Paola Dalmonech
ELE 203.1456 – Language and Literacy in Childhood Education
Prof.Sterling-Deer
Linking Knowledge to Practice Paper #2
September 29, 2009
Since I started my internship at P.S.51, I had the possibility to observe the students in my class working a lot on literacy activities, including both reading and writing. For the reading process, the teacher told the students to take out their reading logs and communicate the number of pages that they had read the night before. She also asked if students find better the reading at home or in school. Some students said that reading at home helps them concentrate better because in class they tend to get distracted by looking at each other’s book and the images that are on it. Some other children said that doing the activity of reading in class is more effective because at home there is always someone watching TV, listening to music, or simply talking.
One student added on this, “I read better in school because Mrs.Perlas is able to keep the entire class quite no matter what the circumstance are. In this way, I am able to focus more and to get into the reading by imagining the scene and the characters of my book.” This response astonished me in the sense that I understood how ten-year-olds can be very mature, if well trained. And surely, this is the case of Mrs.Perlas’ class that symbolizes the perfect atmosphere, in terms of order, organization, and students’ behavior.
I observed the students reading independently and I believe this type of reading is really efficient. They were reading silently by themselves, at their own pace, and with their own book that they like. If each student follows instructions correctly and reads properly and independently, then there will not be any interruptions and the activity will flow smoothly. My mentor teacher is strict enough to alert students when they misbehave.

Independent reading is an important part of the balanced reading program because it is the most authentic type of reading. In this way, students start to develop a love towards reading, and understand the meaning of silence and the importance of concentration.
While the students were reading their book independently, the teacher extracted one student for a brief reading assessment. The student was asked to read two short paragraphs taken from a book which was unknown to him. The second part of the assessment consisted in retelling the main parts, and finally, the third section was based on reading comprehension and answering simple questions. Meanwhile the student was being assessed, the teacher was marking on a different sheet every single word said by the student. For the first part of the assessment, instead, the teacher was checking if the students was reading correctly or mispronouncing some words.
By observing carefully this process, I learned something new that was totally unfamiliar to me. Each student in my class has a different level of reading that corresponds to an alphabetical letter. The student I observed that day was tested on level “P”. After the assessment, his was confirmed with proficiency on the same letter. So, there are students who are doing better, and perhaps others who are doing worse.
Although the reading selection must be at an appropriate level of difficulty, my mentor teacher tries to use other types of reading, which I haven’t seen yet, to scaffold students and make it possible for them to be successful.