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Teaching Literacy
The purpose of this page (and its sub-pages) is to show what I have learned throughout EDTS 371: Language Development and Literacy in Schools. It has been an inspirational and eye opening course that focuses on the importance of literacy, the research behind this importance and how to teach literacy to all children at differing age and skill levels. I have included summaries and expanded versions of my knowledge.
Practicum Placement - Year 2
This practicum focused on how to successfully teach literacy! I had the opportunity to work in a grade one classroom at Vincent Massey, with Karleigh Harvey-Zenk. I had so much fun with the kids, and it was overall a wonderful and educational experience.
The most rewarding aspect of teaching literacy, is seeing the students make progress in their reading abilities and writing abilities, using information that you have taught them. I was teaching a lesson about bumper e's (the e bumps a vowel to make it say its name) and I used a nonsense word example. When I asked the pronunciation of lem vs leme, most of the students excitedly shouted out the correct saying. I felt quite confident and prideful in my teaching abilities, as the students understood the concept in a decontextualized manner and applied it to a word they wouldn't have known. Mrs. Harvey-Zenk commented that she "liked the nonsense word," as it added a more engaging element to the lesson.
The most challenging aspect of teaching literacy is the large gap between your highest level reader and your lowest level reader. It can be very difficult to keep lessons engaging for all students, especially when some students are beginning to read novels, while others are still learning the alphabet. Luckly, in my class there were wonderful EA's who were amazing at keeping lower level readers on task and making progress. Also, the students' literacy center groups were organized according to reading level, so specific goals could be achieved in a short timeframe as they would all be working on similar goals.
My main role in the classroom was to work with struggling students and lead a literacy center.
I was able to teach three lessons, that all went seemingly well.
Here is a photo of a literacy center we did that was thematically centered around St.Patrick's Day. The students were given a choice of prompts, where they had to finish the sentence and draw a picture of their sentence.
This is me teaching a lesson on beginning sounds of words. We focused on the phonemes, t, th, h, and wh. I made a smart notebook presentation where the students had to drag the correct beginning to the word. I also included a visual clue for each word. Harvey - Zenk remarked that "the students were engaged and enjoyed the activity."
Here is the pdf version of my smart notebook lesson.
The last lesson I taught was my bumper e lesson. It was tons of fun and very engaging for students as they were able to use letter vests and and bop each other on the head using a pool noodle. I have left my lesson plan and the worksheet I used if you'd like to take a closer look!
Lesson Plan
Worksheet
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