Reading Strategies

Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers are a great tool to use with students when they are reading. Using a graphic organizer allows students to look at what they are reading and how it all connects together. Doing a group graphic organizer together allows the students and the teacher to discuss the story and discuss the as a group the best way to state the main idea, the problem, etc.

Picture Story Telling
I like to look at the pictures in a story and have the students tell me what they think the story is going to be able. This allows the students to use their imagination as well as picture clues. Another thing I like about this activity is when students read the story it is fun to see if they get any of their ideas right. It makes it so much fun when what they thought happened id really what happened.

Fluency
Students need to have good fluency in order to comprehend what they are reading. I have notice especially in my student teaching placement that the students that have poorer fluency seem to struggle with comprehension more than some of the other students. I think this is because the students are struggling so much to just read the words on the page that they don’t really understand anything that they are saying. Therefore, we need to help our students with their fluency skills. I know this does not seem completely change comprehension, but I believe that it can help in a small way for students to understand more what they read.

Vocabulary
Vocabulary plays such a big role in student’s ability to understand what they are reading. If students are reading words, but don’t know what they mean they won’t be able to understand what the story is about. I have found that having students look up vocabulary words in their reading selection is a great way for them to learn the words. In my student teaching placement the students look up their vocabulary words for their story selection. The students and I then read the definition together and discuss what we think it means. The students then write a definition for each word based on the discussion that we had about the word. Discussing and writing the words helps the students to really think about the vocabulary term and what it means,

Weeks 6 and 7

The last 3 weeks have been crazy. We got a new student, which means there are 14 students now. It has been crazy how adding just one new student to the mix can turn the room upside down and change everyone’s behavior. It has also been interesting because the child’s IEP does not seem to really fit the child. Therefore the child has been shuffled around to different groups to see where they will fit the best. The student has also needed extra help because they will use to different rules and situations. On another note I have been running the room on my own and making sure the students are getting all the lessons they need in the day. It has been a lot of fun taking on more responsibility and getting to work with the students more and just getting to be there with them every day. I am very excited to be where I am because I have learned so much. I am looking forward to the next few weeks at the school!