Stacey Fisher Reply Post

After reading your post I’m quite envious of your classroom. Unfortunately in my placement there is not much literacy instruction, instead the teacher will stand in front of the class and read chapters from a book or the students will silent read.

When you talk about the “book bag” that contains 3-5 books at their reading level do you know if they had to take a test to determine their reading level? Also, are these books rotated every week? That is really awesome that your teacher has a ton of books and uses them to accompany her other lessons. As Kayla mentioned in her post, I am also curious about this at home reading reprogram. I love this idea and unfortunately my mentor teacher seldom allows the students to take any of her classroom books home. Several of the students have even shared that they do not have books at home which is very unfortunate. Since these are first grade students do parents sign off that their students indeed read at home, are they required to answer any comprehension questions, or provide re-telling details or anything so the teacher is certain the students actually read? Again, as Kayla mentioned, I am curious to know how this reinforcement system works and if it seems to be working with those students.

I loved hearing about the Tier literacy classrooms. Do you think that the other students know about the different tiers or levels? In my fifth grade room there are two different spelling tests given every Friday. List A is for more advanced students and list B is for those students with special needs, who are ELL, struggle in this content area, etc. and when questioning other students about these lists (during my first week) several students said that list A is for the "smarter people" and list B was for the students who struggle in this area. Again, I think the 4 different classrooms that can focus on the students needs more individually is important.

I also really like how the students are given an hour of computer time every Thursday but it does raise some questions. First, you mentioned that 40 minutes was spent with them reading online stories from a program and taking a quiz on it. For the last 20 minutes are the students able to use other software or programs on the computer? As first graders I’m curious to know if these students can even functionally use the keyboard or if they have a “computer” special during the week and have additional time outside of this literacy computer time on Thursdays. Using the computers in my fifth grade classroom is a big deal and the students enjoy working on them.

The digital denizen that best represents me would be a cross between a digital immigrant and a digital native. As technology becomes a bigger part of our everyday lives I have began to use more of it as an adult. However, I’m still unfamiliar with the full potential of various electronic tools, especially within the classroom (smartboards, the elmo, etc.). I didn’t even have a cell phone until I was in eight grade and the phone was large in size and could only make and receive calls therefore it did not have internet or text messaging. In my fifth grade classrooms the students talk about their phones, iPads, tablets, laptops, etc. and it is scary to think about the future and the role technology will play.