The reading session I observed of a Grade 2 class began with the shared reading of the
enlarged book Lester and Clyde. As described in Hill (pg 73) this was a whole-group
activity and although it was led by the teacher, the children did become involved in the
reading of the text as it contained what Miss Berry (a pseudonym) referred to as ‘rhyming
couplets’. Miss Berry used these rhyming words as a teaching opportunity. Throughout
the text, words were covered and the children were asked to take a guess at what the word
may be. The children were able to guess due to the rhyming text and possibly past
experience as they were revisiting the book. A further teaching opportunity was taken
when new or unusual words were found in the text. Miss Berry explored the meanings of
the words ‘daft’ and ‘menace’. By looking at the context of the story and with some
guidance from Miss Berry the meaning of the word was identified after some very good
guesses. The focus here is concerned with semantics or the meaning of the words. (Hill
pg 22)
This teaching opportunity was further explored by linking the word menace back to the
children and situations that may occur in the playground. During term 1, this class had
outlined class ‘protocols’ which all students agreed upon to ensure appropriate behaviour
was adhered to both inside the class room and out in the playground. The children had a
brief discussion on how they might handle a situation in the playground if another child
was being a menace.
The children then broke into five groups to do their ‘learning centres’. One of the groups
was what Miss Berry termed the ‘guided- reading’ group. However this was set up as a
‘round robin’ reading group where the three children sat around the table and took turns
to read out loud. The more traditional guided reading method as outlined in Hill (pg 8082) which sees the children reading independently and the teacher listening to them
individually is also used within the class, however Miss Berry prefers the round robin
method. She sees it as a good introduction to getting the children to read out loud in front
of others, it is good for the children to hear modelled reading from others students and the
expression they use. Miss Berry also liked the discussion generated in a group with
regard to teaching opportunities that arise when reading the text.
I also observed a writing session with Miss Berry. She began the lesson my modelling
writing on the interactive white board. The children were working on a narrative piece of
writing and Miss Berry used the interactive whiteboard to give an example of her own
narrative she had written. As outlined in Hill (pg 97) this style of writing has a structure
consisting of the orientation, a problem followed by a resolution. The focus of this
session was to look at a resolution to the problem in Miss Berry’s narrative.
Once the children were busily working on their own narratives, Miss Berry conducted a
guided writing session with a small group of two children who had finished their writing
(Hill pg 88). The focus of this short mini lesson was to introduce proof reading to these
children. Miss Berry wrote a short paragraph on the whiteboard with deliberate mistakes
and discussed strategies with the children in how to identify possible mistakes.
Upon completion of both the reading and writing session, Miss. Berry brought the
children back together as a whole group which follows the whole-part-whole teaching
model. It was during this sharing time on both occasions that further learning takes place.
At the end of the reading session, one of the learning centre activities was a speaking and
listening activity in which the children had to create a role play using finger puppets. This
group presented there play using the puppet theatre. This is a great introduction to
speaking in front of a group in an informal manner hence building confidence. Children
were invited to read their narratives to the class at the end of the writing session if they
wanted to.
It was pleasing to see so many similarities to the Hill text and also our tutorial
discussions. With regard to the guided reading set up, it is common throughout the school
for classes to set up in the ‘round robin’ style. I will follow this up further with the school
literacy co-ordinator to gain more feedback as to why guided reading is conducted this
way.