Best Practices in My Kindergarten Classroom



Best Practices in My Kindergarten Classroom

Angie Somers

RE 5710

Dr. Koppenhaver

April 25, 2011

Introduction

As a kindergarten teacher for the past eight years I have found that each year is different and each child is unique in their own way. Kindergarten students arrive at school with very different backgrounds and a vast difference in educational experiences. Some students have attended successful preschool programs and have been exposed to a print rich environment and good literature. Other students have very little knowledge of print concepts and literature. This creates and ongoing challenge for me as a teacher. It is my responsibility to create a successful and positive learning environment for all of my students. To meet the social and literacy needs of my students, my classroom is rich with interactive lessons in all literacy areas of instruction. As a kindergarten teacher I am the first contact that some students have with a teacher. It is my responsibility to provide a learning experience that will be emotionally, socially and academically successful for my students. In order to provide that experience for my students I am reflective in my practices.

My classroom is organized and developed around the idea of a community of learns. Each year I involve my students in collabratively creating, classroom rules and labeling the classroom at the beginning of the year. My students have the opportunity to interact daily with each other and share ideas about their literacy development. My students are given responsibilities in the classroom to develop community. Students enjoy participating in classroom jobs and this promotes independence in everyday activities as well as literacy activities in the classroom. Creating independence in kindergarten students is something that is very important in my classroom. Student’s that are independent are able to self monitor literacy concepts such as reading strategies and edit writing. They are also more aware of their learning. It is my goal as a kindergarten teacher to build self confidence and that will foster independence!

My literacy instruction takes place during the morning hours of the school day. During the morning hours I have a primary reading teacher with me. This allows us flexibility in grouping and instruction to meet the literacy needs of all students. During the afternoon hours I focus my instruction on math, social studies and science activities. Reading and writing are also integrated into math, social studies and science.

My goal as a kindergarten teacher is to provide my students with a literacy rich environment so that they develop the love of literature and reading. I believe that the love of literature and learning is very important for students at an early age. When students are successful and develop the love of reading and writing at an early age they will be much more successful in their future learning. (Adams, 1998)

I often think of these quotes by a favorite children’s author, Dr. Seuss, which sums up literacy learning in my classroom.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.

Dr. Seuss

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try.

Dr. Seuss

A. Assessment

There are many different forms of assessment that are beneficial to me as a kindergarten teacher. In my classroom I assess each student at the beginning of the year to get baseline data. I use several different forms of assessment both formal and informal. Some of the assessments are mandatory by the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School System.

On open house night when I meet my students for the first time I have the students complete a Classroom Scavenger hunt (Appendix A) this allows me to see if my students can identify basic classroom objects. I also assess the students on name writing and name identification. The students have to find their name at their seat, as well as write their name. I also use my Smart Board to see if they are able to find their name in print and move it. This gives a basic knowledge of students’ print concepts.

I also perform a 20-item Book and Print Assessment form the Winston- Salem Forsyth County K-2 Assessment. This assessment tests student’s knowledge of parts of a book, where to begin reading, the ability to distinguish between letters verses words, print conventions and the ability to track text. I find that this particular assessment is valuable to me at the beginning of the year. From this assessment I am able to see the print needs of my students and I can tailor instruction on specific tasks in print concepts.

At the beginning of the year I use the Forsyth County K-2 Letter Identification assessment to assess the student’s knowledge with letter recognition, sounds and words. At the beginning of the year I focus on letter Identification. This is no longer a required assessment in Forsyth County; I have continued to complete this assessment to give me baseline data. This provides me information of basic capital and lowercase letter recognition as well as the knowledge that students have about letter sounds. With the data that I receive from this assessment I am able to drive my instruction with introducing letters. It also gives me knowledge of how to best group students in small groups to provide early literacy instruction in print concepts and letter identification.

The Winston-Salem Forsyth County School system requires kindergarten teachers to assess students using DIBELS Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Learning Skills. We are required to assess the students throughout the year with the Dibels Nokia device. A team of assessors invade my classroom at the beginning of the year and assess each student on the following skills for baseline data. The students are assessed on Initial Sound Fluency and Letter Naming Fluency at the beginning of the school year. The initial sound fluency assessment asks students to name the beginning sounds of words given orally to the student and also identify pictures by their beginning sounds. The questions are posed as such “What sound does gate begin with” or point to the picture that begins like /b/.” The Letter Naming Fluency has the students identify as many letters as they can in a minute. I don’t agree with this assessment, due to the fact that students should not be assessed on letter identification on a timed test. Students are also assessed during the middle of the year and at the end of the year in ISF (Initial Sound Fluency), LNF (Letter Naming Fluency), PSF (Phoneme Segmentation Fluency) and NWF (Nonsense Word Fluency). The DIBELS testing and progress monitoring for students that fall in the yellow and red is very time consuming and takes away from instruction. The students that fall in the red and yellow need explicit instruction in many literacy areas. As a teacher, through my informal assessments and observations, I am aware of the students that need explicit instruction. The DIBELS assessment does not provide me with any new information that will help guide my instruction. The assessments are mandated by the system and I am privileged to work in a school where the administration does not base important educational decisions on the DIBELS assessments. We are given the data to review and use to guide instruction along with our other formal and informal assessments. The data from this assessment is used by the kindergarten grade level to discuss instructional practices that will benefit our students. As a grade level we have created DIBELS intervention activities. All of the activities are hands on; many of them are games that allow students to interact cooperatively in meaningful literacy activities.

I am also required to assess high frequency words, my students are required to learn 53 words for the kindergarten year. It is very important that my students learn the high frequency words automatically (Morris and Slavin, 2003). The atomicity of the words help students read and writes successfully. By assessing the words I am can direct my instruction to provide needed practice for the words that students are struggling to recognize. There are many different hands on activities to teach high frequency words that are engaging for my students.

Throughout the year I assess my students reading level by completing Running Records. Often, I assess students using informal running records during guided reading instruction. This allows me to listen to their reading fluency and assess the reading strategies that they are using for decoding words. We also work on retell skills during guided reading that assess comprehension skills. Through the informal assessments I can evaluate my students to see if a formal Running Record should be completed. Formal K-2 Running Records are completed for each student about once a month. This allows me to change my grouping for guided reading instruction so that I am able to teach each student at their instructional level. Not all students learn at the same rate even if they are at the same instructional level. It is important for my grouping to be flexible so that I am able to move students to appropriate instructional level groups that meet their needs. In the future I would like to implement IRI’s in my kindergarten classroom and compare K-2 Assessments to IRI assessments. (Morris, 2008).

All of the above assessments help guide my instruction in early literacy skills. Formal and informal assessments provide me with the data that I need to make important decisions that will affect the academic success of my students. Each child is and individual and learns in a unique way. It is very important that I am aware of each child’s academic success. Along with the formal and informal assessments I also value student work samples and anecdotal records. This information allows me to communicate academic concerns to parents as well as make instructional decisions for each student.

B. Materials and Technologies

I use a variety of materials in my classroom for different literacy purposes. My students learn in a variety of ways, which requires many resources for teaching. My classroom is a print rich environment with student work displayed. I believe that students should be able to use the resources in their classroom freely. I have put procedures in place to help students to utilize materials in the classroom efficiently and appropriately. Extra school tools such as pencils, scissors, glue sticks and paper are placed in buckets and bins at a central location. If my students need those supplies they are free to get them on their own. I have a variety of books fiction and nonfiction that are placed in book baskets for the students to read at varying reading levels. I also have a collection of big books for literacy activities and direct instruction. I find that my students enjoy having access to the big books during free learning centers in the afternoon.

I also have a wide variety of literacy manipulative for hands on activities. During literacy centers my students use dry erase boards, markers, magnetic letters, letter dice and picture cards. By providing my students with all of the different resources and guiding their learning I am able to meet their educational needs in many different ways.

Computers are used daily in my classroom for many different purposes. My students have access to three student laptops and on Dell computer in our classroom. On Wednesday and Friday I have morning centers for students that have earned the privilege. During that time they have choice of programs, typing or suggested internet sites such as . Computers are also used during literacy centers each day for typing and word processing activities. In afternoon free learning centers my students also have the opportunity to use classroom computers. We also have a laptop lab in our school building so that the whole class can access computers at the same time. I just recently took my student in to teach a writing program called Max Write. The students enjoyed creating their own drawings on the computer and then typing a sentence to match their drawing. This provided me the opportunity to reinforce writing conventions while incorporating technology.

I also have a Smart Board in my classroom that I use daily for morning message, calendar, literacy centers, phonemic awareness activities and writing. My students interact with the Smart Board each morning by signing in. Each morning during group time my line leader completes the morning message on the Smart Board. After writing in important classroom events for the day and the date we read the message orally together. My students also manipulate the calendar, number of days in school, using a place value chart, and build high frequency words on the Smart Board each morning. The Smart Board is used during literacy centers to complete a variety of different activities related to our theme or objectives that need continued practice. I have created activities on the smart board for high frequency word practice, phonemic awareness, letter identification, writing and math. I also use the Smart Board for direct instruction in teacher directed reading, phonics and writing almost every day.

My students also have access to digital cameras during teacher guided activities. One of my guided reading groups recently completed and project with photographs to describe our school community. The student had a great time learning how to take pictures and about the elements that make a good picture. My guided reading instruction for the week; used photographs to talk about framing, background, timing and light. Then my students had the opportunity to plan, take and pose in pictures to tell about our school. The students enjoyed this project and were engaged in the writing after viewing the pictures. I would like to continue to use photograph integrated into writing with my whole class.

The use of technology and a variety of materials is very important in my classroom. By providing the student’s with resources above and beyond typical pencil and paper I am able to address the different needs of my student’s. My students’ have different learning styles and as a teacher I am responsible for meeting their needs and developing their learning so they grow!

C. Reading Instruction

Various approaches to Reading Instruction

My students’ enter the classroom with different experiences in reading and writing. Some students have a very literacy rich home life and others may have little experience with reading and writing. Some students have been to preschools where letter identification and phonemic awareness activities have been a focus and others may not have attended preschool at all. Parents often ask “what should my child be able to do when they get to kindergarten?” That is a difficult question to answer we as teachers know what we would like to see but there are so many different variables that affects beginning learning. I provide a variety of different reading instruction to meet the basic needs of my students and to stretch their learning. I feel that the reading instruction should be developmentally appropriate to meet the needs of my students where they are. (IRA, 1998).

Language Experience Charts/Morning Message. Each morning I begin my circle time instruction with a morning message. During this time the students complete the message that I have started for them. The message tells the date and the events of the day as well as the line leader. The students enjoy taking turns writing the message and reading it independently. We also read the message chorally. The morning message is very predictable and patterned each day. Students read with confidence and success. At the beginning of the year during morning group I also completed Language Experience charts. This allowed the students to share their ideas. As I dictated the students’ ideas, I modeled print concepts such as, left to right, top to bottom, capital and lower case letters. We then read the chart chorally for several days. The students enjoyed this activity and I often saw them reading the language experience charts with class pointers in the afternoon on their own. As a class we created language experience charts with our names using common high frequency words. After completing the Language Experience Chart with our names we created a class book by typing each student’s dictation and having them illustrate their page. I bound the class book and we read the book each morning to practice friends’ names at the beginning of the year. We have also created charts about colors, transportation and science concepts like weather and seasons. After completing language experience charts I displayed the charts in my room for several weeks so that students could refer back to the charts.

Letter Identification. I teach letter identification in various ways depending on the academic needs of each student. I use the Smart Board to introduce letters. I also use so that students can interact with letter sounds. Students use magnetic letters to sort and compare letter formation. Letter sounds and letter identification is also practiced using songs by Dr. Jean. Students are very engaged in songs such as Letter Aerobics and Who Let the Letters out.

Phonemic Awareness. I incorporate phonemic awareness instruction and teacher directed reading instruction together in small groups. I am privileged to have a Primary Reading Teacher in the morning hours. We divide the students into heterogeneous groups for phonemic awareness activities. The small group instruction in Phonemic awareness is only about 10-15 minutes but is highly effective and my students’ enjoy the games and activities. For several years I have used Phonics Lessons, Letters and Words (Fountas & Pinnel, 2008) to plan and implement age appropriate phonemic awareness lessons. At the beginning of the year we focus on student names and rhyming. We often play the name game by changing or deleting the first phoneme in the child’s name. The students are very engaged in this activity and it is sure to bring excitement and giggles. As we advance through the year we work with syllables, deleting and changing beginning phonemes in words, deleting and changing ending phonemes in words and short and long vowels. Most of the phonics lessons are done using picture cards to represent words. We also practice segmenting words and listening for each phoneme in a word to help inventive spelling. My students’ are very engaged in the phonemic awareness lessons and this instruction provides me the ability to meet students at their academic level.

Teacher Directed Reading. Following the phonemic awareness activities we begin Teacher Directed Reading in our small groups. During this time we use rich literature often in Big books if available. I plan teacher directed lessons based on the themes and concepts that need to be taught during the week. For example if my theme for the week is weather I would locate a fiction and nonfiction text on weather, such as the Napping House by Audrey Wood and Rain by Alice K. Flanagan. My primary reading teacher would work with one book activating prior knowledge, setting a purpose for reading, reading and having discussion about the text, following the strategies of Text talk. (Beck & McKeown, 2001) I would then do the same for the other text chosen. After working with the text with one group we would switch groups the next day. This allows my students to interact with the text in smaller groups and promotes easier discussion due to the fact that the group is smaller. By reading and fiction and nonfiction text my students are able to make connections and compare text and text features.

High Frequency Word Study. Forsyth County requires that kindergarten students be able to recognize 53 high frequency words by the end of the year. My high frequency word instruction takes place during morning group time and various times throughout the day when there is spare time. I introduce five words each week. On Monday I post the five new words on my leap frog poster. I also post the words on my website for parents to work on at home. On Tuesday, I introduce the words using the Smart Board by flashing the word. After the students read the word we clap the word spelling each word using tall, middle, and hang down letters. On Wednesday I use the magic pen on the Smart Board to write the word. The ink disappears quickly so the students have to pay close attention to identify the word. On Thursday students become the word by using letter carpet squares to spell the words. We also play high frequency games throughout the week such as, the chair game and cherry, cherry pie. To play the chair game I pick a word from the word wall and place the number of letters in the word at the front of the room. I then pick students to go be the letters by describing how the letter is written. For example if the word was boy I would have the first student stand up in front of the chair for a tall letter, the second student sit in the chair kris cross applesauce, and the third student sit in the chair and hang their legs down. After the students are in place my student guess what the word is. My students enjoy high frequency word games and he helps build concept of word and also high frequency word identification as well as integrating handwriting.

Guided Reading and strategies. My guided reading instruction takes place from 11:10-12:00. During a staff development sessions at school we read Guided Reading: Good first teaching for all children. (Fountas & Pinnel, 1996) I model my guided reading instruction from this text as well as The Howard Street Tutoring manual. (Morris, 2005) I have four groups based on their independent reading level. I am fortunate to have another teacher in my classroom during this time. We both meet with two groups a day so that every student has guided reading everyday. I also have access to leveled guided reading books some I have purchased with my money and store in the classroom and others I can check out from our school literacy library. The literacy library is full of leveled guided reading books. We have a check out system using clothespins and are free to go and check out books whenever needed. I use fiction and nonfiction text during my guided reading sessions. I focus on reading strategies for decoding new words and retelling strategies to build comprehension. (Ness, 2010) In a typical lesson we would reread a guided reading book from the prior day. This gives me the opportunity to listen to each child read independently and observe reading strategies that they are using. Then I introduce a new book by activating prior knowledge and doing a picture walk to make predictions about the story. Depending on the level of the group we read together chorally or I will have them partner read or read independently. After reading we discuss the story and thinking about characters, setting, main ideas and connections that we can make to the text. When picking out guided reading text I pay attention to student interest and select text that students will enjoy reading and make connections to. To help student decode words I use strategy posters that I found on another teachers website. Each poster has and animal that helps students’ make a connection to the strategy. I found the posters on a very helpful website for teachers, . (Appendix B)

Literacy Centers Along with Guided Reading my students also participate in literacy centers. I have created six literacy centers and my students go through a six day rotation. The literacy centers include manipulative based activities using, magnetic letters, high frequency word practice, Smart Board created phonics lessons, computer activities, reading and puppet activities, listening center with comprehension activities and writing center. While two groups are participating in guided reading I have my other students paired in cooperative learning pairs and they work independently on their assigned center for that day. We then switch and the students that were in guided reading have the opportunity to go to literacy centers and I read with the two other groups. I keep track of the literacy centers using a class pocket chart. The students visit the chart to see who their cooperative partner is and which literacy center they are assigned to. My students have a literacy folder that they place their work in and they self assess their work each day using a smiley face rubric system. (Appendix C) I find the self assessment rubric very effective for my students. I also check their work and make comments. After the six day rotation their work is removed from the literacy folder and displayed in the room, filed for assessment purposes or sent home.

Comprehension Strategies-I teach comprehension strategies in Teacher Directed reading and Guided Reading. To aid with comprehension we discuss the story and ask questions through out the reading to check for understanding. With some text I use the DRTA (Stauffer, 1969) model to aid in comprehension of the text. During guided reading sessions, after reading I ask questions about the characters, setting and events of the story. The website also has comprehension posters that I would like to use in my classroom to model comprehension strategies during guided reading.

D. Language Arts/ Writing

Journal writing is part of my classroom each morning. My students’ spend time writing in their journal each morning. Some morning I give a question on the Smart Board to help guide their thinking and other times I suggest that they free write. My students can enter the classroom at 8:00 after unpacking I have them write in their journal. This is a great morning activity due to the fact that my students get to school at different times. They understand the procedure and are able to look on the Smart Board for their writing topic and get started. Some morning I have students’ bring their journal writing to morning group. Each student has a time to read their writing to the class and show their illustrations. I point out great conventions that I see in their writing such as spacing, capital letters at the beginning of the sentence and punctuation. My students that have struggled to write are excited to share when I brag on their writing it is a real confidence booster! Other times we save our journal writing for the writing block which is 9:30-1:05 and I conference with students after modeling and mini lessons.

Read aloud time is also important in my classroom. I read aloud a book or poem related to our theme for the week each day after lunch. The students enjoy this time, and it offers a time to calm down and just listen. On media days my students bring their books back to the classroom and we have self selected reading time. During this time of 10 to 15 minutes I travel around the room and read book titles and sections of books to my students. I then pick a library book and read it to the class. My students’ are full of energy and excitement and very persuasive so that I will pick their book. During this read aloud time I am able to talk about authors craft to explain alliteration, rhyme and other language that is just fun and silly to read. I am also able o find new and fun vocabulary words to introduce to my students. (Ehri &Robbins, 1994)

Each Wednesday afternoon my students have 30 minutes that they get to read and talk about books with their 4th grade reading buddy. I paired up with a 4th grade teacher last quarter, we meet in my classroom on Wednesday afternoons and read together. It is a great time for my students and her students’, both classes look forward to reading and sharing together. It is a loud and exciting classroom full of great reading and laughter and a lot of movement to grab new books to read. Book buddies is a great model for my students and it also makes her fourth grade students that are reading at a lower level feel successful because they are able to practice reading literature prior to coming and feel successful when reading to their little buddy. This is the first year I have participated in book buddies and I plan to participate in this activity from the very beginning of the school year next year.

Conclusion

My goal as a teacher is to make the learning experience for each student in my classroom a pleasurable and productive time. Students’ arrive in my classroom at all different levels and also leave at all different levels. The demands put on kindergarten students in our public school system are not developmentally appropriate. Is it my job as a professional educator to teach the NC Standard Course of Study and provide my students with the best possible learning environment? If that means that I sometimes have bend the mandates that are imposed on me that I don’t feel are the best for my students then I will do that. At this time our system is very mandated and school officials are expecting classrooms to be one size fits all. Our time is very scripted and budgeted and this does not allow teachable moments due to the fact, we have to stay on schedule. I plan to use all of my experiences in this Masters program to help shape and change my teaching and hopefully share with others through what I do in my classroom.

Appendix A Classroom Scavenger Hunt

Open House Assessment

Welcome to Kindergarten

Can you find these things in our classroom?

Circle the things that you find.

blocks

teacher

computer

water fountain

Smart Board

Find your name on the Smart Board and move your name.

Find your seat and write your name on your name tag.

My name is_____________________________________________

Appendix B

Stuck on a word?

| |Eagle Eye - Look at the pictures! |

|[pic] |Look at the picture for clues |

|[pic] |Lips the Fish - Get your lips ready! |

| |Say the first few sounds of the new word |

| |Read to the end of sentence and say it again |

|[pic] |Stretchy Snake - Stretch it out! |

| |Stretch the word out slowly |

| |Put the sounds together |

|[pic] |Chunky Monkey - Chunk the Word! |

| |Look for a chunk that you know (-at, -an) |

| |Look for a word part (-ing, -er) |

|[pic] |Skippy Frog - Skip It, Skip It! |

| |Skip the word |

| |Read to the end of the sentence |

| |Hop back and READ IT, READ IT! |

| |Tryin’ Lion - Try it again! |

|[pic] |Try to reread the sentence |

| |Try a word that makes sense |

|[pic] |Helpful Kangaroo - Ask for help! |

| |Ask for help (after you have tried all of the other strategies |

Never let the word win. Read on!!!!

Appendix C

Smiley Face Self Assessment

Name____________________________________________Date__________________

|I did my best. |I can do better. |I did not do my best. |

|[pic] | |[pic] |

References

Adams, MJ, Foorman, B.R, Lundberg, I, &Beeler, T. (1998). Phonemic awareness in young children. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.

Beck, I.L., & Mckeown, M.G. (2010). Text talk: Capturing the benefits of read-aloud experience for young children. The Reading Teacher. 55, 10-20.

Fountas. I.C., & Pinnel, G.S., (1996). Guided Reading: Good first teaching for all children. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Fountas. I.C., & Pinnel, G.S., (2003). Phonics Lessons Letters, words, and how they work. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Ehri, L. & Robbins, C. (1994). Reading storybooks to kindergarteners helps them learn new vocabulary words. Journal of Educational Psychology, 6(1), 54-64.

International Reading Association & The National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1998). Learning to read and write: Developmentally appropriate practices for young children. The Reading Teacher, 52(2), 193-216.

Morris, D., (2005). The Howard Street tutoring Manual: Teaching at-risk readers in the primary grader (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.

Morris, D. (2008). Diagnosis and correction of reading problems. New York: Guilford Press.

Ness, M. (2010). Explicit reading comprehension instruction in elementary classrooms: teacher use of reading comprehension strategies. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 25, 98-117.

Dougherty Stahl, Katherine A.. (2008). The Effects of Three Instructional Methods on the Reading Comprehension and Content Acquisition of Novice Readers. Journal of Literacy Research, Vol. 40 Issue 3, p359-393.

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