Comprehension

Being in a first grade classroom, comprehension is one of the most important concepts that students must learn in reading. I have seen many strategies in my main placement. Here are a few examples.

Two weeks ago was parent teacher conference and every meeting that my master teacher and I had she emphasized the importance of reading comprehension. She gave all the parents two sets of bookmarkers that are questions to ask students after they done reading a book to help with comprehension.

Every week, the first grade classrooms have a switch a roo, where the “high readers” go to the other first grade class, where my main teacher gets those that need a bit more help as she is more experience in reading switch. Each day the class is broken up by colors, red, green, yellow, and blue groups. This groups were put together in the beginning of the year according to their results that both first grade teachers had assessed in September. My main teacher’s strategy helps students with comprehension and phonic awareness. One group goes to word building, another listens to a book on tape, another goes to the table to work on a phonic worksheet, and the other groups reads with her, and twice a week the story that they are reading is the book that they are listening to on tape, to help with fluency. At the end of the week students are able to retell the story and answer questions about the story that they have read and listened too.

I am a reader

Routman proposes five things to ensure students become excellent readers. Out of her list of five I would demonstrate that importance of showing the students that I am a reader. When I began volunteering in classrooms several years ago, I began to realize that teachers would take at least 15 minutes of their day to gather the class together and read aloud to them. I always assumed that the reason for this is that it provided a “brain break” for learning for the student and teaching for the teacher. After reading Routman especially in the last chapters I have come to a different perspective of why teachers read to students, it is to show them that they are readers and that reading can be fun.

In chapter 3 she writes that she shares her passion for reading with her students. How reading a book gives her joy, happiness, comfort, etc. Sharing that type of enthusiasm with students is important. As Routman states many times in her first three chapters, students admire teachers and see them as role models and one great hobby that we can share with students is reading. My master teacher shares this with her class by making it a habit at the end of second recess, she has the students wash their hands, sit down on the carpet, hands them snacks and reads to them while they are eating and engaged.

Another topic that Routman stated in chapter 2 was the importance of bonding with students. In my dyad placement I witnessed my master teacher bonding with his students by using stories and books that he would read. For example there was a student that interested in mysteries, therefore he would share with her the types of books that he used to read when he was younger and hoping that she would take an interest in them as well. He told me one day that it is important to tell your students that you are a reader and to read to them in class as it does open up new ideas for them, and you’re not wasting time as you are engaging their minds.

The Importance of Trust

“We teachers have the power to make magic happen in our classrooms. Once our students bond with us and trust us, anything is possible.”

The quote that I chose to discuss is on page 14 of Routman. She just finished explaining her story of entering a classroom of first graders who claimed that they couldn’t read. In the process she told them that she was a magician and promised by the end of the week on Friday that all of them would be able to read as they were going to write a book titled, “We Can.” The point of this story was to illustrate the importance of bonding with our students emphasizing on the issue of trust.

I chose this quote because I feel that I am in the same situation in my main placement. I am also in a first grade classroom where both first grade teachers decided on doing a reading switcharoo, where my main teacher is in charge of those students that need more help with reading. As this is their first year trying out this method, my master teacher has indicated to me several challenges, one of them being the lack of bonding with each student from the other classroom.

After reading this chapter I can see how it would be important for my teacher to have that trust and bondage with the other students. Just last week one of the students, from the other classroom, started to cry as he felt that my master teacher was being to hard on him, and shared his frustrations by stating that he would rather be with the other teacher, because “she isn’t mean.” As the class was over my master teacher shared with me that she wishes she could spend more time with them and getting to know them better. She knew that student had a difficult time with reading, but was not “in the bottom.”

I agreed with her, but at the same time I didn’t know what she exactly meant by that but I had some idea of what she was trying to say. After reading this chapter I have a better understanding of what she meant. She needs for him to trust her and know that she is not there to get him, wants him to fail, or to embarrass him. And that her main motive is to get him read and to learn the best of his ability. Without that trust factor, it will be more difficult for him to learn. As Routman says later on in the paragraph, “we learn more, and learning is easier, when we trust our mentors and colleagues.” The same goes for our students.