Literacy in the Classroom

I did not realize how much literacy is present daily in my classroom until I read the readings for the week. On a daily basis we have Readers Workshop, Writers Workshop, a read aloud, and during block recess the first half hour rotates weekly between math games and literacy games. Each day I am still learning a lot about how each of these components works to fit the needs of students in my classroom, it has been extremely difficult with the DRA testing and MEAP preparations.

My teacher uses the “making meaning” curriculum but does not really follow all the scripted parts. As I slowly begin to take over the read aloud lessons, I will follow this closely because I do not have nearly as much experience as he does. This has required me to take home the curriculum and read about it, in order to familiarize myself with it. Until this year I had never heard of it and it seems that most of the school districts in the area, at least those in our section, use this. My CT has been teaching 4th /5th grade in the District for about 17 years and does really well making sure students are following and making connections to the story without following the scripted parts word for word.

Throughout the school year teachers are constantly giving instruction and assessing students formally and informally. I have not been in a classroom yet where I have seen MEAP testing and/ or the steps taken for preparation. I feel the amount of pressure put on teachers to try and get students prepared and I'm not even really responsible, just from sitting in on meetings with the principal and team meetings with the other 4th grade teachers. I did get to sit and practice issuing DRA tests with my CT while he was filling one out as well and I was shocked to see how low some students were reading. When looking at their scores at the end of 3rd grade some dropped a few levels and it shows how important it is for students to read throughout the summer. The DRA’s are issued during Reader’s Workshop, and actually were finally completed this morning. While this is taking place, the students are given time to read independently when not with a teacher.

During Writers Workshop, students sit for about a 15 minute mini-lesson that is co-taught with my CT and another 4th grade teacher. Then they revisit previous work or move on to start something new depending what the topic is. Writer’s workshop right now is focused on the MEAP, and things that may appear like “a comparative piece” or “small moments”. Students have plenty of time to create and write down ideas and then are given time to talk and share what they wrote with a partner. Some are even shared with the class and displayed on the “elmo” sometimes showing examples of what their work should look like written down on paper, teaching the students to be neat and legible.