Looking across Chapters 10 and 11, which of the understandings and strategies in the comprehensive literacy program are you already addressing/doing with your students (or have you done, or do you plan to do)?
The strategies that I am using already in my classroom from the comprehensive literacy program are read-aloud, shared reading, guided reading, sustained reading, sustained reading, write-aloud, shared-writing, journals and writing to learn. I’m excited to see that I use already a lot of the strategies with my students. I teach pre-k, so we are definitely at the beginning stages of learning to read and write so I have tried to explain how these strategies are implemented throughout the day.
Read-aloud: In my classroom we do read-aloud daily. We are in a large group setting with all the children on the rug. I do at least 2 stories a day, one story will be with the theme that we are learning about in the classroom and the other will be for fun. After every read-aloud we use story wands, a story map or do a literacy chart to check for comprehension of the story. At the beginning of the school year I may only focus on a couple questions from the story, like who are the characters? What was the setting? but towards the end of the year I am asking multiple questions and having the children make predictions.
Shared Reading- We use shared reading during our large group time, small group and for transitioning. With my age group we do a lot of finger play with songs and nursery rhymes, so after the children learn the finger play I will read the story with the book and the children enjoy reading along with me.
Guided Reading- During our small group time and sometimes during our center time we have guided reading. I will have a group of 4-5 children sitting with me. At this age I use this time to focus on reading for meaning but also like to have the children work on the book handling skills and will give them the opportunity to look at the book while I'm reading.
Sustained Reading-The children in my classroom have many opportunities throughout the day to do sustained reading. We have a reading center that is filled with books and comfy quiet places. They can choose to look at the books independently or with a partner. We also have a listening center, where the children can listen to a story while looking at the book.
Write-Aloud- I use write aloud during calendar, language and literacy and phonological awareness time. I use big chart paper and sometimes sentence strips. I use it after I illustrate a picture, teaching letter names and sounds and also retelling of stories.
Shared-Writing- In my class we have a morning message every day the children help write. I do a lot of literacy charts where the children are able to recognize their name by their sentence and will help point to the words while the children do shared reading to read it back. I also used shared writing for teaching letter sounds and having the children sound out words, rhyming, syllables and beginning sounds.
Journals/Writing to learn- At this age group the children are still learning to write, so I do a lot of “writing” with the children illustrating a picture and dictating what they drew. The children will draw pictures in response to their favorite part of the story, draw the setting, draw the characters etc.? The children will the dictate the picture to me and I write what they drew. Towards the end of the year the children receive journals and will use the journals for response to a questions like, draw what you did over spring break. They enjoy the journals and some children do start trying to write sentences with my help.
Wow! It is so great that you do that much with reading comprehension and guided reading in pre k. That helps them in kindergarten so much! As a kindergarten teacher, I can always tell when teachers have spent a lot of time on reading comprehension. The students from those classes are always quick to answer questions and engaged in read alouds.
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