Spurlock Master’s Portfolio

Reading, Writing, Comprehension, and Oral Language

As a teacher, I strive to provide students the environment and support that most

encourages them “how to embrace reading as a lifelong pursuit, not just a collection of skills for

school performance” (Miller, 2009, p.4). I introduce the love of literature along with new

perspectives of meaning-making for students to build onto their schema. Because I believe

literacy is a holistic exchange (Miller, 2000), the literacy experience in my classroom has a

balance of reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities, enhanced by social interaction and

a variety of instructional approaches to meet the needs of diverse learners. My teaching

strategies are propelled by my belief that reading is a psycholinguistic process where students

use organized chunks of knowledge, including background knowledge, culture, experiences,

and feelings to construct meaning through text (Weaver, 2009). Woven through the threads of

constructionism (Kami, 1991), my philosophy of literacy centers around five ideals that I believe

make the classroom a successful learning environment that fosters literacy acquisition. These

are in no specific order of hierarchy, but all inform my teaching ideals: 1. Deep meaning-making

through authentic engagement, 2. Embracing a literacy-rich classroom, 3. Encouraging

collaborative and social learning, 4. Using the gradual release of responsibility model of

instruction, and 5. Incorporating multiculturalism into content and attending to the diverse

needs of students.

This socio-dramatic play station,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zq7QqHkqx46VcmkoQzaMGzWOmPmcPpSt/view?

usp=sharing, is an example of meaning-making through authentic engagement because like

reading, writing emerges as children interact with people, materials, and print in various
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environments (Mayer, 2009). The first graders I worked with helped build a classroom Post

Office, creating signs, organizing the office supplies, and prepare mailboxes. Students enjoyed

the experience and all students wanted to participate. For four weeks, the post office socio-

dramatic play station was motivating for 7-year-olds’ developmental levels while giving them a

place to genuinely write to each other, share, and practice their skills in reading and writing; it

was a stage where students could explore their evolving schemas of language, a place to

interpret and reconstruct print/language freely encouraging an appreciation for literacy (Kamii,

1991). At the P.O., play and writing went side by side so when a student wrote there was little

pressure to be “right” or “wrong”. Also, it created a setting to practice speaking and social skills

for these first graders. More than once, I witnessed students negotiating, even quarreling for

the aprons. They had to figure out how to work out their dispute using words and actions that

demanded continual language development.

Along with engaging students in authentic literacy activities a classroom must be

organized and accessible to be an effective. As I teach now, the physical environment embodies

the structural skeleton of the classroom’s literacy program. My goal is to create a literate,

purposeful, authentic environment with clear “evidence of learning that makes visible the

processes students and their teacher used to get there” (Miller, 2008, p.39). The classroom is

warm and inviting with specific areas for many types of learning processes and activities to take

place. Embracing a literacy-rich classroom means diverse texts and modes of reading are

embedded into classroom procedures and lessons, along with multiple kinds of access to books

through classroom collections, resource rooms, and the school or public library. Students are

introduced to a wide variety of quality literature and real- life resources like magazines and
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internet texts that increase and add to their knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of

themselves and the world around them. Through read-alouds, think-alouds, book talks,

independent reading activities, writers’ workshop, literature circles, and other learning

explorations in content areas such as science and social studies, students become intimately

familiar with text. Reading and writing are enhanced by social interactions because students

have opportunities to become familiar with books their classmates read through buddy reading,

library station, and book talks (Strickland, Ganske, & Monroe, 2002). Students have an

opportunity to practice the process and strategies covered in the mini lessons either

independently or in a small group as the teacher observes and monitors with constructive

feedback. “Readers have to connect personally to a book before they can study it, dissect it,

and appraise its components; literature has to work first as a story that speaks to the whole

human reader before it can be studied as an external work of art” (Daniels & Steineke, 2004).

Writing is a fundamental part of teaching language arts. This artifact highlights the

strength of using student interest to engage students in writing,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XsUyoP7rEWUGDLQ-FHS_C1wIT5i0R79l/view?usp=sharing.

Learning style, materials and readiness, and interest were successful differentiation strategies I

used for creating a thriving learning activity where each student wrote a cinquain poem during

a 5ht grade writers’ workshop. Now, in a typical year in my classroom, even with 2 nd graders,

teaching the writing workshop stages such as prewrite, rough draft, revise, edit and publish,

occur in small steps as the class launches into the new school year. The following goals are the

focus points for creating a healthy supportive and strategic classroom writing environment. It is

essential that our writing workshop “foster the love of writing time,” establish “a safe
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environment so that kids can take risks in their writing,” and sets “up a workable manageable

system to handle the flow of paper, folders and so forth” (Fletcher & Portalupi, 2001). Students

are given choice in their writing to encourage a love for writing as well as a sense of ownership

and to develop a personal investment in what they write. Although mini lessons teach specific

writing skills and genres, students’ choices are ultimately be respected. To foster the love of

writing we work toward purposeful authentic reasons to write as well as goals for publishing. In

developing a safe environment where students can take risks. I model giving students specific

praise, I write with the class, and I encourage students to draw and brainstorm in multiple ways

depending on their needs. I use short potent read-alouds to show writing has roots in the real

stuff of life and giving the students ideas that may resonate with experiences they have had or

witnessed. Students can celebrate their idea and hard work and gain insight into the writing

process by evaluating each other’s writing or sharing with the whole class what they have been

working on.

Word study is an important component of reading and writing in our classroom. Reading

comprehension is improved with students’ increase in word knowledge. As students gain a solid

foundation of spelling rules and word letter patterns, they become more confident and

successful writers. Students should be taught spelling from the spelling stage they are at and

what they are ready for next (Freeman, 2004). Students are supported to improve their spelling

by building on their individual word knowledge as well as engaging in active and investigative

activities. Students need to be actively involved in learning new vocabulary in real life

experiences, mapping activities, drawings, and games (Strickland et. al, 2008).
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Emphasis on teaching routines and procedures are important at the beginning of the

year. Book talks precede mini lessons at first by modeling and discussing with students how one

chooses the books they read with purpose and intention. Teaching procedures and giving book

talks allows me to begin to model the metacognitive process of “good thinking”; what it sounds

like why it’s important and where it can lead us (Miller, 2008, p. 51). Also, the social component

in literature circles and sharing writing acts as a major motivating force for students. “In

classrooms where opportunities are provided for social interactions, students who struggle

benefit from being part of a community of learners” (Strickland et. al, 2002, p. 24). It is in these

settings that students are making authentic meaning with each other; they are cultivating each

other’s critical comprehension skills and taking charge of their learning. Students are

developing a “sense of agency” (Johnson, 2004, p.30) throughout this process, exploring how

their thinking leads to their own understandings (Miller, 2008).

I attend to the diverse needs of students. Students are acknowledged as individuals

from diverse backgrounds and experiences. I teach with activities that honor diverse cultural

beliefs asking for students to share and use what they know in all their learning experiences.

Students have many opportunities for choice including reading material, writing subjects,

learning activities and products of work. “We all learn more enthusiastically those things that

connect to our interests and experiences; we learn more efficiently if we can acquire

information, practice skills, make sense of ideas, and express our understanding through a

preferred mode” (Tomlinson, 2014, p. 83). Our classroom capitalizes on creating a literacy-rich

community that motivates students and supports struggling readers and writers through

multiple avenues. “Students should not be characterized by not motivated or motivated, but
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differently motivated” (Strickland et. al, 2002, p. 13). In this classroom, I also organize for

differentiated instruction through flexible grouping models including teacher/child ratio, group

constituency, abilities and needs, teacher guidance, materials, modalities, and intensity and

duration (Strickland et. al, 2002). For many of my struggling readers, it is important to support

them by finding their interests, best learning practices, and additional motivators to launch

them into reading and writing.

In using the gradual release of responsibility, I support most students needs and

provide time in this process to assess and reflect on the next steps for each student. As the

teacher, I assess where students are throughout the whole process supporting students as they

need it. It is important to support struggling readers by conduction miscue analysis to help me

understand what the specific reading skills the student uses successfully and what strategies

they need support in (Weaver, 2002). These students are supported in the classroom as much

as possible even by inviting support staff to join in our reading and writing blocks instead of

sending the struggling reader out of the regular classroom. Good readers need to applaud the

progress they make and be reminded they can improve (Strickland et. al, 2002).

The language arts program goals are to encourage and build life-long readers and to

promote student thinking. My program establishes a community that is responsive to student

needs and interests. Contributing to students’ motivation in learning to read and write, many

factors such as interest, attitude, and engagement are taken into account (Strickland et. al,

2002). Students use organized chunks of knowledge, including background knowledge, culture,

experiences, and feelings to construct new meaning therefore, all students can grow as readers,

writers and speakers.

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References

Daniels, H. & Steineke, N. (2004). Mini-lessons for literature circles. Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann.

Fletcher, R. & Portalupi, J. (2001). Writing workshop: The essential guide. Portsmouth,

NH: Heinemann.

Freeman, D. E., & Freeman, Y. S. (2004). Essential linguistics: What you need to

know to teach. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Johnston, P. (2004). Choice words: How our language affects children’s learning. Portland, ME:

Stenhouse Publishers.

Kamii, C., Manning, M., & Manning, G. (Eds). (1991). Early literacy: A constructivist foundation

for whole language. Washington, D.C. National Education Association.

Mayer, K. (2009). Emerging knowledge about emergent writing. Young Children, 62(1), 34-40.

Miller, D. (2008). Teaching with intention: Defining beliefs, aligning practices, taking action.

Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

Miller, D. (2009). The book whisperer: Awakening the inner reader in every child. San Francisco,

CA: Jossey-Bass.

Miller, R. (2000). Beyond reductionism: The emerging holistic paradigm in education. The

Humanistic Psychologist, 28, (1-3), 382-393.

Strickland, D. S., Ganske, K, & Monroe, J. K. (2002). Supporting struggling readers and

writers: Strategies for classroom intervention 3-6. Portland, ME: Stenhouse

Publishers.
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Tomlinson, C. (2014). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners (2nd

ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Weaver, C. (2002). Reading process and practice (3rd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.