always enjoyed reading like my mom; however, I would prefer to be outside with a ball in my hand like my dad. Regardless of how hard I resisted, my mom would insist that I come inside to practice flashcards, sound out the whole alphabet, or work on phonics. My mom, being the teacher that she is, would bring loads of “teacher stuff” home for me to work on; that is if she could get me to sit still long enough. When I began school mom started to worry because I was struggling more than the average…
What is phonemic awareness? According to Begin to Read Authors, it is “the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds-phonemes—in spoken words.” Phonemic awareness is often mistaken for phonics; the way readers connect the sound of words to the letters of the words. Phonemic awareness is extremely important for students to learn at a young age because it helps them learn how to spell. It is also important for beginner readers since it helps improve their comprehension and…
That school is the birth place of my interest in teaching. With new found time on my hands, I volunteered at the school on a daily basis. I did it all, from clearing trays in the cafeteria during lunch duty, assisting students with decoding and phonics to putting books back on the shelf in the library. I found the atmosphere in the school comforting, the teachers committed to their craft and the parents welcomed by administrators and the like to assist in any way possible. I went home every…
Children begin to learn ahead of schedule in life and however it may not be understood that notwithstanding amid the initial couple of months of life the child starts trying different things with dialect. The states of mind towards proficiency create amid this period and terrifically imperative ideas of education grow amid these years through the consideration of the grown-ups and different types of print that they opportunity to meet. This critical type of proficiency is made out of a few key…
During this block, children engage in various writing activities, children are learning writing skills, building fluency in writing, apply the writing process effectively, refine and apply knowledge of phonics and build students’ confidence as writers. The writing block should always begin with a mini-lesson taught by the teacher, this will allow the teacher to model to the students writing skills, so that they begin developing their individual writing…
Howard Gardner argues that humans have a bunch of different intellectual competencies which he calls intelligences. His definition of an intelligence is an ability or set of abilities the permits an individual to solve problems that are of consequence in a particular cultural setting. Therefore each intelligence allows us to adapt to our societies and surroundings. He believes that each intelligence develops on its own and may operate its own area of the brain. His seven intelligences are…
Word walls in the classroom are important because they provide daily visuals of how words are spelled, lists words that are often used in the text for students to reference during class activities, and also helps to build students’ phonics and spelling skills. Students’ literacy skills can be improved, when a word wall is used in their classroom. Word wall activities help to promote student participation during class. One reason why different colors are used in the creation of word walls is…
Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative political activist and a devout Catholic, who was involved in mobilizing women against the Equal Rights Amendment, passed away at the age of 92 at her home in St. Louis, Missouri. She was a vocal anti-feminist, who famously told Newsweek in 1979 that feminism "has caused a lot of women to have low self-esteem, to convince themselves [that they] are repressed." Her political activism helped steer the Republican Party to broadly adopt many of the conservative…
and developing inquiry and play based learning. My desire to improve my practice has increased over the years and I am committed to lifelong learning. The Deslea Konza Literacy Program enhanced my literacy head set particularly around the area of phonics. Developing inquiry and play based learning allowed me to research and…
The focus of chapter 12 is assessment and evaluation. Through out this book it discusses inquiry circles and how to implement them into the classroom. One question some teachers may have is how to assess the inquiry circles and what determines the grade or score the students receive. In this chapter, I did not come across any particular statistics, but did find an idea mentioned by Jim Vopat to interesting. Vopat had the idea of the “good faith effort” as the assessment. Vopat believes that…