Teresa Seely
Literacy Showcase
Early literacy is the foundation for continued academic success. As an early childhood educator, I am able to help my students become confident early readers and writers. These early literacy skills will stay with them as they gain new skills important for reading and writing fluency. This literacy showcase captures the important components of literacy education and how I have implemented them into my own classroom curriculum. At my school, our school wide goal for the past several years has primarily been focused on teaching children to read and write from kindergarten and beyond. In my classroom, many students come to school without any background knowledge in basic literacy skills. This lack of foundational skills makes their first year in school critical in establishing the building blocks for future success in literacy. The following showcase highlights my work in early literacy, writing and teaching to individual student learning styles. These samples will show how I have implemented several research based techniques into my own teaching of early reading and writing in my kindergarten classroom with continued success.
Literacy Showcase
Early literacy is the foundation for continued academic success. As an early childhood educator, I am able to help my students become confident early readers and writers. These early literacy skills will stay with them as they gain new skills important for reading and writing fluency. This literacy showcase captures the important components of literacy education and how I have implemented them into my own classroom curriculum. At my school, our school wide goal for the past several years has primarily been focused on teaching children to read and write from kindergarten and beyond. In my classroom, many students come to school without any background knowledge in basic literacy skills. This lack of foundational skills makes their first year in school critical in establishing the building blocks for future success in literacy. The following showcase highlights my work in early literacy, writing and teaching to individual student learning styles. These samples will show how I have implemented several research based techniques into my own teaching of early reading and writing in my kindergarten classroom with continued success.
Early Literacy Through the Use of Technology
In TE846, the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model was used as a framework to improve student differentiation. I was able to use UDL to eliminate traditional academic barriers often found in basic instruction For this class, I implemented a new online program to meet the various literacy needs of my students. The program, Starfall, offered interactive activities for early literacy skills, such as letter recognition and phonics. I found Starfall to be a valid learning tool for my entire kindergarten population because it offered many levels of letter identification and phonics lessons. Starfall also offered more advanced kindergarten students an online reading option so they had opportunities to practice reading independently online. Motivation to Write Independently
The course CEP802 allowed me many opportunities to implement new ideas into my daily classroom writer's workshop. My student design project focused on a child in my class who refused to write and used multiple forms of avoidance behaviors during our Write Well program each day. By coming up with a concrete plan, I was able to individually work with this student to find out the reasons why he avoids writing. Through the use of positive praise, he began developing better writing pieces and he was able to grow into a more effective writer. I learned the value in increasing task interest in writing by allowing my students to write on topics they enjoyed rather than writing on a topic selected by the teacher. I also incorporated the use of more personalized and effective praise techniques to motivate my students during writing. Motivational
Goal for a Struggling Writer In CEP802, I was able to learn about ways to increase task interest and value for children who lack motivation to learn. Before completion of the above design project, I was able to implement new techniques to help one particular student develop a more personal interest in becoming a better writer. This essay was assigned after our class conducted a sink or float experiment. My students had to write about the scientific process in their journals. By giving this child an experience he enjoyed, he was able to follow our 5 Star Writing rubric for early elementary and could produce an independently written piece of work.
Meeting Individual Learning Needs
In this essay for ED800, I wrote about how different teaching philosophies that have been established affect how teachers meet the academic and social needs of children as learners. This essay discusses the work of John Dewey and his progressive education philosophy compared to E.D. Hirsch and his traditional approach to the education of children. While each of these individuals hold educational viewpoints that have their own positive merits, I found that as a classroom teacher in today's society, I must strike a balance between many educational theories to meet the individual learning and social needs of my students. Thank you for visiting my Literacy Showcase page. |
Differentiating Literacy Instruction
My school uses the Response to Intervention (RTI) model to meet the needs of students who are struggling with reading. For this TE842 course, I redesigned the RTI model to better meet the needs of my kindergarten students. My goal was to apply the theories and effective models used in best practices for early literacy and kindergarten reading skills. I also used RTI to better differentiate instruction to meet the literacy needs of all students in my classroom. I was able to create and implement a new plan to better utilize my district mandated reading series through the best practices framework. My favorite part of this project was incorporating technology into my classroom literacy interventions with great success. Literacy Intervention for a Struggling Reader
This literacy mini-project was developed during TE842 for a kindergarten student entering my classroom in the spring. This student had never attended formal school in a kindergarten program. She had been to an all day babysitter who worked with her. She had the basic skills mastered, such a letter recognition and phonics knowledge, but she really lacked the ability to transfer those basic skills into reading grade level appropriate decodable books. Her phonemic awareness skills were also lacking compared to the rest of the class. I was really challenged to find ways to differentiate reading instruction to meet her high needs in literacy. One of my biggest challenges was finding time to work with her on an individual basis to teach her 6 months worth of kindergarten reading skills that her classmates have already been taught. Response to Intervention & KPALS
During my TE842 class, I was able to focus on my use of Response to Intervention (RTI) techniques to improve student performance in literacy. When I took this course, the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Success (DIBELS) was our main source of literacy assessment in my district. In order to help my students meet their DIBELS goals, I began using a program designed especially for kindergarten called Kindergarten Peer Assisted Literacy Strategies (KPALS) with great success. Our assessments have changed since then, but I still continue to use KPALS in the classroom as an intervention activity.
Wikispace for Reading
and KPALS Information During TE831, I was able to design a Wikispace for both Math and Literacy topics. My two favorite pages focus on literacy. The first page is Family Reading Fun and it gives information to parents about why reading at home is important and ways they can help their child develop a love of reading. The second page focuses on KPALS for teachers. I created this page to provide information to other teachers in my district who may be interested in using KPALS in their own classroom. it describes the program outline and benefits I have seen in my classroom. Click on the KPALS book to view my Wikipage.
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