The book club model is very similar to the literacy instruction that is happening in my classroom context. The book club model according to the book is defined as “independent reading, shared reading, teacher read aloud, and writer’s workshop”. These are all found within my classroom context. Since the second day of school my CT and I have been introducing the concept of independent reading. We explained to the students the criteria for independent reading which is to sit by yourself, read the whole time, do not talk to others, and stay in one spot. These are all important for students to be successful in independent reading. We have increased the amount of time we want our students to read independently, and our goal for the classroom right now is 20. Students have their own bins where we place books for them to read, later in the semester children will be able to pick their own books according to the level they are at. We have not started shared reading in our classroom yet, but students will have the opportunity to share their work with other students in the class. Everyday in our classroom we have children work on writers workshop. My CT has a specific formula that she follows to teach the children how to write. This week we have been working on making detail, stretching out words, and writing about what we know. The way my CT does this is she gathers the children to the rug and tells them the focus for the day. Then she models it on a large sheet of paper. While she is modeling she asks questions and gets the students involved into the lecture. In my classroom we are very focused on making sure the teacher reads aloud to the students. Like it says in the book “students learn fundamental concepts about print, such as directionality and word-picture relationships,” (page 18). While reading my CT and I often asks our students to predict what is going to happen next. This is important because “good readers also realize that reading should make sense as they progress through a text. Predicting helps students make sense as they read, rather than waiting until the story is finished to see if it made sense,” (page 35). We have at least 2 read alouds a day. Usually during the spelling unit we will have a book that correlates with the unit. Last week we read books that had –at words in them because out spelling word family were the –at words. We also try to read a book before lunch, and before dismissal at the end of the day. My CT also has a audio book that plays during snack time. According to the book “In Book Club students are encouraged to interact with text and other students through writing and conversation to explore important themes that emerge from age-appropriate books,” (page 6). Even though these are not the exact ways these are done in the Book Club Plus book we still incorporate most things in out classroom everyday. I think the same message of that from Book Club is still being brought into my classroom.
In my classroom I see reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing everyday in our program. During out spelling unit we don’t just go over the words but we write them on posters. For example for the –at family we had a cat poster and wrote all the –at words on them, with the first letter one color and the –at a different color. Students also have the opportunity to create the words by using a pocket chart. This gives them a chance to create it themselves and then say it to the class. We also have various songs and chants that incorporate listening, speaking, and literacy. I think my CT does a good job of incorporating all of these types of literacy in the general literacy program.
Students in my classroom have a lot of opportunities to write through text. During their writing workshop in the morning they can write about books they know, books the like, or books they have seen. Students have a lot of opportunities to write about, from, and through the text they read in the classroom.
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