Paola Dalmonech
ELE 203.1456 – Language and Literacy in Childhood Education
Dr.Sterling-Deer
Linking Knowledge to Practice Paper #3
October 5, 2009
Last semester, I completed my eighty hours of internship in a class composed by
twenty students, who at that time were second graders. Since the class was not so
numerous, the teacher was able to follow out every student’s work and establish a set of
procedures and activities that turned out to be effective and successful. What mainly
contributed to the order and organization of the classroom was the fact that the scholastic
year had already started; therefore, the teacher had enough time to form her class
efficaciously. In fact, when I began my field experience students knew already their
teacher, and most importantly, they were familiar with the rules of the class. If the teacher
from the very beginning of the year spends some time training her students on the
concepts of behavior and discipline, by the end of the first term, they will automatically
follow the directions without causing any sort of problem.
The same method should be valid for literacy because reading and writing are the
basic principles for learning. I strongly believe that if you learn how to read and write
adequately at an early age, you are then able to learn anything you please because the
process of learning maintains unchanged. I liked the way my mentor teacher once
approached the reading aloud activity. First of all, she said to her students to meet her at
the rug by taking the attitude of good readers, who need to have a good posture in order
to focus and better concentrate on the reading. On the bulletin board, right next to the
teacher’s rocky chair, there was a chart hang, which reminded students how good readers
act. The teacher waited to see if the class was ready, and then started reading a book
characterized by color pictures and a big font of writing. While reading aloud, she also
showed the pages pointing to the text. In this way, students were practicing their reading
skills as well. She read in a very clear way, using emphasis for example, so then the
students would get more engaged to the reading. Almost at every page the teacher would
pause and ask students to envision the continuation of the story. Here is when the teacher
used a new vocabulary unknown to the students. She wrote it on the bulletin board and
she made students pronounce it aloud. Then, she asked for the meaning of it by thinking
critically; she tried to pull out all the possible ideas resided in the students’ minds. At this
particular point, students were able to give an explanation of the new word. They were
capable of making connections and associating the word to the real world. It was
fascinating to observe how students became confident to the new word. In addition, what
I found interesting was the strategy of jotting down that the teacher taught to her students.
In other words, to remember what the book, the chapter, or the page was about, the
teacher would literally interrupt the reading and jot down notes on the paper by writing a
few sentences that narrated that particular moment of the story. As soon as students
practiced this activity, teacher discovered the meaningfulness of it.
The act of writing also represents a key element of literacy. Through drawings,
letters, or words children make the process of writing their own; they gain insights into
the felling and form of writing and the many ways they can convey a thought or an
emotion.
In the elementary class where I was last semester, there was not a Writing Center
set up; therefore, I did not have the chance to see what types of activities children usually
do. However, I would like to share something in particular that’s related to writing, that is
a field trip. The class and I walked to the Hudson River with the intention of writing
poetry. A couple of days before the trip, the teacher had explained poetry in class during
a lesson plan; she read famous poems and analyzed the content of them together with the
students. Every child was carrying a poetry notebook and a very well sharpened pencil.
As soon as we arrived to the river, the teacher reminded her pupils to write everything
that came up to their minds, such as feelings, emotions, sensations, thoughts; any kind of
scribbles would help them express themselves in that specific moment. I really liked the
idea of bringing the students to the river, as it offered them the possibility to explore the
writing under a different perspective. The teacher’s goal was to see if students were more
inspired in writing poetry in front of a natural landscape rather than in the school
environment. I immediately noticed that the students were moving their pencils all the
time, and when they were not using them was because the students’ eyes were
contemplating and enjoying the view.
Overall, I feel that the field trip students took to the Hudson River benefited them
by remaining open minded as to the nature, the scope, and the location of their writing.
This experience truly enhanced existing literacy initiatives simply because it gave
students the motivation to write and create amazing works.