Hungry Caterpillar

Scaffolding for this student would include activities to develop the technical vocabulary necessary to understand the reading materials, or having the teacher provide reading materials appropriate to the child’s reading level. Additional instruction may be needed in reading skills, to support the student in a reading activity. The zone of proximal development explains the need for student and task to match, making the task of learning attainable (p87). Teaching to one zone of proximal development is likely to leave some students frustrated and confused, while others can coast through the lesson (p88). It is not so important for the teacher to know exactly what the student’s status is, rather to be aware when the students are becoming frustrated, and are in need of more practice, or when the task is just right for the individual (p89).

One of the first things that this author would do is to teach students how to make connections while reading. When students make personal connections with what they are reading by using their prior knowledge, it helps them to retain information. There are three main types of connections we make while reading text; we can make connections to what we are reading and our own experiences in life, we can make connections from one book to another (like reading a Nancy Drew book and reading a Trixie Belden book), and we can make connections to what we are reading and things that are going on in the world around us. By helping Jose learn to make connections while he reads, Jose will be able to more readily remember what he has read and make sense of it (Comprehension Strategies, n.d.).

Starting from the parents, the child must inherit the instinct of wanting to learn to read, developing the curiosity that comes with the increase of knowledge, interaction with others and building positive memories, that motivate the child’s learning to read. An approach that Vygotsky supported promoting scaffolding, a guided process that adults use to teach students how to master a skill, in this case a reading and writing skills. Children begin from the womb recognizing parent’s voices, singing tone for then building connections through prints and letter sounds in an environment that promotes literacy with stories, songs, games, group activities with families, “All about me” share, and “Show and tell”, to display and build a sense of belonging in the class. Nevertheless, incorporating strategies or methods that facilitate learning to read stimulated by own personal learning style. Most young children learn kinesthetically and are visually-sensory prompted to hands on experiences, using appropriate materials in a different setting. Foremost, with an ongoing informal and formal assessment to evaluate students’ pre-knowledge at the beginning of the scholastic year, students’ way of learning, feelings, and connections through the year, and at every lesson, check for understanding, and ways to improve the next step. Ongoing assessment is part of the whole learning process, it will tell you how the students learn, and achieve appropriate reading and writing goals. A good reader promotes a good writer and vice versa, but a firm stepping stone during the developmental stages, in rich literacy environments, attempting to positive interactive experiences, and always monitored, influences the chances of the child sense of wanting to learn to

Introduction to reading comes through phonetic reading boxes. The reading boxes are cleverly organized, going from simple to the complex. Reading does not follow the same process of writing, which is taking our own thoughts and symbolizing. When we read, it is not our language with which we are working with, it is the author’s language. Reading is the analysis of the language followed by a synthesis. Story telling and socio-dramatic play in the environment can help the child develop an imagination that fosters a higher capability to understand what is being read to them.

Students will be read parts of the first few pages, teacher will then pause at words and say just the beginning sound and have students guess what the words mean. (Ex: Over in the Ju____.) Students will then be expected to guess words that may fit the book and begin with the letter Ju (Jungle). This practice will

[ ] In order to build on the children’s understanding and content knowledge, lesson one’s purpose is to engage the children through making a prediction based on the text, pictures, and title. Lesson two builds on the language and literacy by continuing with using the mentor text, “Fancy Nancy” and using the rich academic language associated with the central focus of predictions. For example, each lesson has a distinct objective in which the activities are built on but all three lessons build on each other by incorporating similar academic language and literacy. The children start out in a whole group setting and are actively engaged through discussions and sharing activities. The children are then scaffolded into independent reading and activities to assess their understanding of the content objectives. They then use their prior knowledge and rich vocabulary to successfully complete the objective of each lesson through verbal discussions, independent work, and physical movement. In lesson one, the children are actively engaged through participating in a gallery walk. This gallery walk is done with the children’s table groups and encourages community and social interactions. During this activity, the children will work together to activate their prior knowledge of predictions and record through writing what they

Literacy is a vital part of all later learning. Because of this, the children will engage in hands on activities that relates to what they have read and give them opportunities to make up their own versions, as well as make up their own stories. They will have a large group story time and a partner reading time. An ample variety of books will be available at all times. Signs with words and pictures will be posted around the classroom showing, daily activities, objects that are used daily, and the placement of toys and

To assist students to “read with purpose and anticipation,” Vacca et al. (2014, p. 173) suggests, in their book Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum, that teachers need to “create an instructional context” that activates their students’ “prior knowledge” and helps them to become interested in a lesson. Throughout chapter six, “Activating Prior Knowledge and Interest,” Vacca et al. (2014, pp. 172-173) explain instructional strategies that can lead students to “read with purpose and anticipation.” This chapter presents the reader with a plethora of instructional strategies and means for applying them, along with example for real educators. As I journeyed through this chapter, I discovered many instructional strategies,

Based on the scores of the informal reading passages, I was able to determine what activities would work best for Sebastian. The areas of emphasis were reading, math and writing. When initiating tutoring sections, Sebastian would read his creative writing journal in which he would write stories about pigs. Through these journals, data was collected in order to provide the best area of support for Sebastian. An area of support were suffixes

Just as the needs of students vary teachers methods of instruction should vary. Meeting the literacy needs of students should be done through a wide variety of instructional strategies that meet the needs of students and meet the requirements of a balanced literacy program. The following information shares 12 instructional procedures to be used in a third grade classroom. The procedures are from the Tompkins’ Compendium shared in the text Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach (6th ed.).

After completing all the assessments and the parent interview, reading and writing activities were differentiated and conducted during whole group and small group instruction. Bear (Laureate Education, Inc, 2009c) discusses using the RRWWT Framework for guiding instruction for students. During the Read To activity, the Emperor’s Egg (Jenkins,) is read whole group to the students. This is an information text which uses labeled diagrams and captioned pictures throughout to provide additional information about the topic. During the Read To, students are following along in their basal as I read, and I have students discuss the diagrams of the Emperor Penguin. Drawing attention to the diagrams and teaching the students how illustrations and diagrams within text can aid in their understanding of what is being read seems to help the struggling reader. Using the visuals such as the diagrams helps this

Most of the other students in her 2nd grade classroom are able to read classroom text and complete work independently. They also read books for enjoyment on their own. The reading time in her classroom consists of a block during which the teacher works with small groups and the children are expected to work quite independently when they are not working directly with the teacher. The class uses a trade book format and this is utilized across the curriculum. Students are provided with short skills building lessons in large and small groups. Most of the time spent during explicit reading instruction is targeted to helping students develop reading fluency.

The previously mentioned recommended learning strategies for the very strong read/write learning preference of this student compare near-perfectly with the strategies currently in use. This student however, frequently incorporates visual approaches to writing by using different colored highlighters to categorize and connect different thoughts. Sticky notes, often having various bright colors, adorn books, periodicals, Bibles, and even the course syllabus for this class. Often when communicating in writing with others, words are circled followed by arrows that point to a reply the writer has written. Visual learning strategies are very important to this author’s success

The curriculum for reading with a group of second grade students is, teaching the students how to interact with the text by asking questions and answering those questions. Having the students learn how to ask “who, what, when, where, why, and how” is the first step for new readers to understand what they are reading. The students are learning how to pick out the key ideas and details within the story to help fully understand the concept and meaning behind the writers words. Students need to be able to describe what they are reading and pay attention to the story’s plot. Second grade students now have the ability to understand the reason behind the characters actions within the stories that they read. This short story in particular serves the purpose of learning how to pick out the key ideas and details for new readers.

However, the second method being discussed in this paper, the whole language approach, focuses much of its attention on making sure the student understands and enjoys what he or she is reading. Whole language instruction occurs when a student acquires language rather than learning it through direct instruction (Brooks 35-36). This method is more child centered than teacher dominated, because the objective is for the student to learn how to read through talking and doing rather than through passive listening. Unlike phonics, whole language uses a variety of ways to give students the opportunity to interact with the text they are reading. Questioning, discussing, problem-solving, listening, writing, drawing, and dramatizing are among the ways students interact with text. Students are also encouraged to implement simple strategies while reading such as: reading the sentence and guessing what word will come next, looking at the picture on the page to help figure out the sentence, and also rereading the sentence for clarification. This method also does a good job in allowing the students to engage in text at their own speed and often in their own ways (36).