lane, Pullen, Hudson, & Konold, 2009), extra instruction, or just coming up with a different way to teach what is being misunderstood so that it works for the student having trouble (Slavin, Lake, Davis, & Madden, 2009). The assessment wall is also a good way to make sure that all students who are struggling are receiving extra services and not falling through the cracks.B. Materials, Technologies, and MediaMany, many materials are used in designing an effective reading and writing program. Things that people would call junk are absolute treasures in a kindergarten classroom! Probably the most important materials in the classroom are books. Books of all kinds are of utmost importance. As a kindergarten teacher, I am always on the lookout for books that are appropriate for the lowest level beginning reader to read on his or her own. This is quite the job. Very few companies sell a large selection of these lower level books at a price that teachers can use their own money to purchase. Having many different titles of lower level books is very important in giving students experiences with on level texts. Quality trade books for read alouds are also important materials in a classroom.Games, activities, and manipulatives that can be used to encourage literacy are materials that I collect for literacy tubs. Letter tiles, magnetic letters, games that work with words or letters, old magazines, game pieces and other random things are great materials to use in exposing students to print, developing phonemic awareness, growing alphabetic principle, etc (NAEYC, & IRA, 1998). Clip boards are valuable in assisting students in doing hands on work around the room. For my minilesson time I use chart paper with markers and the big books and trade books that come with our basal series as materials. Pointers are often used for teaching finger pointing. The word wall is a necessary resource for helping students learn high frequency words.In Writer’s Workshop necessary materials include many types of writing paper, a variety of writing utensils, handheld word walls, space men, folders to store work in, and erasers. These materials are all stored in a Rubbermaid tote in the middle of each table of students so that their materials are easy to access (Calkins, 2003). When students have materials that are fun to use in reading and writing, they are more likely to work hard and put forth their best effort. As a teacher, I am always looking for new materials that will motivate students to learn!Technology is an important part of my classroom. I use the Smart Board that hangs in the commons area just outside my classroom daily. I use it for exposing my students to literature often. Frequently I use the document camera with it. Using these things together I can play fun word games, complete Cloze activities, use small books to share with the whole class, etc. My projector is an important part of the technology used in my classroom! The computers in my classroom are always in use. My students use them to play games that help them to learn letters, sounds, words, and simply how to read! The computers are also used to expose them to literature read alouds on the internet. I use the computers for Writer’s Workshop as students use the word processor to write stories sometimes. Taking Dr. Koppenhaver’s online class on technology opened a huge window for exposing my students to new technology experiences. As our world is constantly changing, exposing my students to these 21st century technologies is very important (Gere, 2007). We frequently use Skype to communicate with other classes in the building, to meet our Pen Pals in another state, and to allow special guests to read books aloud to us. The kids love being able to see the person with whom they are communicating. I recently began using Twitter to send updates to parents of students in my classroom. After taking the technology class, I have also focused more regularly on updating my classroom website with things that parents would want to know. I frequently use bookmarking sites in selecting sites for my students from year to year and saving them so that I do not have to search for them again later. Perhaps the biggest way that I use technology in my classroom is as a way for students to demonstrate what they have learned about topics that we study. I enjoy allowing them to use KidPix or other programs to illustrate a concept and then having them write or voice record facts that they have learned. It is fun to put projects like this together into a slide show for parents. Several times last year we used sites like Tarheel Reader and other sites to write our own books about trips that we had taken, things that we had learned, or just whatever. These titles helped add to our collection of books that are easy enough for beginning readers. The things that I have learned in the area of technology during this program have changed the way that I teach. The online technology class stretched me in ways that I did not think I could possibly stretch, but after becoming familiar with new concepts and ideas I began to comfortably use things that I never thought I would!C. Reading InstructionDavidson County has spent the last several years looking for ways to raise test scores (along with everyone else in America!) Three years ago our school joined the “Davidson County Literacy Initiative” and began to implement what they considered “best practice.” The initiative was led by Linda Hoyt, a consultant out of Oregon. The new plan was very specific as far as what we were to teach, when to teach it, and for how long to teach. Many of the components of the literacy initiative are similar to those supported by what I have learned in the reading program, but a few things I have to tweak. Every day my students spend 70 minutes in Reader’s Workshop. MinilessonEach day Reader’s Workshop begins with a 15 minute minilesson. During this minilesson I model, model, model some type of reading experience for my students. I never ask my students to do anything but what I have shown them how a good reader should do it first. I teach them these skills through explicitly modeling. Most days it is a specific comprehension or decoding strategy that I wish for the students to ultimately implement in their own reading, but other days I use Stauffer’s DRTA activity (as cited in Morris, 2005) or an exercise on how to pick a just right book for reading. Many of the strategies that I focus on are strategies that Davidson County adopted through our initiative with Linda Hoyt. These strategies focus on decoding (called fix-up strategies) and other techniques that lead children to retell (Say Something! Or I Remember), infer (literary equations), find the main idea (VIP—Very Important Points) and use other higher level thinking skills (Hoyt, 2009). The topic for the minilesson is chosen based on the needs that I have observed in my class. I never ask my students to do anything that I have not adequately modeled for them so that they know what is expected of them. I model through thinking aloud and verbalizing what I do as a reader so that students can see. During this time students sit with their “Thinking Partners” (heterogeneous pairs who can help one another). These students Turn and Talk (Vlach & Burcie, 2010) throughout the lesson to discuss what has been taught, make connections, extend the use of a strategy, or retell the story. In these pairs, lower achieving students benefit from their partner’s model and higher level responses while the higher achieving student gets the benefit of being an example, and helping out. Most days I try to have enough copies of the book that we were working with, or one similar, so that students can have a book in their hands to use in applying the day’s skills.Self selected readingAfter the 15 minute minilesson, the students gather their personal selection of books and find an area to do self selected reading while I work with guided reading groups. Every other day my students “shop” for books to read during self-selected reading. Each of them has a large Ziploc bag that holds their books. On the bag are three different colored dot stickers. One of the dots represents their independent reading level, one dot represents the level below (for fluency) and the last dot represents the level above (for a challenge). All of my books have colored dots on their covers based on the Fountas and Pinnell levels of books. Students use these dots to choose books to read that are near their reading level. While I use this method for helping students read on level, I do not refuse any book from any child. If a child finds a book that he or she is very interested in that is a higher reading level than the child reads, I let them enjoy the book. I make the same allowances for lower level books. I know that when a student is engaged in reading because they are interested and have had choice in what they are reading, they will be more likely to read. The more time a student spends reading, the better reader they will become (Miller, 2009)! In Guthrie and Wigfield’s study they realized that reading engagement even compensates for students who come from low SES homes with little educational background (As cited in Brozo, Shiel, & Topping, 2007). They tell us that engagement in reading is indicative of learning success throughout life. For these reasons, I feel strongly about having students read on their level, but allowing them to read outside of these guidelines as they find things that interest them. Using the sticker system keeps us reading on level most of the time, because I believe that this is where the most growth occurs, but as with everything in the classroom, flexibility is the key! I like this method of leveling books because it avoids the “red bird, blue bird” mentality. When each student has three stickers on his or her bag, most bags have at least one commonly colored sticker. A yellow sticker might represent one student’s on level, another student’s lower level, and yet another student’s challenge level. I know what the series of dots mean for each child, but they see that they are all reading yellow books and feel like they are all the same caliber of readers! At the very beginning of the year, self-selected reading time lasts 10 minutes. Even procedures for what is acceptable during self-selected reading must be modeled for kindergarteners! Weekly, self-selected reading time is lengthened until by midway through the year my kindergarteners are actively engaged in self-selected reading for 30 to 45 minutes daily. Many kindergarten teachers act like this is an unachievable goal. I used to think so, but when equipped with adequate tools and strategies, and when appropriate modeling has taken place, they are able to do so. Because I so strongly believe that maximum reading growth happens when students spend ample time in text that is on their level everyday (Allington, 2006),” I am determined every year to equip my kindergarteners in such a way that they can effectively do self selected reading. Each day when I send my students off to read, they read for a new purpose. Some days they just read and look for something significant from one of their books that they want to share. Other days they read and then have the option to write about one book (and draw a picture) in a response journal to show understanding of their reading. Sometimes they get a sticky note and look for short vowel words, compound words, words with contractions, or some other word study skill that we have been focusing on. Still other days students are encouraged to partner read. The point of this time is to have students actively engaged with books that they have chosen that are mostly on their level. There is nothing silent about this time in my room, however, all students are expected to carry on with their job in a way that doesn’t keep other students from learning. While students are reading, my assistant holds individual conferences with the students. She records the title of what they are reading, listens to the student read, gives the student a compliment on what or how they are reading, and offers a teaching point that is something she notices that will help the student grow in their reading (ex. attending to punctuation when reading). The students look forward to reading to her!Literacy “tubs”At the beginning of the year, before students can read self-selected books for a prolonged period of time, the students engage in “literacy tubs” during the time that I do guided reading groups. I try not to let these activities carry on for long periods because of the lack of research supporting their effectiveness! It is essential for students to have something to do while I work with reading groups, however, so I assemble plastic tubs of activities that allow students to work on literacy skills in small group settings. The atmosphere of literacy tub time is educational for sure, but it includes a dynamic that allows students to think that they are “playing” due to the hands on nature of the activities. I like this component since so much of the kindergarten experience has been forced away from the developmentally appropriate way in which I feel deep within that things should be taught. For tub time students are put in heterogeneous groups. Each tub has activities at varying levels. One tub is simply a listening station. Another is an opportunity for students to sit in fun camp chairs and look at any and all books in my reading center (including read aloud books and books that I teach with). Another tub is a sorting station where students sort objects by beginning sound, ending sound, or medial vowel sound depending on the level of task for which they are ready. “Write the room” is a tub where students travel around the room and record words that they find that fit the category on an assigned card (ex. words that begin with the letter m, words with three letters, etc.) Leap pads and computer activities are featured in another tub. All of the activities give students practice in skills necessary for beginning reading. Each of the activities in these stations develops alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, concept of word, vocabulary acquisition, or concepts of print (NAEYC & IRA, 1998). Guided reading groupsWhile students are doing self-selected reading or literacy tubs I meet with homogeneous groups of students for guided reading groups (or what Davidson County calls Small Group Strategy Instruction). Students move in and out of these groups as their reading level changes. I meet with three groups of students a day for 15 minute sessions each. I meet with my lowest group of students every single day. The other two slots are rotated between the other groups of students so that each group is seen three or four times a week. During guided reading, we begin by rereading a book that we have read recently. The students partner read or choral read, but usually they “whisper read” so that I can hear them but they are not disturbing their neighbor. I travel around “leaning in and listening” to their progress and jot down notes as I read with them. During this time I also try to take an informal running record, as required by the county, on a fresh read for one student. This running record is a quick, 3 minute snapshot of how the student is reading and on how they are comprehending what they are reading. Next, we look at a new book. Typically, the students take a picture walk through it and make predictions about what they think the book will be about. Next students read the text—often in many different ways. Some days I give them a purpose for reading and they read silently to that place, stop to discuss, and read on for a purpose. Other days they whisper read this selection as well and I would lean in and listen stopping them to have dialogue meaningful to the individual student based on their reading experience. Either way, as the teacher, I guide them through the story by activating prior knowledge, scaffolding, asking questions, checking comprehension and ensuring a developed understanding of the reading (Iaquinta, 2006). Some days our guided reading lesson went goes along with the focus of the minilesson and other days it is on a skill that the specific group needs. All guided reading groups are conducted using materials on the Fountas and Pinnell guided reading level of the group being served. No matter what the focus of guided reading for the day, as the teacher I model for the students, lead them in guided practice, and then let them practice independently before sending them back to try it on their own (Fielding, & Pearson, 1994). Spelling and Word Study:Every quarter I administer the Primary Spelling Inventory (Baer, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2008) to my students. Based on their score on this inventory I group them for spelling words and for word study. When I began individualized spelling words, the parents thought that I was crazy, and I wondered myself! I usually have three groups with different spelling words. I have each group pick a random color or object and that would be their group name for the test that week. I call out a word for each group, give them time to write, and proceed on. The hardest thing for me to get parents to understand, but the most liberating concept to me, is that a given spelling pattern may not be mastered in one week as the traditional approach to spelling suggests. For this reason, a group of students may have spelling words on one skill for several weeks. The words would change each week, but the focus may be the same. Doing spelling in this way allowed students to master spelling patterns rather than being exposed for a week and then rushing on to the next skill that they were not ready to learn. My word study is also organized based on performance on the spelling inventory. I have a 15-20 minute time each day for word study. During this time, students participate in picture/word sorts or a making words activity designed to encourage growth in the area where the student was performing. At one time there are often five or six different word sorts going on depending on the level of the child. Students sort on their own and then “read” the sort to my assistant or I before gluing it into a word study notebook that they could access later to help them with spelling patterns. My students also complete a sort first thing in the morning when they walk into the door of the classroom. This sort is typically the same for the whole class and focuses on some skill that we are working on as a whole group like the word family focus for the week, etc. All sorts used in the classroom begin on Monday, are completed with repetition several times throughout the week, and are glued in their notebooks on Friday. Monday begins new sorts, although the skill could remain the same if necessary. I find using word sorts to be a very effective way of actively moving students through the developmental stages of word study (Morris, 2005).Read Alouds:Read alouds play a very important part in the reading instruction in my classroom. I expose my students to several pieces of quality literature throughout the day. Usually I spend about half an hour a day reading aloud to my students. I begin my day with a read aloud. After lunch I spend some time reading aloud to my students, and my schedule includes a 15 minute slot each day for Text Talk (Beck, & McKeown, 2007). Text talk allows students the experience of a story and an opportunity to learn new vocabulary words. Each week we focus on new vocabulary words that come from a Text Talk unit. Each day we read the story again for a different purpose, or we review the story and then focus on activities using the vocabulary words. In the Reading Program we learned how to take our own books and design a Text Talk-like unit using tier two words from the story. Using this technique, (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002) I can use any read aloud to introduce new vocabulary and attempt to make up some of the huge discrepancies that kindergarteners have in the area of vocabulary when they come to kindergarten. I try to expose students to read alouds from fiction and nonfiction selections. Reading aloud is very important as it develops sense of story and a strong vocabulary in students (Ehri & Roberts, 1994). As a whole my reading instruction was influenced greatly by what Davidson County required. Many of the things I feel were good, however, after the discussion that we have had in this class, when I return to the classroom I will focus more on assessing listening comprehension as well (Sticht). As seen in the Orange County model, sometimes a students’ needs have nothing to do with word study and decoding. As teachers we often jump to trying to give a student more, more, more phonics to problem solve their struggle when it may have nothing to do with that. Listening comprehension is a skill that must be assessed and addressed. Many of my struggling readers may have improved faster had I realized the need to address this component of reading. I addressed comprehension of what my students read through teaching them strategies used to comprehend text, asking them questions about what they read, guiding them through text, and giving them the opportunity to respond to things that the read silently. In my next experience in the classroom ,I will give listening the attention it is due and teach accordingly. Fluency was not widely addressed in my kindergarten classroom until they reached a point where they were reading on the first grade level. Kindergarteners are not fluent readers because they are beginning readers. I try to encourage fluency through encouraging rereading, attending to punctuation when reading, and using expression when reading, but I do not specifically calculate fluency in the kindergarten classroom (Allington, 2009).E. Language ArtsWritingWriting is my absolute favorite subject to teach in kindergarten. I love to watch students who come to school scribbling and making letter-like figures grow until they are writing legible sentences! In my classroom, I use the Lucy Calkins Writer’s Workshop curriculum (Calkins, 2003) for teaching writing. She should pay me to advertise for her program because I absolutely love it! I love how the format of Writer’s Workshop allows children to be successful— no matter their ability level! Very diverse learners can all grow and succeed using Writer’s Workshop. Workshop begins each day with a minilesson. During this lesson, I model a writing technique, skill, etc. for my students. Every day I model writing for them using inventive spelling. My minilesson topic is chosen each day by following the lessons that Calkins has aligned in her units of study, or from something that I have noticed needs addressed in my students’ writing. After this brief, ten minute minilesson I tell my students that “today and everyday as writers you can …(whatever I just taught in minilesson) and I send them off to write. I encourage my students to write about anything and everything. I try to help them develop an awareness that every situation in life can turn in to a writing experience (Calkins & Mermelstein, 2003). They can also make up stories, write about make believe things, etc. My students love to write. Very seldom do they ask what to write about, and they never complain when I announce that it is writer’s workshop time. When my students write I have them write using inventive spelling. I love to watch as they move through the stages of writing (Corgill, 2008) and their spelling goes from invented to closer and closer to conventional! My students spend 20-30 minutes writing on their own in workshop time (yes, even in kindergarten). While they are writing my assistant and I pull a chair up beside them and conference. In a writing conference the student reads their writing, I complement them on something that I really like about their work, and I give them a suggestion of something that they need to work on. I record my conference notes so that the next time that I meet with that student I know how to hold him or her accountable. It never ceases to amaze me how much my students’ reading levels grow as their love for writing and their ability in writing grow. One of my favorite units in writing is writing All About Books. Each student writes all about something that they know a lot about. We illustrate and bind our books and then parents and school personnel come and let us share our books. This experience is priceless in the life of a teacher!Author’s CraftIn kindergarten, I teach Author’s Craft through read alouds. We highlight techniques that authors use in their writing and discuss how they can implement these things in their own writing. I sometimes model these same techniques in my minilessons and then encourage students to use them as well. GenreIn kindergarten, I focus mostly on fiction and nonfiction when teaching my students about genre. We also talk about poetry, fantasy, and some others, but the focus is on fiction and non-fiction.Poetry? Poetry is a tough concept for students to understand in kindergarten. We begin by reading Shel Silverstein and other silly poets to develop an awareness of what poetry really is. The kids love these poems. I strive to develop the awareness that poetry usually paints a picture in the reader’s head. I like to expose my students to poetry through read alouds. Through read alouds they get to hear the cadence and rhythm that is in our language. The most common way that I use poetry in my classroom is through high frequency word poems. I have a poem of the week that features a high frequency word (Lanczak-Williams, 2005). We choral read this poem together several times throughout the week and on Friday the students fill in a form with the poem written out but the high frequency words missing. This poem gives students a basic understanding of some element of poetry like form, rhyme, etc, but it also is simple enough that the students can practice their high frequency words and read the poem on their own. They put these poems in a notebook and that notebook becomes great material for self-selected reading the rest of the year!ConclusionI have thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Reading Education Program. My views opinions, and approaches to the classroom are forever changed for the better. I appreciate the knowledge of best practice and it is frustrating to me when I cannot teach something in a way that I know is best because of being required to do it in some other way. I’m glad to know why I do what I do. I can defend my opinions (and boy do I have those in regards to reading!) When I return to the classroom next year, my students will receive a much more thorough and effective educational experience than did my classes before enrolling in this program. Teaching students to read and write is truly my passion. Giving the gift of literacy is priceless and I am honored to accompany students through this learning experience. May I always keep growing in my field. To become stagnant and complacent is not an option. May new research and best practice be a continual passion as I teach children to learn to love to read!ReferencesAllington, R. (2006). What really matters for struggling readers designing research-based programs. New York, NY: Pearson.Allington, R. (2009). What really matters in fluency: research based practices across the curriculum. New York, NY: Pearson.Bear, D.R, Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2008). Words their way. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.Beck, I., & McKeown, M. (2007). Increasing young low-income children's oral vocabulary repertoires through rich and focused instruction. The Elementary School Journal, 107(3), 251-270. Beck, I., McKeown, M., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: robust vocabulary instruction. New York, NY: Guilford Press.Brozo, W., Shiel, G., & Topping, K. (2007). Engagement in reading: lessons learned from three pisa countries. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(4), 304-315.Calkins, L. (2003). The nuts and bolts of teaching writing. Portsmouth, NH: FirstHand.Calkins, L. & Mermelstein, L. (2003). Launching the writing workshop. Portsmouth, NC: FirstHandCorgill, A.M. (2008). Of primary importance. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.Ehri L. & Robbins, C. (1994). Reading storybooks to kindergarteners helps them learn new vocabulary words. Journal of Educational Psychology, 6(1), 54-64. Fielding, L., & Pearson, P.D. (1994). Reading comprehension: what works. Educational Leadership, 62-67.Fountas, I, & Pinnell, G. (2007). Fountas and pinnell benchmark assessment system. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.Gere, A. (2007). 21st century literacies. National Council of Teachers of English, 1-8.Hoyt, L. (2009). Revisit, reflect, retell: time tested strategies for teaching reading comprehension. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.Iaquinta, A. (2006). Guided reading: a research-based response to the challenges of early reading instruction. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33(6), 413-418. Jasmine, J., & Schiesl, P. (2009). The effects of word walls and word wall activities on the reading fluency of first grade students. Reading Horizons, 49(4), 301-314.Lanczak Williams, R. (2005). Sight word poetry pages. New York, NY: Scholastic.Lane, H., Pullen, P., Hudson, R., & Konold, T. (2009). Identifying essential instructional components of literacy tutoring for struggling beginning readers. Literacy Research and Instruction, 48(1), 277-297. Miller, D. (2009). The book whisperer. San Fransisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Morris, D. (2008). Diagnosis and correction of reading problems. New York, NY: Guilford Press.Morris, D. (2005). The howard street tutoring manual. New York, NY: Guilford Press.NAEYC, , & IRA, . (1998). Learning to read adn write: developmentally appropriate practices for young children. Young Children, 53(4), 30-46. Paris, S., & Hoffman, J. (2004). Reading assessments in kindergarten through third grade: findings from the center for the improvement of early reading achievement. The Elementary School Journal, 105(2), 199-217.Samuels, J.S., Ediger , K, & Fautsch-Patridge, T. (2005). The importance of fluent reading. New England Reading Association Journal, 41(1), 1-8. Slavin, R., Lake, C., Davis, S., & Madden, N. (2009). What works for struggling readers?. The University of York, Vlach, S., & Burcie, J. (2010). Narratives of the struggling reader. The Reading Teacher, 63(6), 522-525. ................
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