Fostering great literacy in the classroom

I have been very fortunate this quarter to get the opportunity to observe and work in an amazing English classroom.  Unlike any other classroom I have experienced, the walls are lined with student art work and popular bumper stickers such as Kill Your Television, and a particularly large banner stating Skateboarding is Not a Crime.  The classroom embraces all who enter it and turns no one away.  Here I have been able to experience some phenomenal teaching as well as learning.  These students become facilitators of their own learning, with the teacher simply guiding them.

I have obtained many helpful tips when it comes to teaching literacy at the higher grade levels, here are some of the more helpful:

1. It is incredibly important for students to learn how to interpret and understand meaning within their text.  A method for teaching students how to successfully interpret their text is by encouraging them to make notations in their books (or on sticky notes) while they are reading; students read and mark for evidence, meaning their notations should back up their understandings.

2.  Creating a Writing Comments to Remember paper.  This paper consists of three categories, punctuation, spelling, and writing techniques.  Here students are required to record notes made by the teacher regarding their writing in hopes that the same mistakes won’t be made twice. For example, if the student has made an error through the use of comas, the student would record that error under writing techniques.  Here the student would reference this paper every time a new writing piece was due, to ensure that their errors were not repeated.  I love this idea; students are held accountable for their own work and learn to edit their own writing. 

3.  Another idea that I love is the idea of “Hawk Eyes.”  This is what I would call small writing groups or peer editing.  Here are the expectations:

Purpose:

Have fun sharing

Proofread

Constructive feedback

Process:

Positive comments

            Velcro words

            Specific plot and description

Questions or suggestions

Share comments orally

            Positive first

            Then questions (clarification)

Afterwards:

Staple peer comments to paper

            Put in notebook

Exit ticket:

Tell teacher one thing that worked

Tell teacher one thing that needs to be changed or worked on

These are just a few of the many amazing ideas that I have had the opportunity to experience.   

Tech Posting

I love this

What about Phonics

          According to Barbra Fox, author of the 4^th edition, Word Identification Strategies: Building Phonics into a Classroom Reading Program, people whom read and learn to read must know phonics in order to understand that letters represent individual sounds.  Fox believes that words are a combination of patterns and interpretations in addition to the idea that letters and sounds form a relationship, along with onsets and rimes.  In chapter four, Fox discusses the importance of children learning how to identify onsets and rimes in words which can help children to “sidestep the need to learn exceptions to the conventional way letters represent sounds in the English words” (Fox, pp. 94).  In other words when children learn how to say a family of onsets and rimes they can apply that knowledge to other words that they do not know to help give them clues about how to read the new word. 

          I mentioned in an earlier post, that I did not grow up learning phonics, but as an emergent teacher and mother of a developing reader, phonics helps support readers of all levels.  As a beginner to the many aspects of teaching, I am finding a lot of comfort in books like Fox’s.  I look forward to the many experiences that I will encounter as a new teacher and all the things that I expect my students will teach me, yet getting the opportunity to read books that explain in detail how to best serve a specific child’s need is incredibly helpful.