LITERACY STRATEGIES

Describe the classroom environment.

Print rich and varied environment, involving a reading area. The learning environment
designed to encourage students to explore and apply the knowledge and skills.

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 is a print rich environment which give students lots of opportunities to engage and
motivate them to read. There is a variety of texts in the reading area and around the
classroom such as:
Weekly vocabulary, so the students practice reading and writing these words every day until
they can write them by themselves without copying.
Classroom rules, when a student make something wrong the teacher ask him/her to re-read
the classroom rule so he/she know that they have to follow the rules.
Time table, include their classes schedule so they know what they have next secessions.
School vision, to practice read it every day because in the morning assembly everyday each
day a class have to say the vision.
Weekly plan, the purpose of the weekly plan board is to give the students an idea of what
they will learn this week and know what expected from them.
Flash cards.
HFW, it help the students in writing when they forget some words they can
look to word study corner which involve a variety of high frequency words.
Labels for areas, each area in the class is labeled with big font so students
can see it clearly. Another purpose of labels is to organize the classroom.

Is there a variety of books and genres in the class? Mention

some. How are they displayed?
Yes there is a variety of different genres of books in the reading area which are displayed in organize way in
the book shelves.. This reading area give the students opportunities for independent reading because there is
a variety of books genres for example, there may be fiction books, non-fiction, picture story books, picture
books and traditional literature books such as folktales, fairytales and fables.

Describe the reading area in your classroom.

The reading area is designed in the left corner at the end of the class far from the other noisy areas, so it's in
quite place and provided with comfy pillows and a lots of amazing and attractive puppets. Moreover, the
stories and books are chosen to motivate and engage the students with books that fire their
imagination and interest.

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

Yes the teacher read for them but not everyday, sometimes she read for
them shared reading where she discusses and models reading strategies.
She start reading by Introducing the story and showing them front cover
and ask questions about the title, the picture etc.
Then she motivate and encourage them to predict what they think the story will be
about and she give them the opportunity to talk briefly about their own experiences
relevant to the story which make them excited because they linked the story to
something related to them. After that the teacher read the sentences in the story by
pointing on each word and allow the students to join reading if they can or repeat with
her if there is repetition sentences. After they finish reading they go through the story
again and the teacher encourage the students to retell the story in their own words.
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

Three times a week the In my four weeks of Everyday there is

Sometimes the teacher make for them practicing I didn't saw independent reading
teacher read for shared reading, where the guided reading in my class. but not for all of the
them a short story students set in circle and students. This type of
aloud at the end of the teacher start reading happen when
the day while they introducing the story by some students set in the
waiting for their asking them about the reading area and choose
parents to come. In cover page, then motivate the book that match
this reading type and encourage them to their interest and
the students set as predict what the story will practice reading.
they like and the be talking about. After that
teacher turn off the she complete reading and
lights to help them the teacher point on each
imagine the story word and allow them to
and some of the participate in reading
students close their when they can. When
eyes to imagine they finish the story she
more while they give the opportunity to
listening to a retell the story in their
fluency and clear own words.
reading.
Consider how the teacher reminds children of any concepts of
print when reading? (left-to-right, top to bottom, punctuation,
author, illustrator, etc)

When the teacher read she use the concepts of print from the bigging to the end of reading the book and she
keep asking them about the concepts of print to check their understanding of the concepts such as: Book
orientation knowledge, directionality concept, concepts of words and letters, punctuations marks and capitalization.
So when the teacher introduce the book she check their book concepts by asking them about the back and cover page,
title and author name. When she open the book she start asking about directionality concepts like the bottom of the
page and begging of the page. When she want to check their concepts of words of letters she ask them to show her
specific words and letters, also for capitalization and punctuations concepts she ask them to find capital letters and
punctuations.

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 recognize the word and get the
meaning.
The teacher tech them phonics in order to develop their reading and writing skills and
clarify for them the idea that letters and letter pattern represent the sound of spoken
language and if the child know that there is relationship between sounds and letters
he/she will be able to apply these relationships to the words and begin to read fluency.
One of the phonics lesson that I observe with my MST is the Vowel Pairs oa , ow,
where she implemented activities to support them, she started by showing them flash
cards with pictures and words with oa,ow sound while she read and students repeat
after her, then she asked them to find new words with this sound. After that she
played for them a song to clarify the sounds in way that they like and help them. At
the end she asked them to write in their notebooks a sentence including a word with
this sound and she scaffold the low ability students by giving them many words and
some of these words are with the sound oa,ow and they have to choose the correct
word then use it in the sentence.

What comprehension strategies are the children learning/using?

The students used many comprehension strategies when they can't read some words, some strategies that they
were using are: Use letter sounds, brake the word into chunks,
look at the pictures, re-read the sentence and jump over the word that they stuck on.

Ask your teacher about special reading events carried out in the
school.

In the school there is very special reading events such as, Book Fairs, Reading Challenge in arabic and
english, World Book Day, also there is a reading test that is undertaken by ADEC and it used to measure the
UAE's reading in schools compared to other countries.
 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.

In my teaching practice at American school of creative science I realized that they

focus on reading skills and try to improve it in challenging and that because as they
think and his Highness Sheikh Mohammed think that without challenges success and
excellence won't exist. Otherwise, reading habits determine the achievements of
students to a great extent, so both of reading and academic achievements are linked
and dependent on each other.
I observed many activities and the most three ones that I liked and I will use them in
the future are king of reading challenge, reading aloud at the end of the day and the
independent reading every day because it encourage them to choose and peruse books
freely and have the opportunity to choose the book that match with their interests and
imaginations, so independent reading is a source of pleasure and interest and motivates
them to value reading. Also as I said I liked king of reading challenge, the idea of this
challenge is each month the students have to read books and summarize them and at the end
of the month the teachers see who read more and he will win and be the king of reading for
the month, I think it an effective activity for the students which motivate them to read more
and more.