After reading through the first five chapters of this book, I was shocked to see how much of it I could relate back to my internship classroom. Literacy is interwoven throughout our entire day rather it be during our writing block, our morning work, or throughout our science lessons. We use guided reading, writer's workshop, teacher read-aloud, book clubs, independent reading, and literacy centers (in our way). This was shocking to me that in my daily routine all of these aspects we already include. One thing that I think is a little bit different is that our book clubs do not have students of varying reading levels. Our guided reading occurs within our book clubs. Also, because we have three teachers, we have more than three groups for ours. Having three teachers allows for us to divide the students up into more groups and still be able to meet and check in with each group throughout the week. These are two differences that I have noticed thus far.
The students are constantly reading and writing throughout the day. Reading is incorporated throughout every subject. There is a teacher read aloud everyday for 10 minutes after lunch. There is a 50 minute block devoted to writing specifically which is our writer's workshop where each student uses their writer's notebook. The curriculum is a mixture of Lucy Calkins and Writer's Workshop. The last 50 minutes of the day is devoted to Making Meaning and book clubs. Making Meaning lessons usually take about 15-20 minutes and then the rest of the time the students are reading/writing in their book clubs. There are plenty of opportunities for the students to practice speaking, rather it be answering questions throughout the day, sharing answers with a partner, talking with a group, etc. Listening opportunities are also nonstop throughout the day. The students have to listen to directions, to questions, to their peers, etc. Viewing is also something that the students are constantly encountering. Most of our lessons are done using the Smart board and the elmo which the students view. There are bulletin boards, posters, student work, etc. all over the classroom and the school which are more examples of viewing.
One example of writing into/through/and out of a unit that I have seen so far is actually through the science curriculum. The students first wrote about all the things they thought they knew about the earth, sun, and moon. As the they work through each lesson and the unit progresses, they write in their science journals correcting misconceptions and writing concepts that they learned. The unit hasn't ended yet but we have already started planning a final writing activity for the students to complete at the end of the unit where they will reflect on what they have learned about the earth, moon, and sun. I think that writing into/through/and out of a unit is a great way to incorporate writing into subjects that are not usually as writing intensive.
I like that your class is doing writing into, through, and out of their science unit. I haven't seen very much writing related to science and social studies in my class. Most of their lessons in those subjects involve reading from the textbooks and talking about what they've read. I have seen writing assignments used once for each subject so far. However, it is still the beginning of the school year. There may be more to come later on. I think it's very easy for teachers in the elementary grades to focus on writing as only a language arts activity. I think it's very important that students have the opportunity to write in their science and social studies classes. Writing activities in these subject areas allow them to practice interpreting informational text and making connections to their own lives. It also helps students to understand at an early age that writing is a universal skill across subjects used to communicate their knowledge. This process of reflecting on their learning before, during, and after a unit is just as important in other subject areas as it is in language arts. It's good that you are seeing that used in your class.
ReplyDelete