Goodbye "Letter of the Week"
The article by Bell and Jarvis about moving away from the "letter of the week" and towards a more hands on reading and writing strategy sparked excitement and ideas within me. I read a few blog posts about how people did not think it would work in their classrooms, but I think at such a young age (Kindergarten) teaching them how to use letters rather than simply name them is very important. The strategies used by the two teachers seem to dig down and really connect reading and writing in a way children can relate to. I love that the teachers were passionate about making the children aware that they already are readers and writers. Instilling that confidence in them from day one will lead to positive enthusiasm and effort while they further build their understanding. I really liked the idea of teaching kids to say "something" when they come to a word they do not recognize, and then come back to it and use their clues and skills to try and figure it out. If I were going to teach Kindergarten I would like to try some of the ideas mentioned in this article. I think demonstrating the process of writing a sentence rather than sounding out a word is an important characteristic to learning how to read and write. Would you try these new strategies in your classroom?
I also wanted to add a few fun ideas of activities that I did in school when I was learning to read. My teacher let us build words with magnetic letters around the room, this motivated us to work with letters and have fun! We would also put shaving cream on our desks and use our finger to write words in it. I remember this being such a fun part of learning to spell. I told my parents how fun it was at school and they let me put shaving cream on the glass shower door to practice my new words I learned. Little activities like this make children think of reading and writing in a fun way. With the strategies mentioned in the article with activities like this, children can become motivated to want to read and write!
The article by Bell and Jarvis about moving away from the "letter of the week" and towards a more hands on reading and writing strategy sparked excitement and ideas within me. I read a few blog posts about how people did not think it would work in their classrooms, but I think at such a young age (Kindergarten) teaching them how to use letters rather than simply name them is very important. The strategies used by the two teachers seem to dig down and really connect reading and writing in a way children can relate to. I love that the teachers were passionate about making the children aware that they already are readers and writers. Instilling that confidence in them from day one will lead to positive enthusiasm and effort while they further build their understanding. I really liked the idea of teaching kids to say "something" when they come to a word they do not recognize, and then come back to it and use their clues and skills to try and figure it out. If I were going to teach Kindergarten I would like to try some of the ideas mentioned in this article. I think demonstrating the process of writing a sentence rather than sounding out a word is an important characteristic to learning how to read and write. Would you try these new strategies in your classroom?
Love the shaving cream idea! I have seen that in many classrooms! I remember doing fun activities like that to learn how to read and write and learn the different letters. I remember specifically that even though we would do "letters of the week" at the end of the week we could all bring in something from home and talk about it. Also something fun we got to do was write the word of what it was up on the board (within reason of course) but I remember memorizing and learning how to write "carrot" so I could get it right on the board for my classmates. Kind of different and fun thing to do that is personalized to the child!
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of saying, "something" to. I remember, as I was learning how to read, sometimes getting suck on one word then and then becoming frustrated and overwhelmed. I feel this is a great way to keep the child reading and will help them figure out what that word is.
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