Second grade is an amazing year for young students. This is when the English Language Arts learning begins transitioning from learning to read to reading to learn. The PA standards reflect that the student’s learning should focus on reading fluency, comprehension, and phonemic skills in addition to introducing, identifying, and using literary devices. There is a lot that the teachers need to cover in English Language Arts and that is why integration is my favorite thing. Many of the skills that need to be addressed during the year can be paired with other techniques that are desired for the students learning. My classroom is one that uses the regular basal program and trade books to meet the students’ needs. I do not teach directly from a
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To me, the curriculum, basal reading program, or made-up lessons does not matter, it’s the way you implement, describe, and teach the big ideas that is meaningful. The students should be taught in a way that is beneficial to them. A teacher should know after a few weeks of being with the students what works and what doesn’t work. A good teacher will discard the techniques that do not work and find new techniques to implement. The teacher should not stop until learning is happening across all students. This may seem hard, and it is a lot of work but it is what needs to be done, and this is how I teach my English Language Arts program. I assess the students on a daily basis, not formally but mostly observation. I observe what the students are doing, how they are acting, and if the tasks are being …show more content…
My classroom consists of 180 minutes per day of English Language Arts instruction and we could all benefit from more, although that is not realistically allowed. To begin our day we always have a whole group discussion, sometimes began with a short activity but mostly student lead and this lasts no longer than 10 minutes. Then, we get into the good stuff. The next 10-30 minutes is usually my instruction time. I will instruct and give the students all the information they need; we take notes, watch short clips, or read our books. There is then a 20/30 minute activity or closing activity that follows the instruction. This is also the time where I work one-on-one with students that need remediation on the topic. The completed product is usually collected, observed, or checked for understanding. Then there is a break where we complete some math. English Language Arts is then resumed after 60 minutes of math. This is the time where we review sight words, spelling words, and guided reading groups are performed. There are centers that the students rotate through on a daily basis. So, the students are separated into 3 groups (by ability) and they will rotate throughout the centers. The students visit each center for 15 minutes for a total of 60 minutes a day. Mondays and Fridays there are no centers, just Tuesday-Thursday. On Monday we introduce our new sight and spelling words, introduce new topics (if any), independently read, and I
To me, the curriculum, basal reading program, or made-up lessons does not matter, it’s the way you implement, describe, and teach the big ideas that is meaningful. The students should be taught in a way that is beneficial to them. A teacher should know after a few weeks of being with the students what works and what doesn’t work. A good teacher will discard the techniques that do not work and find new techniques to implement. The teacher should not stop until learning is happening across all students. This may seem hard, and it is a lot of work but it is what needs to be done, and this is how I teach my English Language Arts program. I assess the students on a daily basis, not formally but mostly observation. I observe what the students are doing, how they are acting, and if the tasks are being …show more content…
My classroom consists of 180 minutes per day of English Language Arts instruction and we could all benefit from more, although that is not realistically allowed. To begin our day we always have a whole group discussion, sometimes began with a short activity but mostly student lead and this lasts no longer than 10 minutes. Then, we get into the good stuff. The next 10-30 minutes is usually my instruction time. I will instruct and give the students all the information they need; we take notes, watch short clips, or read our books. There is then a 20/30 minute activity or closing activity that follows the instruction. This is also the time where I work one-on-one with students that need remediation on the topic. The completed product is usually collected, observed, or checked for understanding. Then there is a break where we complete some math. English Language Arts is then resumed after 60 minutes of math. This is the time where we review sight words, spelling words, and guided reading groups are performed. There are centers that the students rotate through on a daily basis. So, the students are separated into 3 groups (by ability) and they will rotate throughout the centers. The students visit each center for 15 minutes for a total of 60 minutes a day. Mondays and Fridays there are no centers, just Tuesday-Thursday. On Monday we introduce our new sight and spelling words, introduce new topics (if any), independently read, and I