Laura

Laura's Classroom Observation The literacy lesson began with a story that was read to the class with the use of a Smartboard. This teaching approach that was used here was Modelled reading. The teacher used this approach, as the text was more complex than they were able to read. According to Hill (pg 72) this experience of modelled reading “will provide rich vocabulary and syntax patterns that children may use later.” Reading out loud encourages the students to enjoy reading, to be “transported to another time” (Hill 90). Hill explains the benefits of reading out loud to students, stating that pronunciation is improved, as is their comprehension skills, and students are able to increase their vocabulary. Their imaginations and emotions are also stimulated by the teacher reading a book out loud.

Following the story, the teacher explained that the class were to break up into their literacy groups and complete the set task she had ready for them. The class has four literacy groups, the Lions, Zebras, Elephants and Giraffes, and each had an assigned task. Being that this was the last day of school before the Easter break, the literacy lesson had an Easter theme to it, and some of the activities that were done, were not what was usually completed. The tasks included Easter Bingo, where one person in the group would read out an Easter word and the others had to match the words on their sheet, aiming to create a line of counters. One group had to complete an Easter crossword, where they were required to read clues and figure out where each word goes on the crossword.

Another group were assigned to the computers where they completed a number of interactive literacy activities. The final group was to undertake quiet reading. This approach is known as independent reading. Hill (pg 83) explains the purpose of this approach, stating it “builds fluency and motivation for reading.” As the students in the class were completing their activities, the classroom teacher was working one on one with an ESL student who struggles with English and finds it difficult to distinguish between words and letters. The student came to Australia from Morocco and speaks broken English. To help with her English, the classroom teacher puts out numerous cards with different objects on them and the student would pick one and would tell the teacher everything and anything she knew about that particular object. The student also read her choice of texts with the teacher. This teaching approach demonstrated is guided reading, as the teacher was helping the student along as she read and came across words she was unsure about. From this, I could see some strategies used to help the student with difficult words.

The teacher encouraged the student to sound out the letters in the word to make it easier to identify the word. She would also cover parts of the word up and get the student to say what sound that letter or letters made, then putting the word together. At the conclusion of all the tasks, the class came together and one person from each group reported on the activity that their group just participated in.

After this reporting session, the classroom teacher read a story to the class that they had been reading, displaying modelled reading once again. The book she read was a picture book, which “offer young children the visual context and additional information that is conveyed in longer novels through complex language.” (Hill 95). Hill explains the aesthetic values that picture book bring, “combining visual and language experiences.” (Hill 95). Once the teacher had read a few pages, she described and modelled the final task, which involved the students creating and writing an Easter card. The teaching approach used here was shared writing. The teacher recorded the student’s ideas on the whiteboard and demonstrated a sample letter, and reinforcing the important points of writing a card/letter, including the beginning- “dear” and signing off- “from”.

The students were able to interact with the teacher and had a say of what was written as the sample letter. Hill (pg88) explains how shared writing “builds confidence within a group, and can be the starting point of guided writing. The students went back and completed the task. Independent writing by the students was demonstrated here. The students each went and made their Easter card and wrote a message to a person of their choice. Independent writing “builds fluency and motivation” (Hill pg 88) and is an important time for students to express their ideas.