I have had the pleasure of working with a 4th grade class that consists of 22 amazing children. As much as I teach them, I also learn something from them each and everyday. In the beginning of the year the students took their STAR Reading test and I based on those scores I came up with different activities to make them successful at Reading. In the beginning I observed my mentor teacher during the Reading process, and I was inspired. She has a love for Reading like I have never seen before and her number one goal is that her students have the same passion for Reading as she does. I learned various of strategies from watching her. I believe the first and foremost thing a teacher has to make sure she is incorporating in her Reading instruction is engaging activities and things that motivate the students. Just sitting, reading and answering questions will put the students to sleep and eventually they will began to hate reading. Reading can be fun and exciting and it is the teacher's task to do that.
One of my favorite activities that I did was the "Reader's Theater". The students were so excited to be able to get out of their seats and practice their roles. I could see them giving their all to get into character and little did they know that while having fun they were improving their fluency. Vocabulary is one of my favorite things to teach. Besides all the different games we do with them to help them learn the words, we do something that is called "Pegs". In the beginning of the year we taught them eight pegs: 1. Sun -- 2. Eyes -- 3. Triangle -- 4. Stove -- 5. Fingers -- 6. Sticks -- 7. Up -- 8. Octopus. These pegs have movements that go along with each one. The each week after reviewing the vocabulary words and their meanings we use this system to peg each word with the numbers. The movements stay similar to the original ones but twisting them a little bit to go with the week's vocabulary. For example this past week we pegged number 5 with the word cranky, we took our fingers and acted like we were crying like a baby because babies cry when they are cranking. Having that connection with each word helps the students remember them.
Having a wide variety of books for children in your classroom is a very important thing. Each child is different and enjoy different kinds of books, we need to make sure that we have books of all the different types and genres, including magazines and newspapers. I have begun collecting books to include in my future library and just can't wait to be able to share the knowledge of Reading to my students. I feel that one of the most difficult things to teach is Writing. You can teach students the structure and for example the basic steps in writing a five paragraph expository essay, but having an author's voice is something a teacher can not teach. We can not put the ideas in the students heads. We can teach them how we come up with ideas for different prompts but every prompt is different. I have witnessed some students in my class who have great author's voice, they can make their writing exciting, detailed and informative. It makes you feel like you are write there.
Overall this experience has taught me so much about the instruction of Reading. When I was in school the whole Reading process was so plain. You read something and were to give basic facts from the text, now students are taught to think critically and analyze what they read. Taking the information they have to a new level is an essential skill that needs to be incorporated in instruction.
One of my favorite activities that I did was the "Reader's Theater". The students were so excited to be able to get out of their seats and practice their roles. I could see them giving their all to get into character and little did they know that while having fun they were improving their fluency. Vocabulary is one of my favorite things to teach. Besides all the different games we do with them to help them learn the words, we do something that is called "Pegs". In the beginning of the year we taught them eight pegs: 1. Sun -- 2. Eyes -- 3. Triangle -- 4. Stove -- 5. Fingers -- 6. Sticks -- 7. Up -- 8. Octopus. These pegs have movements that go along with each one. The each week after reviewing the vocabulary words and their meanings we use this system to peg each word with the numbers. The movements stay similar to the original ones but twisting them a little bit to go with the week's vocabulary. For example this past week we pegged number 5 with the word cranky, we took our fingers and acted like we were crying like a baby because babies cry when they are cranking. Having that connection with each word helps the students remember them.
Having a wide variety of books for children in your classroom is a very important thing. Each child is different and enjoy different kinds of books, we need to make sure that we have books of all the different types and genres, including magazines and newspapers. I have begun collecting books to include in my future library and just can't wait to be able to share the knowledge of Reading to my students. I feel that one of the most difficult things to teach is Writing. You can teach students the structure and for example the basic steps in writing a five paragraph expository essay, but having an author's voice is something a teacher can not teach. We can not put the ideas in the students heads. We can teach them how we come up with ideas for different prompts but every prompt is different. I have witnessed some students in my class who have great author's voice, they can make their writing exciting, detailed and informative. It makes you feel like you are write there.
Overall this experience has taught me so much about the instruction of Reading. When I was in school the whole Reading process was so plain. You read something and were to give basic facts from the text, now students are taught to think critically and analyze what they read. Taking the information they have to a new level is an essential skill that needs to be incorporated in instruction.