Observations in Reading

     I did three observations in my host school and the classrooms I observed were the 5K class, 1^st grade class and the 3^rd grade classroom for their reading time.   After school I chatted with the three teachers to help gain more insight for my focus questions.  Here is what I observed.

5K ~ The teacher had 5 centers for the children to work in.  The first center was the Writing Center where the children had a penguin word wall with the following words: penguin, bird, beak, egg, feathers, black, white and shrimp.  The children had to write the word, draw a picture of the word (each word had a picture they could copy) and finally write a sentence about penguins and draw a picture to go with the sentence.   The next literacy center contained books and puppets.  The children could do two things: read the books to the puppets or have the puppets tell the story based on pictures.  The final literacy center was working with the teacher on high frequency words in a pre-decodable book they could read.

     When the children were working with the teacher, the child had to give a prediction about the book and then for the word they knew “go” and “the.”  The book had sentences such as “The dog goes.”  The student read the book and when they finished she asked the child to tell her three things that “go.”   As she called the children over the pre-decodable books were based on their abilities.  She also checked on the writing center and talked to the children about the sentence they were writing.  I did notice she kept an eye on the book and puppet center.

1^st Grade ~ The teacher did direct instruction on a phonics lesson.  The children were working on the short vowel sound for /e/ and /i/.  The children had to think of words that began with the short vowel sound and the teacher listed the words on the white board.  Then she gave each child a word and they had to tell her which vowel sound was in the middle.  Finally, she passed out a worksheet for the children to work on.  When they finished she had word work for them with their spelling words.  They could stamp their words, glue stick magazine letters to form the words or use markers (blue for consonants and red for the vowels).  She too called the children over one by one but worked on their DIBBLES assessment.

3^rd grade ~ The children took turns reading aloud the story of the week from their reading book.  I noticed that when a child was stuck on a word the teacher just told them the word and they kept going.  When they finished she asked them about the setting of the story and the point of view.  Afterwards the children worked on their book reports while she conference with them in a small groups of two or three children.  The first group talked about the vocabulary words and the children had to find where the word was in the story, read the sentence and give their own meaning of the word.  The children seemed eager to do this task.

THE INTERVIEWS

     I asked the teachers what area of literacy they see the children struggle in.  In 5K the children struggle with phonics and comprehension, in 1^st grade the area of struggle is fluency and comprehension and in 3^rd grade the area of struggle is comprehension and the ability to put their thoughts into words for a story.  So I naturally ask them how they help the children with comprehension and they were all in agreement that this is a skill they work on all day with open-ended questions that will require them to recall what they have read or heard.  She will also have them look in their books for the answers.  The 1^st grade teacher likes to use the buzz phrase “Now think back to…” and will insert when we read or when we were talking about etc.  She thinks it helps to jog their memory.  

    I did notice a theme running through the conversation that comprehension is an issue.  I did ask if their phonics issues were developmental and the answer mostly was “yes.”   This leads me to focus on comprehension as an area. So I wonder if the children are so focused on their fluency and decoding skills if they are missing the meaning of what they are reading and what does it take to increase comprehension.  So I asked them to think about the children they have with comprehension issues and do they have problems paying attention and do they struggle with fluency.  After thought the 1^st grade teacher answered “yes.”

     So what are the ways to build a 3^rd graders attention span?  Why building fluency leads to better comprehension? And finally, why parents can play a role in helping build attention spans and comprehensions skills at home.

INTERVIEWING PROFESSIONALS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

      The first person I interviewed was a child care teacher.  Her program has a 3PreK half day program that has a total of 28 children throughout the week.  I wanted to know if they had a program for literacy and reading development.  She told me the she creates her own program based on the needs of the children.  Their goal is to have the children familiar with the alphabet and to understand that each letter has a sound.  They also work on an environmental print project where the children bring in their favorite labels from food or from places they know like McDonalds.  The children also work on recognizing their name and the names of their friends.  They also work on writing their name by signing in each morning.  Finally, they have two story times a day.  One story is for pleasure and one story is a big book where they children can see how to track print.   

     I did ask if what she felt were topics related to literacy and she told me that it encompasses story time, phonemic awareness and pre-writing skills.  She also told me that when she meets with other PreK teachers, one of the things that concern them the most is the lack of fine motor skills children seem to have today which leads to a poor grip of writing instruments and a lack of interest in writing/drawing.

      The second person I interviewed is the teacher hosting my internship, who teaches 3^rd grade in a Lutheran school.  The first thing that comes to her mind when you ask her about literacy is phonics and phonemic awareness even in 3^rd grade.  One of the biggest issues she feels is the balance between phonics and whole language because phonics is the basic building block in reading as they grow.  The second issue that she thinks about is reading comprehension.  One of the biggest issues she faces with parents is the fact they are more concerned about their child being a fluent reader that they forget that comprehension is vital!

     So what  are the advocacy efforts?  The PreK teacher told me there were conferences that offer suggestions for those that struggle.  She is unsure if the school district offers help for 3 PreK students unless it is a speech related problem and at best it is rough to get them help.   The 3^rd grade teacher knows that libraries offer different programs to try and aide families and children in the area of literacy.  She does attend sectionals at conferences on the latest trends in reading when they are available.  She does enroll children in reading incentives such as Pizza Hut Book-It, Great America’s Read to Succeed to encourage daily reading.  She feels it is important to keep the read goals reasonable and attainable and one way to do this is to conference with the children about their reading goals and have them help set the monthly goal. She feels this way the child will be more willing to read.

     One of the insights that I gained is the role of the parents.  Some parents are willing to help their child and follow the suggestions of the parents but there are some that are not.  There are parents that care more about the quantity read verses what they are reading.   I know that comprehension is vital in reading after all if a person is reading something for information it is important they KNOW what they are reading.  But the most interesting thing I found is the fact the 3^rd grade teacher did not mention writing.  I plan on talking to her about this because I want to know if there is correlation between good readers and good writers. 

     I can also see how the 3 PreK’s environmental print project can empower children to become interested in reading which can lead them to become readers by 3^rd grade.  I can also see the value of empowering children which can lead to confidence in their abilities to learn!  

     So now I am thinking about writing my paper on one of the following topics:  advocating for the strong connections between reading and writing or the value of literacy in the preschool sector or advocating for parents to help their children with comprehension.

     Here are my questions:

1.    Are the topics I am thinking about of value?

2.     Are these topics viable to write about? Can I find enough material?

Here We Go!

This is the beginning of my Internship!  I am excited and nervous all at the same time!