Module 4: Reading Reflection

    As I was reading through the chapters, I feel as though I at least recognized the term used for some of the aspects of the comprehensive literacy program. The one that I feel as though I have the most experience with are the literature groups. During my student teaching, my host teacher had decided that she was going to try this technique and group the students by their reading ability. There were three groups and each group would be reading a different leveled-reader book and would complete different tasks throughout their reading calendar. Each group had something called an Independent Reading Contract which had various activities that could be done with any book that would further the student's understanding of the plot or specific characters.  For example, one of the activities had to do with creating a shopping list for one of the characters if they were to go to the store. This activity made the students think about the characters likes, dislikes, and general personality. Along with the Independent Reading Contract, the students within the groups would also have different jobs they were required to complete such as "bridge builder", "discussion director", "word watcher", "passage picker", and "artful artist". These jobs were a wonderful tool to get the students looking deeper in to the text, and then allowing them to discuss their jobs with their group members in their weekly meetings. However, there was only one group that read along with the teacher during a small group meetings, and that was the "lower" reading group. All of the other groups followed their weekly calendar where they read independently and then would come together to discuss and complete their tasks. If I had had more say in the literature circle make-up, I would have wanted all of the groups to have a chance to meet with the teacher in order to see where each child stood in the reading and to clear up any misunderstandings.

      Within my classroom, there were plenty of guided reading and sustained reading opportunities, however I wish that there had been more opportunities for shared reading. It is very important that as teachers we model good reading with different read-alouds. Children of all ages can grow in their reading and word knowledge through listening to a teacher read fluently and proficiently. Therefore, this is something that I will implement more within my classroom because I want to make read-alouds a daily things that the children will come to look forward to.

        Writing (such as write-aloud, shared writing, guided writing and sustained writing) was almost non-existent in my classroom because it was not something that our school put a lot of emphasis on. The children went to a writing class throughout the specials rotation along with P.E., music, art, and technology. I do not feel as though I am experienced enough with writing as I should be going in to my first year of teaching, so this chapter began to enlighten me on activities that would help my students in their literacy experiences. In order for students to become proficient readers, the students also need to have a lot of focus on writing, so in my new classroom writing is going to become a priority. Especially because it is something that can be integrated into ever subject. Students will become involved with group and individual writing experiences as they will be working hand-in-hand with the various reading experiences I plan on implementing within my classroom.