Field Work Task 4

Task4-

While observing the classroom I noticed individual needs of students some of these include: print awareness, improving reading concepts, teaching comprehension strategies and the important of using open ended questions. I also saw the importance of print concepts, phonemic awareness and a desire to learn to read and write, all of which I saw in my teacher’s classroom, through the use of posters, charts and access to a lot of books. Having a print-rich classroom is really important I learned because it encourages and promotes reading, this is something I saw a lot of students needing. Something else I took away from observing was the importance and need of the foundational activities that include storytelling, read alouds, and model centers. I like the ideas of the model centers because it shows real life situations and how print is everywhere in the world. In the model centers I observed, students are presented with a mock restaurant or doctor’s office which allowed for real world situation to take place in the classroom. I think this is a good idea because children get to get out of their seat and use their imagination, reading a menu or a chart in the doctor’s office. This would also offer a more diverse and different approach to reading then just books and the students really seemed to enjoy them. I think this would get the students interested in reading, out of their chairs and getting some of their energy out in a productive way. The most important thing I took away from this observation though was the importance of having a lot of books. They show different comprehension strategies such as calling on prior knowledge, predicting, questions, wondering what will happen next and determining the most important details. I think it is very important to teach student these strategies because I think often it is something we assume students know. If a child is reading and not understanding the text it is probably because he hasn’t developed these skills. It is also important to have a large variety of lessons to allow for differentiated learning. Open ended questions promote comprehension and understanding, instead of asking yes or no answers. I also saw a need for learning through fun activities, this get students engaged and more motivated to learn. Instead of a quiz on a class wide book they read, the teacher had them break off into different groups and do an Oprah Winfrey interview with one another. I also like the idea of the Oprah Winfrey Interview and plan on implementing them in my future classroom. I think it is fun and allows students to make connections and encourages a deeper understanding. Students must either learn in-depth about an author or individual to be able to pretend to be them or the students who are the interviewer or asking the questions show they understood the material by asking questions to the interviewee and fosters literature conversations.