One of the ways that my CT has incorporated the book club model within my class's literacy curriculum right now is through individual reading and read aloud. The fourth grade students in my class spend at least 20-40 minutes reading their "Just Right" books as part of their Literacy curriculum for the day and to fill in any free time during other subjects. We have also incorporated a whole-group activity, where I have been reading a chapter book to them for the past few weeks and we discuss and predict events that will or have occured in the story. We recently finished the book and drafted a summary chart for the book, listing it's genre, main characters, plot, and a rating.
A lot of emphasis is placed on writing in our literacy program. The students have multiple composition notebooks (one for every subject and 2-3 for Literacy). They have an "Ideas Notebook", where they can respond to prompts about their environment, school activities, etc, and a "Writer's Notebook", where they write more structured paragraphs about topics that they've learned in school. Their Social Studies and Science notebooks are used as a textbook and a notebook. Often my CT and my students' science teacher will give my students worksheets to cut and glue into their notebooks as references, as well as "fill in the blank" sheets to answer questions, describe situations, or review for tests and quizzes.
Of course, I observe my students speaking, listening, and viewing all day long in every subject. I find its very important to incorporate as many of the five senses as possible to ensure that every child has a chance to be engaged and be provided with the best way of comprehending new information.
Emily-
ReplyDeleteI think it is a cool idea to have students keep an “ideas” notebook. I think that this shows and encourages students to keep notes on what they are reading and what they are thinking/feeling, even if it doesn’t exactly fit in with any certain assignment. Having an ideas notebook will help students to continue thinking about their reading beyond what they are assigned, which is a wonderful skill to teach.
I’m also a little bit jealous that you have been doing some read alouds to the class! In my classroom we’ve really been hitting MEAP prep pretty hard so we haven’t had much time for fun stuff like that, but I am excited for you doing that! What type of chapter book have you been reading? Is it just for fun or does it fit in with another topic/subject you have been doing in your classroom?
Finally, I like that your class does silent reading time each day. Mine does as well, and the kids actually look forward to it. It’s a good sign when the kids can’t wait to get back from lunch and read! It’s good that your classroom incorporates many different literacy activities into each day (teacher read aloud, writing, silent reading) because it allows all students to experience reading and writing in many different ways and discover what they do and don’t like.
Nice post!
Amy
Emily,
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom, we have spent some time doing individual reading and read aloud as well. Each day, my students spend at least 20 minutes reading their chapter book. For the past two weeks, students have had to choose a fictional chapter book from the library. My CT did an activity the first week of school about how to choose a “Just Right” book. In my classroom, there is a lot of emphasis put on writing as well. Students have both a literacy binder and a writer’s notebook. Like you mentioned, my students also practice writing throughout the whole day. My students take part in speaking, listening, and viewing in all subjects throughout the day. I like how you talk about how important the five senses are. I agree with that; in order to be great writer’s and reader’s, we need to think about how our senses are affected. In our students writer’s notebooks, my CT had them make a list of items in the classroom using their senses. It was a great opportunity for the students to see how thinking about our senses can influence our writing in a positive way.
-Kendall