Feb 20 Reading

I do not even know where to begin with Chapter 4 of the Tompkins reading. My biggest fear for next year is to be placed in a lower elementary classroom. Since I have been at MSU I have been in higher elementary (fifth) grade and I even started off as secondary so high school as well. This year I am in a fifth grade classroom and dealing with Literature in my classroom is helping not as much with how to read but how to understand. This is not the case in lower elementary classrooms. What I am most afraid of is not having any experience to be able to guide a young mind in the direction it needs to including that of Literacy. After reading Chapter 4 it helped me to really better understand how young readers develop where they come to and what the teacher needs to do to guide that. However words can only help so much it is the experience that I learn best through. I can though relate some of the concepts to what I see in my classroom today such as that of shared reading. In the chapter they talk about shared reading in a kindergarten through third (Ms. McCloskey’s 3^rd grade) teacher also does it through other subjects to help cover literacy while helping with understanding of another subject. I really drew from the section on “Fostering an Interest in Literacy”. Here they talk about how children’s intro to a written language begins before they enter the classroom and that is why I believe it is equally important to involve the parents while developing the concepts they talk about in the chapter in helping the development of literacy. Sharing with parents about a child’s development and what they need and what the parents can do to help this. Doing something such as signing up for a pen pal or writing some sort of letter to a relative can help in something such as concept of print while also relating it to the real world and their interest. This in turn shows them how literacy plays a role in their everyday lives.