Does Collaborative Learning Support Literacy?

I believe collaborative learning supports literacy in many ways. While working in small groups, students can use strategies to engage in discussion and enhance one another’s understanding of text. Teacher and student collaboration is essential in the classroom and when constructed properly, literacy is supported. Reciprocal teaching for the primary grades involves three different phases and for example one of which requires students to engage in RTPG while the teacher participates through the role of facilitator/leader of the group. As they proceed onto the third phase, students participate in RTPG groups but report their responses to the teacher. Collaborative learning truly allows the teacher to continue to monitor and scaffold the students as they move to independent practice. Collaborative learning also has a positive impact when RTPG is used with the reading basal, content are textbooks, and trade books. For example, with the reading basal students can interact with their peers and collaborate in a manner where the teacher is not always the one they depend on. By instilling a sense of independence in children, the students can read the text with their assigned buddy and without any teacher assistance. I also find collaborative learning positively influencing literacy especially when it comes to choral reading, or when the class reads the text aloud together. This allows for students to develop fluency, but also the second reading in which the students encounter helps those who struggle with reading the text with their buddy or who were not able to finish reading the text on their own. Collaborative learning allows for students to participate and take on leadership skills as they lead in their reading groups. By giving students this opportunity, they can interact with others who may have a bit more experience with the RTPG routine, for example. Also, by collaborating in a manner where groups take turns to report their predictions and purposes for reading to the class (while the teacher records them), allows for the teacher to continue to monitor the students’ use of strategies and scaffold their progress when needed. Overall, I believe collaborative learning supports literacy and allows for whole-class discussion to occur while having students engaged in buddy reading and choral reading of text. Truly, students are capable of devoting more attention to discussing and comprehending the text they read through RTPG as well as learn to coordinate, and apply comprehension strategies while working in collaborative groups.

Reader's Workshop

I envision Reader's Workshop as a great way of managing reading instruction instead of workbooks and worksheets. As stated in the article, "Organizing for Effective Instruction: The Reading Workshop,"Osborn, Wilson, and Anderson remind us that workbook and worksheet pages provide only prefuntory levels of reading practice. I envision Reader's Workshop as a time for to students to have ownership of their time. Through reading workshops, students should be given the opportunities to make choices about how they will spend their reading time. This workshop is a time for reading to be a primary activity incorportaed with other language modes such as writing, speaking and listening. Also, it is a time where teachers can model to students the importance of reading. Regular demonstrations of reading strategies are essential for an effective reading workshop to take place. I envision reader's workshop consisting of five main components: sharing time, the mini lesson, state-of-the-class, self-selected reading and response, and sharing time once more. In reader's workshop, sharing time includes teacher's sharing new discoveries they have made in literature. This will help to encourage students to look into various literary genres for free reading time. I see the role of mini-lessons as short and whole group instructional sessions for demonstrating reading strategies and preparing students to read new books both successfully and independently. While avoiding the use of worksheets made as a the primary means of practice, mini-lessons allow for teacher's to fulfill local curriculum mandates in regards to student performance (goals/objectives). Another role for mini-lessons is in prereading activities. This aims to have students recall past experiences before reading inorder to enhance reading comprehension. The activities in mini lessons prior to reading help teacher's create a stronger and more positive atmosphere for their students.  Overall, topics for mini-lessons are usually taken from what students need more of (as seen in their individual reading conferences), teacher-selected skills, and prereading activities to help students with new books they choose to read in their literature response groups. State-of-the-class, another component of reading workshop structure, is one I envision that informs the teacher and individual students of their responsibilties and progress during the workshop period. From this component, children develop a sense of responsibility through simple record keeping. This also provides the teacher with information regarding daily student activity. Self-selected reading and response involves three student activities in reading workshop: self-selected reading, literature response, and individual reading conferences. Lastly, I envision reader's workshop to close with an activity in which sharing with the teacher and other peers is essential for a few minutes, whether it is an activity, project or book. I believe student involvement is a major aspect of reading workshop which also allows for students to have a sense of taking control of their own reading instruction. Overall, the flexibility of reading workshops aids in organizing for effectvie reading instruction.

Weekend Journal

I recall throughout my elementary years always having a "Weekend Journal." In this journal, we were given the opportunity to free write about how we spent our weekends. I always looked forward to this assignment, which was almost always completed on the Monday we returned from the weekend. My teacher's did not just want to see us write, but to also use our creativity by drawing a picture that corresponds with what we had written. For a Monday morning, I think this is a great way to get children back into the swing of things by giving them some flexibility in their assignment while still practicing their writing skills. As a college student, I look back at these journals and find it very beneficial for one to complete at a young age. Last semester, throughout my field work experience with 1st graders-- I also realized that "Weekend Journals" are still a part of the classroom along with an "Author's Book"which consisted of writing from each student whenever they had free time throughout the class day. I noticed that when children were given the option to free write in their journal/"book"they tended to choose another activity that they found more interesting, such as one of the centers in the classroom. I found that it was the children who exceled more in reading and writing that showed the interest and actully took the time to write during their free time.

Memories of Language Arts

My memory of language arts varied throughout my elementary school years. Worksheets consisting of nouns, verbs and adjectives were frequently distributed during the grades of 2^nd and 3^rd grade. After some time, one was able to quickly distinguish amongst the different categories of words. Monthly book reports were also common in the 3^rd grade.  I recall having the option to choose which book to complete my book report on, while at times the teacher would choose a genre or gear the book report towards a specific topic. Spelling tests were also a major part of the language arts curriculum. A sheet was always given in the beginning of the week which included words to know as well as words that were considered “challenging.” We were given the week to practice spelling these words through different contexts and then were to take the given spelling test on Friday’s. Also, reading comprehension was frequently tested throughout my elementary years. There came a point where the difference between reading to learn and learning to read was crucial. As the years passed, teachers would constantly ask questions after reading a story or have to write up a summary based on what was comprehended from the story or reading. When reading a variety of books, I recall being asked to relate what took place in the story to a real-world experience that one has encountered. This allowed for students to engage in the material they were provided with. Compare and contrast was also a major aspect of language arts during my elementary and middle school years. Comparisons were made between books as well as characters. Having to complete current events was also common for me in my 3^rd grade classroom. This included researching a current article (newspaper or magazine) and summarizing it while concentrating on the key points of the given information. We would also take turns presenting and sharing the information we discovered with our peers. Also, I recall having to do writing prompts based on a given topic during 4^th and 5^th grade. These prompts were timed and then scored on a numerical basis. Laslty, throughout middle school and high school, writing was based on opinion, research or trying to persuade our readers into a given stance. Overall, my experience with language arts through my elementary, middle and high school years was beneficial and has left a positive impact on me.