Book Club Plus

Writing and reading are two separate periods in the students’ schedule, and are not taken back-to-back. Writing has been focused on narrative pieces. The writing process has been stressed, aiding students to first develop ideas, then add details, sequencing, drafting, editing, and publishing. The ways in which my CT, and I teach writing resembles ways in which one should teach strategies. They are modeled for the students and give student ample opportunities to practice these strategies.

Reading, although seen throughout all subjects, is a separate period from writing. In reading, students do a 1-minute read aloud, where they are introduced to a new book every day. They are then asked to practice a skill ie) predicting, summarizing, etc. Students then move onto daily oral language (DOL). DOL is used to help work with vocabulary and grammar. After this the students do work with vocabulary. These works will all be similar in some way. ie) similar prefixes, suffixes, word families, etc. Students have personal books that they are reading checked out from the classroom library. These books are not picked based off of instructional levels or age appropriate material. Instead, children are allowed to pick any book off the shelf to read. Although this can make it difficult for students to help grow on their reading skills, it does allow students to enjoy reading.

Although I do not see much BCP in my students reading period, this will change as the year progresses. Once BASS testing is finished, students will be grouped in Book Club groups (with age-appropriate material) and also guided reading groups (instructional level material).

Communication in my classroom is pretty open. Although students are required to raise their hand before speaking, discussion flows fairly well through the classroom. Students are grouped together often to think their ideas out with partners (especially in math and science).