Nurturing Children’s Literacy Development

In my first semester of teaching observations, I observed first grade, third grade and two fourth grade classrooms. It was amazing to see the growth that occurs between first and third grade. The formative years of reading and writing for children are kindergarten through third grade. Tompkins discusses the three stages of reading and writing: emergent, beginning and fluent (Tompkins, 2018, p. 120). It is essential for teachers to monitor the growth of their students through monitoring, as discussed in the last blog post about assessments.

One of the key goals I have as a teacher is to foster an interest in reading and writing for my students. I’m really excited about using literacy centers in my classroom to help engage students. Tompkins outlines twelve centers: bag a story, clipboards, games, library, listening, making words, messages, poetry frames, reading the room, research, story reenactment, and word sort (2018, p.110). The great thing about having different centers is it allows students to focus on one activity either independently or in groups, establish routines in the classroom, and allow for choice. Daniels and Bizar (1998) state, “Literacy centers promote student collaboration, facilitate student motivation, and provide targeted practice for students.”

Routines are key for students, especially when it comes to reading and writing. Tompkins (2018, p.117) offers ten great routines to teach the alphabet, which is especially helpful for new teachers like myself. Some of these routines include alphabet books, letter containers, letter sorts, and whiteboards. During my teaching observations, I noticed in the first grade classroom that every student had a whiteboard they could use to practice their writing as a class. The teacher would model the word and have the students repeat. Especially in the early grades, it is important that students learn how to write through modeling.

Finally, morning messages is another routine that I would really like to incorporate in my classroom. Tompkins (2018) offered a few variations of morning messages, including fill-in-the-blank morning messages, one child dictates a message to share with classmates, and children creating a message collaboratively. All of these ideas are great at different stages for students, as well as throughout the year. The key for developing students’ literacy in reading and writing is to offer various activities and consistent routines for students that allow for stability, as well as growth and engagement. There are so many distractions in our world today that it is important to keep this is in mind in the classroom. As attention spans have become limited, we should work with, rather than against this.

References:

Tompkins, G. E. (2018). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach 7th Ed. New York: Pearson

Daniels, Harvey & Bizar, Marilyn (1998). Methods that matter: Six structures for best practice classrooms. York, ME: Stenhouse.