It has been very interesting reading Brian Cambourne's article, An Alternate View of Learning, (1988) while student teaching at the Kindergarten level. In my main placement classroom I am witnessing reading abilities emerge in young students; something that is incredibly thrilling. Cambourne's article has given me a new perspective with which to view this. He correlates learning to read and write with learning to speak. I now envision a room full of young babies & toddlers, babbling away in their babyspeak, not really understaning what others are saying nor understanding themselves, what they wish to express nor the control that it takes to express it. Just happy to be in the moment. Are the Kindergartners happy to be in the moment or are they frustrated with this literacy skill they must learn in the allotted time that we have to teach them?
Templeton says that research suggests "some examination of words is necessary for most students," (Questions teachers ask about spelling, pg 108). Learning can't all be authentic; some word study is necessary. In this Kindergarten class a workable balance between authenticity and word story seems to have been struck.
I believe that my master teacher is an excellent teacher; she models what the students are supposed to be doing. Cambourne says, "I've come to believe that demonstrations are the raw material of nearly all learning," (pg. 34). This week during Centers my MT conducted the first small group guided reading. The students were given a book written with word-families that they had studied. She prepped them first by engaging the students in a review of these words and writing a list - grouped in families - on a white board. Then she opened her book along with the six students. She took some time to look at the illustrations on the first page and to wonder aloud what she thought the writing might be about. The teacher and the students then read the first page together, running their fingers under each word. She then looked at the illustrations again to see what she now understood about the drawings and asked questions of the students. This demonstration is just what I've been reading about in Regie Routman.
It had been four months since I had seen these students. On the first day of school I had witnessed their first entires in their writing journals; these were mostly drawings with some squiggly lines made by those who attempted to write. Now after just 4 months, these same students were able to read this book. (They are also writing a complete sentence in their journals.) I was truly amazed. The teacher was also very pleased. She and I are both anxious to see what the rest of the class will be able to do.
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4 months ago
As I read your post, I am taken back to times when I too got to work with students in K and 1st just learning to read. Isn't it exciting!
ReplyDeleteI my blog, Under the Apple Tree, this week I am thinking about the differences between guided reading and shared reading. You description of the guided reading group your teacher led where she modeled her thinking and read the page together with the students makes me think more of shared reading. Would you agree?
Yvonne, after reading Under the Apple Tree, I see that you have given more thought to the multiple meanings of Shared vs Guided Reading. I have focused on the concrete; if it's small group, it must be guided.
ReplyDeleteI believe that in my placement the Kindergarteners are taking their first steps towards Guided Reading. At this point in their education, they do not have the reading ability or the ability to self monitor needed "to hold the book." My master teacher is modeling just what it would look like and just what the students should do in a guided reading session. It will be interesting to watch in the next few months just how independent these sessions become.