Task 3: Literacy Strategies

Objective: To observe literacy strategies in action over 4 weeks.

Procedure
 This task is intended to be implemented over the four weeks.
 For this task student should:
 record examples of practices and/or strategies that they observe- e.g phonics, guided reading,
Sustained Silent Reading, graded readers, literate-rich, print-rich environment,
 take photos and/or video recordings (if the school and the MST give permission)
 ask questions about and reflect on best practice observed

Before the Observation

Pre TP classes

 Discuss/review any relevant content from Learning to Read and Write, Section 2 “Readers & Writers
in the Making” pp27-99
 Neuman, S., Copple, C. and Bredcamp, S. (2000). Learning to Read and Write. Washington:
National Association for the Education of Young Children.
 (Neuman, Copple & Bredcamp, 2000, 56)

In the school

 Explain the task to your MST so she can try to highlight and include some of the strategies/aspects
you may need to consider
 Decide what time(s) each day you will conduct this observation.
 See if you can find out what the teacher plans to do each day by studying his/her plans, and/or talking
with them.
After the Observation - Reflection
Choose 3 best practices you observed during your time in school. Reflect on
these and consider why you could implement these in a UAE primary classroom
in the future. Explain how these practices will affect student learning and
reading levels in a primary class.

The MST used some strategies when reading a text or a story. Firstly, she always
starts with graphic organizers before reading or writing and she discuss the
organizer with the students while reading. And I really liked this strategy because
it let the students make a better understanding of the text. Another strategy she
use is focusing on prior knowledge. In this strategy she asks questions before,
during and after reading and this helps the students to be more engaged.
Furthermore, she always asks the students to locate the key words, which is a
good strategy to comprehend more and learn new words which can be used in
writing also.
 LITERACY STRATEGIES

Observe your MST’s classroom and general practices you see around the school. Discuss the
areas below in context of what you observe in school and support with a photo and a
reference to reading when possible.

Describe the classroom environment.

The classroom has some artifacts for each subject But it didn’t has a reading corner. However,
the teacher does take the students to the library. The students and teacher relationship was
friendly, supportive, close, and trusting. I liked how the classroom environment was clam but
also active. I really loved this classroom atmosphere.
Consider how the class is a print rich environment. What print can you see around the room?
(labels, captions, flashcards, headings, rules, instructions, timetable, flash cards, etc) For
each one you mention insert pictures and state the purpose of each one.

The classroom does have some of the students work for each subject. There is no flashcards but it does have
multiplying table, reward chart, students work, timetable, and calendar.

Is there a variety of books and genres in the class? Mention some. How are they displayed?

There is no book area in grade 4 classes unlike the 1, 2 and 3 grade classes. But they do go to the school library for
reading where every individual or group read books and summaries it. They don’t get involved in shared reading.

Describe the reading area in your classroom.

Compared to grade 3 grade 4 classes doesn’t have reading corner or area.

Grade 3 reading corner

Does the teacher read to the children? How often? How does she motivate them to read?

Honestly the teacher doesn’t read for the children books outside the curriculum but the curriculum does have
a lot of reading texts.
Describe the reading approaches have you observed? Where do the children sit? How does
the teacher encourage participation?

Read aloud Shared reading Guided reading Independent reading

-Since I asked my The students read by

MST to do some Since they are grade 4 themselves a text about
reading she decided students the teacher didn’t ant colony and then
to read Alice’s do shared reading that design and fill in a graphic
adventure in much. feather.
Wonderland to
model fluency. And But one time the teacher
some of the students told the students to read
were excited because the text all together with
they either heard of
the teacher and she
focused on the vocabulary.
it or watched it as a
movie. and this
helped the students
to learn new
vocabulary and helps
children recognize
what reading for
pleasure is all about.

-
Consider how the teacher reminds children of any concepts of print when reading? (left-to-
right, top to bottom, punctuation, author, illustrator, etc)

She asks them “what is this mark for?” to remind them about the punctuation. Sometimes she let a student
read a text and ask the student “how your expiration when you read this sentence?” and if the sentence
has an exclamation mark the student will read it as if she surprised. And since they are a grade four
students they are almost mastering the concepts of prints. So I didn’t saw the teacher covers any other
basic concepts.

How does the teacher teach phonics and word attack skills to children? Describe a phonics
lesson you observed and mention how the children are scaffolded to recognise the word
and get the meaning.

The phonics lesson was about (the final long e) and it was connected to the reading lesson. So the words
that the teacher used were familiars (same category). This helped the students to get a better
understanding. The teacher started the lesson by asking what phonics is and then she introduced the
letters that make this sound And gave the students a vowel rule which is (When two vowels go walking, the
first one does the talking). After that she let the students sort the words based on their spelling and sound
and then she asked the students to use these words and write sentences.

What comprehension strategies are the children learning/using?

They use graphic organizers, making predictions, locating the key words and active prior knowledge
strategies.

Ask your teacher about special reading events carried out in the school - e.g ‘Book
Character Day’, DEAR Time, Book Fairs, ‘Extreme Reading’ competitions etc.

They have that event where all the school is participating which is The Arab Reading Challenge (ARC) is the
largest-ever Arab literacy initiative. Launched by Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to
encourage students to read, ARC challenges students to read as many books as possible (over 50) in one
academic year.
Describe some types of writing activities or the method the teacher uses for writing – e.g
emergent writing, copy writing, dictations, etc

Every week they have a formal assessment and sometimes it is a dictation for the new vocabulary. And they
almost never copy after the teacher Because the teacher gives them an example first and they write their
own. And even when the teacher write something she discuss with the students and draw a graphic
organizer from the students ideas and then let the students write on their own.