Chapter 7- Begining Readers and Writers

I wonder...

• The teacher demonstrated to her students that literacy is a socially constructed event by exposing her students to real life examples of some of the details in the story. Walking her students to the grassy hill where the horses roam allowed at least one of her emerging students not only to make a connection but to actually express himself to his teacher. By allowing her students to read along with her has also allowed the students to socially connect to the story and the rhymes of the book.
• Ms. Simon promotes rhyming and repetitive patterns in the "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly story." She also has her students identify rhyming words by listening carefully and clapping when they hear a rhyme. Ms. Simon writes out the rhyme words that her students identify and hangs them in her hanging word chart. Posting these words allow students to have visual knowledge of what the word looks like. The students are also asked to go around the classroom to find more words that also rhyme with their list of rhyme son the word hanging chart. Allowing students to go out in their environment to look for more rhymes, adds more meaning to the task. Students are also encouraged to make up their own nonsense words that also follow the rhyme being focused on. Ms. Simon uses a variety of methods to help her students find meaning in her instruction. Students practiced their writing in their writing journals. They expressed themselves by drawing pictures and writing short phrases. Some used words from the word wall and drew pictures to support their text.
• When students explore a book that allows them to interact, the students automatically make a connection with it. Students help this book come to life when they help their teacher read it. The old lady who swallowed a fly story offers an ongoing pattern, some repetitive lines, and rhymes. Students are able to pick up on these things. Ms. Simon leads her students to truly explore this book. She teaches them an array of ways to seek meaning from the story. Allowing her students to identify the rhymes and seek out more rhymes around their classroom allows students to make more connections, work together with other students, and to review and create new meaning to words that they're surrounded with. Writing and sharing about the story will help develop their ability to write and draw and this will also demonstrate how words and illustrations can support one another.
• Books with predictable patterns support beginning readers by allowing them to predict what is coming and it allows them to interact/read along the with the teacher. Their being able to help their teacher read the book promotes the joy of reading. It is an encouraging way for students to become familiar with the reading process. These patterns and rhymes can also help readers figure out the context of the story. This can also help students figure out the meanings of words.
• When I was in the second grade, I remember reading a book named, Stone Soup. We read it in our reading group with our teacher. I recall reading through it and stopping at the word, chuckle. I wasn't familiar with that word. The teacher asked me if I know the word in a really silly way, I chuckled nervously and she told me, there! you just did it. You just chuckled. A couple of days later after exploring the book in detail we made our very own stone soup. We cooked it as a group and we all added stones in it and then we ate it. It's amazing how by incorporating a fun cooking activity and my teachers humorous way of asking me if I knew what the word chuckled meant lead to my vivid memory of an even that happened twenty years ago.

Further Reflection

• Code breaking strategies have dominated reading instruction because it teaches the very basic foundation blocks in reading. Making emerging readers become very comfortable and knowledgeable of the alphabetic letters along with the sounds that they produce is an excellent tool that students can use during instruction or even on their own exploring. Students also become aware of the different sound relationships between different letters.
• Ms. Simon used Language play and rhymes when she read, There was an old lady who swallowed a fly, I don't know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps, she'll die." Students were able to pick up the pattern and rhymes and joined her in telling the story. Students were also allowed to make up words that rhymed with /Fly/ and /Die/. Ms. Simon also used the word family method. She wrote out and hanged, the rhyming words from the story and hanged them in her hanging word chart.
• It is important to have a variety of reading text materials in the classroom to provide a diverse and multi level library for your classroom. Every classroom is made up of students with different interests and from different cultural backgrounds. It is important that you provide your students with a colorful array of literature that allows them to connect with previous knowledge and new literature to make new connections with. Such an environment can promote and encourage our students to become great readers.
• In my observations I've noticed a lot of code breaking. Students review their entire alphabet and they also go through all their phonemic sounds. There is also a lot of language play and rhymes. Students are really good at picking out rhymes in stories. When students are introduced to new words it is done so by phonemic blending. They also practice phonemic segmentation when they are trying to write out a word. I've also observed word families written out with the help of students phonemic segmentation.