Mini Lesson- 10 minute or less focusing on one specific teaching point. Teacher begins with a connection, follows with explicit teaching point and modeling, then active involvement of students and the mini-lesson concludes with a link.
"Above all, in a writing conference, the writer's energy for writing needs to go up, not down." Donald Murray
Encouraging writers is so important. Some ways to encourage the writers are: -no "but"s between the compliment and the teaching point -pay attention to what you're saying between the compliment and the teaching point -make sure the compliment is not the same compliment they've been receiving the whole time -approach with the attitude "i think you're ready for something else" Remember: you can sell something if you say it the right way!! Word Walls are essential in a classroom. It is a place in classroom where high frequency words are listed alphabetically. The emphasis is on spelling. They should not be static but be updated weekly or monthly. Word Walls should be used regularly to refer to and not just on the wall for decoration.
Collaborative learning activity based on research by Don Holdaway that emulates and builds from the child’s experience with bedtime stories. Involves teacher and students sitting closely together to read and rereading in unison carefully selected enlarged texts. Teaches children systematically and explicitly how to be readers and writers themselves.
Interactive Read Aloud- Reading a book to the class with a specific purpose in mind. Teacher models his or her thinking and has students turn and talk at different parts of the book to discuss their thoughts on the book and the lesson's purpose. Teacher elaborates on vocabulary through definition, repetition and even action if possible (depending on book and content). Read Aloud ends with an accountable talk discussion among students.
As Santoro, Chard, Howard, & Baker (2008) put it, reading aloud and facilitating text-based discussions about words provide context and opportunities for children to learn new words before they have the reading skills necessary to acquire vocabulary independently. Using Read Aloud books is great way to teach a few new vocabulary words. It allows you to introduce a few words before reading the book and then read the book so that the students can see how the word is used in the story. We need to be strategic when it comes to figuring out new words. We can try to help them utilize strategies to figure out words on their own.
Part 1: Wide Reading- high quality, rich language Part 2: Teaching Individual Words- systematic strategy for teaching specific words (Frayer, Six-step, etc) Part 3: Teaching Word-Learning Strategies- explicit teaching how to figure out unknown words Part 4: Fostering Word Consciousness- awareness and interest in words *If I am interested in learning new words, students will be motivated to learn new words, too. A great Read Aloud to help students get motivated in studying vocabulary is Donavan's Word Jar:
Guided Reading: small group reading exercise aimed to support students with new texts at their current reading level.
*Teacher uses observation throughout guided reading to construct teaching point Ten Text Characteristics for Guided Reading
http://www.readinga-z.com/learninga-z-levels/stages-of-development/
Emergent Literacy Period- time period between birth and when students begin school http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/182_VocabularyTiers.pdf
Tier One: basic, everyday words, most frequently used, sight words Tier Two: less common, more abstract, shape broad role in developing mature vocab Tier Three: least common, related to specific content area can be high interest |
AuthorA learning teacher and student living in New York City. Love exploring new ways to teach literacy and finding new books that inspire me and you. Archives
May 2015
Categories |