PART D: Essay
The integrated literacy plan for the Hungry Caterpillars includes both teaching sessions as a group and as a class. The themes that students explored in the programme included topics such as fitting in vs. not fitting in, being yourself, being different, and bullying. The texts chosen were not too extreme when exploring these topics, and questions were raised in a safe arena so that students could contribute without feeling threatened. This type of safety was seen through stories such as Giraffes Can 't Dance, where there was a clear separation of animal and different context being the jungle. However it explored bullying and fitting in just like There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom. Another focus on the topic revolved around the positives of being different, which was dominantly seen through the article and Giraffes Can 't Dance. During the study of all of the texts, students had a chance to bring forward their personal experiences and understandings in order to understand the characters’ situations and inner emotions. …show more content…
Grouping the students according to reading levels rather than shared collective needs seemed to be an unrealistic way to run the integrated literacy plan. The texts that I would have introduced to the whole class would have highly ignored these distinctions amongst the students. Furthermore, since the students were grouped according to reading levels, the follow up writing activities would have generated a range of different responses because of the diversity of the students’ abilities. Streaming a follow up activity for one group according to reading level, therefore, seemed unfair to the students even if they did do the guided and shared reading process together. My ideal grouping distinctions came under the following titles:
- Needs motivation/ extra help: 4 students (5 students if reading level red student is included)
- Able readers, maybe need to be challenged or extended: 10
The integrated literacy plan for the Hungry Caterpillars includes both teaching sessions as a group and as a class. The themes that students explored in the programme included topics such as fitting in vs. not fitting in, being yourself, being different, and bullying. The texts chosen were not too extreme when exploring these topics, and questions were raised in a safe arena so that students could contribute without feeling threatened. This type of safety was seen through stories such as Giraffes Can 't Dance, where there was a clear separation of animal and different context being the jungle. However it explored bullying and fitting in just like There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom. Another focus on the topic revolved around the positives of being different, which was dominantly seen through the article and Giraffes Can 't Dance. During the study of all of the texts, students had a chance to bring forward their personal experiences and understandings in order to understand the characters’ situations and inner emotions. …show more content…
Grouping the students according to reading levels rather than shared collective needs seemed to be an unrealistic way to run the integrated literacy plan. The texts that I would have introduced to the whole class would have highly ignored these distinctions amongst the students. Furthermore, since the students were grouped according to reading levels, the follow up writing activities would have generated a range of different responses because of the diversity of the students’ abilities. Streaming a follow up activity for one group according to reading level, therefore, seemed unfair to the students even if they did do the guided and shared reading process together. My ideal grouping distinctions came under the following titles:
- Needs motivation/ extra help: 4 students (5 students if reading level red student is included)
- Able readers, maybe need to be challenged or extended: 10