Literacy in multiple forms

What I am seeing in my classroom is very similar to the book club model. The literacy seen in my classroom includes shared reading, independent reading, teacher read aloud, and writer’s workshop. The children in my class have 2 different notebooks. One is their “word study” notebook and the other is their “writing journal”. The school that I am at started doing a new literacy curriculum called the Daily 5. This program teaches children how to read independently, write independently, do partner work, doing word work and/or listening to reading. ”All teachers know how crucial comprehension is to successful reading. While reading or listening to texts, readers of all ages and abilities use a wide variety of comprehension techniques” (pg 28). Each day we teach them something new about the program. Right now we are working on independent reading and writing and we are about to introduce working with peers. Each day we practice independent reading and writing. The first day these were introduced to the students we laid out rules and criteria for how they are expected to act and what independent reading/ writing should look like. They were all given their own book boxes with a number of books in it that may or may not have been at their reading level. After about a week and a half we taught the students how to choose “good fit books”. This means the students could trade books from their book boxes that they may have already finished reading or that may have been too hard for them. The books that they choose should be within their interests and close to their reading level. We do the daily 5 every day. Along with this we do shared reading. During this time the teacher has a big book in front of the class and she reads it once through and then goes back and has them read it with her. We use the same book throughout the week. Every time we read it we introduce something new, such as rhyming words, punctuation, or capital versus lower case letters. After snack/recess we have writing/word study time. During word study is when we introduce new words to the word wall. We introduce the words to the students on Monday in an informal manner. Over the course of the next few days we do spelling games and repeat them numerous times. On Friday we have the students write the words twice in their word study notebook. On the following Monday we review the words one more time and add them to the word wall. A new set of words is then given to the students for that week. For writing we follow the Lucy Caulkins curriculum. They are placed into specific writing groups according to their abilities. This allows for us to be able to help multiple students with the same issue. It is also helpful because when we are helping one student the other students at the table will benefit from being able to hear us. Right now we are having them write small moments. The lower students are working on labeling right now. Some of them aren’t familiar with all of the letters and sounds that they make so we are just working on trying to help them hear beginning and/or ending sounds. The students at the higher tables and also in between are working on stretching their words and using spaces. Before they begin a new piece of writing they are taught to try to: 1. Add to their picture, or 2. Add to their words. During the read aloud part of the day (which I have been conducting) I read them a book and make meaning out of it. For example we read a book that was called “How to Lose All Your Friends”. After I read the book to them two times we made a class book called “How to Make Friends”. The student compiled a list of things that they do in order to make new friends. They then were paired with another student and they drew a picture together about one of the ways to make a friend. We also do interactive writing in the afternoon. My CT asks the students if someone has a piece of news they would like to share. She then calls on students to write one word each and they come and write it on the easel in front of the class. The other students can help if they need it or they can choose to write their word on their own. All of these activities are very important in creating growth in literacy.

When we launch the Daily 5 and are fully using it, the students will be able to write about different books that they have read. Right now they are instructed to write on a topic of their choosing. We are stressing writing words because a lot of them are only drawing pictures but as their writing skills improve they will be expected to write more words than drawing pictures.