Literacy in Our Class

Shared Reading

Gaston County Schools has adopted the Harcourt Trophies curriculum. We use the big books, library books, and read aloud anthology provided by the Harcourt Trophies program. In addition, I use AlphaTales and various stories that fit to our science/social studies theme. During Shared Reading, students work on book and print awareness, comprehension strategies, and more!
List of Big Books from Harcourt Trophies
Moo Moo Brown Cow
From Anne to Zach
I Read Signs
Mice Squeak, We Speak
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Warthogs in the Kitchen
Off We Go
Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?
Look Closer
Walking Through the Jungle
The Shape of Things
the Big Yellow Bus
Five Yellow Ducks
Splash in the Ocean

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic Awareness is the study of sounds in our language. Studying Phonemic Awareness helps young students with their reading, reading comprehension, and ability to spell (National Reading Panel). We work on phonemic awareness everyday in our classroom. We work on individual sounds that letters make, word families, phoneme blending/segmentation/substitution, and more. We use Harcourt Trophies, guided reading, writing, as well as our morning message for the basis of our phonemic awareness lessons.

Literacy Workshops

I have tried several methods of literacy centers to find what I like. In reality, it is a trial and error. As a teacher, you need to find what works best for your students and for you. Remember that no two classes are alike! I have not had centers the same way. I always tweak it somehow or another! This year, I plan on having literacy workshops for an hour. During this hour students will choose from listening, read to self, writing, and ABC/word work. As students are working, I will pull groups for guided reading and my assistant will pull groups for poetry notebooks.

ABC/Word Work

While students are visiting this workshop, they have access to several resources in our classroom. Students may:
• use name puzzles from Student of the Day, to spell their name, or their friends' names. Students are encouarged to write the names as well as put them together.
• use Language Instant Learning Centers by Lakeshore (I own them all)
• build sight words and names using letter beads on pipe cleaners
• visit the Alphabet pocket chart where students practice alphabet recognition and letter sounds
• use several file folder games from File Folder Games
• use letter tiles to make sight words, names, word family words, and more
Have other ideas? Let me know!

Poetry Notebook

As part of their homework, students complete activites from Fast Start: Getting Ready to Read. Students are assigned a poem a week to work with at home. We use these poems in class as well. We also tie in season poems. When using season poems, we follow this format (from Dr. Jean).
• Monday- Introduce poem. Distribute student copies of poem. Read the poem to them (students should be pointing to the words as you read). Allow students time to illustrate the poem.
• Tuesday- Read poem (students should be pointing along as you read, if the students know the poem, they should read with you). Highlight chosen letters, underline words that begin with chosen sounds, circle rhyming words, and find the word that has the most letters (draw a rectangle around it).
• Wednesday- Read poem (students should be pointing along as you read, if the students know the poem, they should read with you). Count the number of words in each line (write the number at the end of each line). How many words are in the whole poem? Choose a sight word, have the students clap every time you read that word. Have students stand up every time you read a word that starts with a capital letter.
• Thursday- Before Thursday activities, write each line of the poem on sentence stripes, then cut each word out. If you have a lower group, have another copy of the poem ready. Instead of cutting each word out, leave each line as is. Read poem (students should be pointing along as you read, if the students know the poem, they should read with you). Have students put the poem together using the sentence strips and pocket chart. For lower group, have the students reconstruct the poem line by line, instead of word by word.
• Friday- Read poem (students should be pointing along as you read, if the students know the poem, they should read with you). Read the poem again (just you), read it wrong and see if the students notice. What part did I read wrong? What word did I leave out? What is the setting of the poem? Who are the characters (if applicable)? What is the problem? Resolution? What will happen next? Have students dramatize the poem. If time allows, have students make something out of Play-Doh that related to the poem.

Writing

I follow KidWriting's approach to writing. Students write in their journals daily (this is a required workshop activity). During snack/rest time, I call the students to me to read their writing. As per KidWriting's approach, I write what the student says below their writing. I praise the students for their accomplishments and take note of struggles the kids have. I use common struggles as a basis of my Writing lessons.

Guided Reading

During guided reading, students work on skills to make them successful readers. We use Readinga-z.com as well as the basals provided by Harcourt Trophies.