3 Ways to Read
9/27/2019
One of the main goals of kindergarten literacy, other than the foundational pieces for encoding and decoding, is to help our littlest learners fall in love with literacy, with reading other people's stories and telling their own as well as reading to learn and writing to share knowledge and teach others. The first thing we work on is reading the story rather than simply looking at the pictures. Students need to fundamentally understand that the pictures and words in a book tell a story or teach something. They are not just pictures or words, but pieces of a story or teaching. In my experience, it is integral for students to understand this in order to fall in love with literacy and become avid readers. Knowing that books always tell a story or teach us something also lays the foundation for comprehension. There are three ways to read a book. You can read the words, read the pictures, or retell the story. When students are reading books that they already know by heart, we practice: "look, think, remember, read." When students are reading new books, we practice: "look, think, read." As you can see, the common element is the look and think step. This is so important because it is training students to look at the illustrations and think about what is happening in that moment of the story and how it fits into the rest of the story. In nonfiction books, students look at the pictures and try to notice every detail and learn everything they can. Most students made the switch to actually reading their books, rather than just looking at the pictures, weeks ago. I can always tell when this happens because students start to become more engaged, engrossed in their books, and I will often hear giggles or see reactions as they enjoy their stories. The few who are still working to do so are not-so coincidentally the ones who break stamina first. Even though we will begin reading the words next week, we will continue to work on reading the pictures and retelling the story, as these types of reading help build avid readers.
A Publishing Party
9/21/2019
As part of Writing Workshop, we will routinely "publish" books. Our writers' first experience with this was Friday. Currently, our little one's writing is very much an approximation of writing. My main goal at this point is for them to write for extended periods of time and realize that their books carry meaning, share information, or tell a story. They are working towards planning their books out across the pages, illustrating each part and writing the words, and reading it out as a book. They are also working on writing a specific type of genre, which at the start was nonfiction or teaching books. Some students have adapted to this quickly, while others will continue to work towards this as we begin a new type of writing, personal narratives. I tell students that publishing their books is when they choose their very favorite or very best piece, fix it up to make it even better, and then share it with others. Each time we publish a book, their writing will be closer and closer to the standard expected by the end of the year. But more importantly, with each book written (published or not), our kindergartners will see themselves more and more as writers. Writing real books provides an authentic context for children to write. In our daily writing workshop, they engage in activities that real authors engage in. They collaborate with others, plan their stories across the pages, and ask and answer questions to add details. We study mentor texts to see what real authors do, and we imitate them, learning their craft. And slowly, as we study the work of skilled authors, and as I continue to treat them as true writers, our little ones become authors themselves. As they proudly read their books to each other and then placed them on our shelf with the books we have been reading and studying, they realized that they really are authors, just like Eric Carle, Donald Crews, or Kevin Henkes. They have something important to say, and through writing, they have a means to say it. Now that the books are "published," other students can choose them from the shelf to read. Each student will also be the featured author for a day and read their book to us during our normal read-aloud time. Publishing books helps our budding writers see that the writing they've done this first month of school, and the writing they will continue to do, has meaning and value. I can't wait to hear them share their books and knowledge with us all!
The Power of Play
9/13/2019
One of the main components of gold-standard project-based learning is sustained inquiry. What does that look like in a kindergarten classroom? Sustained inquiry in kindergarten looks like investigating, exploring, experimenting, reading and researching, and especially playing. "Play is often talked about as if it were relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning." |
Saania AliMs. Ali graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelors of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies. She specializes in Early Childhood Education, ESL, and Special Education. Her hobbies include traveling, reading, and painting! Archives
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