Elena

Elena's Classroom Observation The learning experiences I observed were independent reading, independent writing, and guided reading.

A whole class reading approach that I observed was independent reading. This was demonstrated in the classroom through silent reading, or partner reading. In this activity, students read their own book, either silently, to themselves, or to a partner (either a parent helper, or a friend sitting on their table). This activity was done by the whole class, and accommodated to all levels of readers in the class, as each child had their own book to read (which was chosen from a box appropriate to their reading level). This approach was the only whole class activity that I observed, as for the rest of the time of my observation the class was split into their literacy groups.

This activity demonstrated the teaching approach of Independent reading (Hill 2011, p. 72), as the students had an opportunity to select their own books to read independently, without help from the teacher. In this activity, the children were ‘challenged to read on their own for a sustained period of time’ (Hill 2011, p.83) to gain experience and confidence in reading.

Although they were not observed as whole class activities, I also observed independent writing, and guided reading. Independent writing was observed as students used their spelling words (written on the smart board) to put into sentences. Students were encouraged to independently write creative sentences using their spelling words. This activity gave the students experience in independent writing, with the aim of eventually being able to write paragraphs.

Guided reading was observed through one of the literacy groups whose activity was to read with the teacher. In this group, called T time, each student had their own copy of a class set of books that had been ‘selected by the teacher to be at the children’s learning level’ (Hill 2011, p.80), and the students in this group each took it in turns to read a page each aloud to the rest of the group. Whilst doing this, the teacher was using prompts such as “well done”, “good job”, “do you think that makes sense, would you like to try again?” “Check the illustration” to encourage the children. After reading a part of the text together, the teacher went on to ask a literal question about the text, “can you find contractions in the book?” which the children found together, and then were encouraged to use these contractions in sentences of their own.