For my real- life inquiry project I observed a first grade
classroom to see what Reading Comprehension really looked like in beginning readers. I observed my passed Education 100 class's mentor and
teacher, Mrs. Heartly. Mrs. Heartly used vocabulary, connections to prior knowledge, and before, during, and after questioning to help her students in Reading Comprehension. In Mrs. Heartly's first grade class they were going
to read, The Farmer in The Hat by Pat Cummins. She used text-to-self
exercises, to influence the students to ponder and think about what they
learned through the last book and how it may coincide with their other subjects
to introduce the lesson for that week. Before even opening the book to the new
story, Mrs. Heartly used interactions called "Chi- Ching Moments" to
allow the children to think and answer questions that she asked like "How
did our book last week teach us about eating healthy?" or "Didn't we
learn in science about what is good and not good to eat?" She used these
exercises to practice text- to- self, text- to-text, and text-to-world
experiences. She used the "Chi- Ching Moments" to bring all the
material together to give an understanding of why they read the book from last
week and open up or introduce what they may be learning this week. I thought
this strategy was an important introduction and fun way to let the children interact
with the text and it also reiterated what they learned the week prior, so it
kept the information in their brain.
For the week I did my observation, the main learning target
for the children was cause and effect and the main theme for the reading was
"How is a school a community?" Mrs. Heartly did something called a
focus wall. On her main bulletin board in the front of the classroom she had
pieces of paper that had titles on them including: Question of the Week, Genre,
Text Based Comprehension, Writing and Conventions, Phonics and Spelling, and
Amazing Words. As she introduced each different category she asked her students
questions like: "When it's raining, do you use an umbrella to keep
dry?" (introducing the cause and effect learning target) and so on going along with each point of the sheet.
Each child participated and paid attention to what each child said. After the
opening questions were asked they turned to the story and Mrs. Heartly
challenged them to guess what the story was about according to the pictures on
the first and title page. They discussed
the characters and who the main characters might be and they discussed what the
main plot of the story might be about. This used a lot of peer talk instead of just teacher
to student talk. I liked how Mrs. Heartly had different steps that she took
before she read. The break down and visual for the students helped them to
understand what they were learning and the way it was up for the whole class to
see helped them be able to remember and go back to it when needed through out
the week. I'm always thought it is important to ask question before, during,
and after reading and it was so neat to be able to see it actually work and
happen in a classroom instead of just learning about it.
After the reading was over, Mrs. Heartly asked question that
continued along with the running theme for the week: "What community do
you think this is?" The students soon progressed into a conversation of
book talk that included agreeing and disagreeing. Mrs. Heartly would tell them
to use I agree with.... or I disagree with.... as opening statements to help
the children interact with each other and learn to challenge the author. As the
conversation progressed Mrs. Heartly took out a laminated piece of paper
titled Talking Back to Books as You Read. This made the book
conversation grow deeper with the help of explanation starters like: I'm
thinking..., I'm wondering...., I am noticing..., etc. These explanations not only helped the children to think, but also
helped them answer each other’s questions and share point of views. She ended
the conversation with questions like "What were they doing?" and
"Were you surprised at the outcome?" making it possible to coordinate
with the running theme and reintroduce the meaning of a community. The
finishing comments and concerns were so entertaining to witness. The way the
children bounced off of each other really let the teacher and I know that the students understood what they were reading and helped them remember what the
story was about. It made them learn how to argue with the author and each
other, and distinguish what was valid and invalid.
During my observation of the classroom it allowed me to
think back on our class reading on Reading Comprehension, specifically Anne
Gregory and Mary Ann Cahill's article Kindergartners Can Do It, Too!
Comprehension Strategies for Early Readers. Gregory and Cahill explained how
important questioning and "I Wonders" could be in keeping the
attention of students and helping students comprehend what they are reading.
"Young children are naturally inquisitive, and when asking question is
explicitly demonstrated during the reading of the text, they quickly begin to
ask questions helping them both to interact with the text in meaningful ways
and to critically examine the story"(Gregory&Cahill517,518). Mrs.
Heartly asked questions the whole entire reading of the book to her students,
she asked questions before, during, and after she read engaging in the students
and relying on each other to figure out what it all meant or what really
happened in the book. By asking the students questions Mrs. Heartly gave her
students the option to infer and use their brains, another important strategy
mentioned by Gregory and Cahill. " Additionally, asking questions
increases children's ability and inclination to make inferences"
(Gregory&Cahill518). By making inferences the students questions the text
and author and had to make a further connection with what they saw and what
they knew form their passed knowledge, or schema.
Throughout Mrs. Heartly's lesson I saw her as a good example as a
supportive teacher to readers like Laura S. Pardo explains in her article What
every teacher needs to know about comprehension. Mrs. Heartly practiced
"helping students build fluency" by reading the story aloud to her
students. "Teachers teach students how to make text-to-text, text-to-self,
and text-to-world connections so that readers more easily comprehend the texts
they read" (Pardo274). Mrs. Heartly helped to "build and activate
prior knowledge," by connecting their lesson from the earlier week to this
lesson and using what they already knew through their common, or prior knowledge
to relate to the story and infer what the story would be about. Mrs. Heartly
used a graphic organizer and visuals to introduce what they would be learning
about and why it all mattered. She helped them use what they knew from the
outside world to understand what they were reading from the text. Mrs. Heartly,
also, took time to "teach," and reintroduce, the vocabulary words
that her students would need to know and recognize to understand their reading.
She "motivated them" by making them get up and out of their seats and
want to learn the words and do their activities. And finally she "engaged
students in personal responses to text, “by getting her students to talk about
the book with their other classmates by including the agreeing and disagreeing comments.
The comments helped the students join in a mature conversation that allowed the
teacher to just listen instead of be the leader of it all.
Throughout my observation, I was
excited and intrigued by the fact that what we learn in class is actually taking
place in real- life learning environments. I believe that Reading Comprehension
is one of the most important lessons in the Reading subject. The strategies
that allow Reading Comprehension can be so easy, but sometime turned into to
difficult, or challenging, activities amongst students of different reading
levels. I agree with and plan to use the strategies Mrs. Heartly used in my
future classroom. I especially like the way she had everything laid out in the
beginning with the theme, question of the week, genre, and the phonetic devices
that were involved in the reading. I thought it was interesting the little
amount of time that is actually granted for Reading, however, it seemed that
she could not get all she wanted done in the amount of time that is set aside
for the subject. The activity present seemed to be successful, and was tested
by the paper activity that the children did after they went back to their
seats. Each child was able to answer the question relating to the story and the
vocabulary words given. I could tell that the book talk conversation really
made the students comfortable with Mrs. Heartly and their fellow students.
Every child seemed to participate and every child said what he or she wanted to
whether they cared if it was wrong or right. I hope to have a comfortable, open
atmosphere in my future classroom like Mrs. Heartly’s. Mrs. Heartly seem to be
experienced and organized. The strategies that she used engage her students and
made them think to latter allow them to comprehend what they were reading, the number
one goal of every teacher.
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