Literacy Strategies/ Task 3

The classroom environment that I was integrated with in my fourth semester of teaching
practice is a print rich environment. In which, the classroom walls are filled with many useful
posters such as: behavior rules, grammar, punctuation and students work. Those useful posters
will allow the students to be comfortable towards their learning environment since the classroom
is attractive and eye catching, as well as it will enable their literacy skills when learning. This is
because, students will be reminded continually with the important topics that they need to be
familiar with by looking at them such as: grammar and punctuation. In addition, students will be
encouraged to learn and complete the given tasks because they will see that their work is
displayed and presented in the classroom.
There are different types of books that were found within the classroom. To elaborate,
there are different reading level books (emerging, developing and mastered) with different genres
(fiction and non fiction) that are placed at the back of the classroom. In which, those books are
given to the students (every two to three weeks) according to their reading levels. In addition,
those reading books contain comprehension questions that require the students to complete them.
Unfortunately, the classroom does not provide a specific reading area in order to allow
the students to read independently. Thus, the classroom teacher makes the students to read in
their seats or sometimes he can be flexible by allowing them to sit wherever they would like to in
the class.
According to my mentor school teacher (MST), reading is the most important skill for
him as he ensures that students read along with him everyday. Echo reading was the type of
reading that was implemented within the classroom. Moreover, the teacher ensures that all
students are paying attention and reading along with him by asking them questions while
reading. Due to my observations, I found that my MST has his special technique of motivating
and encouraging students to read. In which, he reads the stories in a very fun way by making the
students imitate some specific characters/actions within the story and his voice tone changes as a
way to engage students when reading.
Punctuation and author identification while/before reading are the most common aspects
that are reminded and reviewed by the teacher. In which, before the teacher begins reading along
with his students, they discuss some aspects of concepts of print such as: finding who is the
author of the book and making the students point at him, asking the students to point out at the
periods, commas, question/exclamation marks when reading and reviewing their purposes.
Phonics is the most topic that students enjoy learning. This is because, when students are
learning new words, their teacher applies the total physical response teaching method in order to
allow them to recognize and memorize the given new words. To elaborate, I have observed a
phonics lesson in which students were learning words that begins with sh. In that lesson, the
teacher made the students apply a specific physical move in order for them to recognize the new
words. For example: the teacher wanted the students to call out the word shake, in which he
started shaking and the students recognized the word.
 Copy writing is the type of writing that is used and reinforced by the teacher. In which,
when the teacher wants the students to write about specific topics, he writes on the board many
sentences that are related to the topic and makes the students copy them down on their writing
journals. This is because, majority of the students have some difficulty with their writing and
lack grammar. Therefore, the teacher ensures that students understand what they are writing by,
calling them one by one and make them read for him what they have written.