Although I teach Pre-K, and my students are only at the very beginning stages of reading, I was happy to find that I am implementing several strategies in the Literacy Program already. In my classroom one of the things I try to do at least two to three times a day is read-aloud with my students. I was taught the importance of this in my undergrad classes and have now seen its benefits work firsthand. My students love having stories read to them and it gives them a glimpse into what reading is supposed to be like. Also, I like to take the time to make sure that they are understanding what I am reading and we discuss it. I enjoy reading aloud to my students a variety of texts. Another strategy I often use in my classroom is shared reading. Once my kids have been in my class for more than half the year, we begin to learn sight words. When I am confident of their grasp on them as a class, we begin reading simple stories together. Some use decodable words and some do not. I always instruct students though to say a word in the story out loud if they know it, and they will hear the rest from me. Shared reading is also great for my young students because it gives them a feel for how to read the lines in a book, look at the pictures to help you and so on. My students also love taking part in the sustained reading part of the literacy program. Again, although they cannot read themselves, they look forward to the time when I let them select a book from our library and they "read" it to themselves. They get excitement in finding letters and words they recognize and often make up their own story using the pictures. My class this year did especially well with this activity.
While my students are a little too young for several of the literacy program strategies, I feel confident that I am putting them on the path to being good readers in the future. In the next year, I might strive to include some ideas from the program such as shared writing and reading conferences. Although they would not look like a typical elementary school class, my students will at least get a taste for what they will hopefully be introduced to when they are older.
Mary,
ReplyDeleteAs a Kindergarten teacher, I was able to relate to many comments in your post. Through teaching reading and literacy concepts to beginning readers, I also agree it is very important to conduct read-alouds. By allowing children to hear stories read aloud to them, the teacher is modeling fluent reading and allowing students to think about ideas and answer questions by responding to the text. I also agree that through the use of read-alouds, students can use their picture clues to comprehend a story. These are wonderful strategies which will enhance their literacy skills needed in the upper grades. Great post!