Teaching of English/Literacy
DEAR Time:
I try to allow for ten/fifteen minutes a day of dear time. This doesn’t always happen unfortunately as I run out of time, but silent independent reading is an absolutely integral part of the day in the senior classes. It may be the only bit of reading they do, so I will try do it every day from now on!
I ordered these books from Scholastic for DEAR time. Some of the children in the class are reading books at home themselves and I allow them to continue reading those. Some others don’t have a tremendous interest in reading, and that is why I ordered these! They are the horrible histories, science, geography and horribly famous sets. They are easy to read, have pictures, the text is broken down into almost comic style format, and they seem far less onerous a read for those less enthusiastic readers!
I set up a class library system for these books. I pick two children a week who hand out the tickets, which state who borrowed the book and the date it is due back. It is a nice classroom job to have, and it gives them more ownership over their classroom library.
Comprehension Strategies:
I use the Prim Ed comprehension box twice weekly. The children can work independently on this. They each receive a staged story, ( staged according to ability) and move on through the levels as they progress. I tend to use stations for comprehension work, but both work.
Grammar/Punctuation.
I spend fifteen minutes daily on punctuation and grammar. Since returning to school we have revised verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives, capital letters, and conjunctions. I will be giving a short Friday test on the grammar we have covered from this week on wards. Constant revision is the key to retaining and understanding grammar.
Whole Class Reading:
I am still waiting on my class novel to be delivered, so in the mean time we are reading comprehension handouts together as a class. This is not ideal as it is more difficult to differentiate but it is only for this week.
Oral Language:
The first fifteen minutes in the morning are oral language time where we share news, stories, riddles etc.
Writing:
This week we are integrating out writing with our poetry. I hope to start narrative writing on Wednesday, and we will spend a few weeks on this.
My writing activities will also be based on the class novel once they arrive!
Poetry
I will be doing a poem a week with my class. They will also be exploring and writing through different styles of poetry.
Free Writing:
I do free writing twice a week. I use my Prim Ed prompt box and the children write a story based on the prompt, or out of their own imaginations.
Spellings:
The children learn ten spellings a night and write ten sentences based on the spellings. The spelling test on Friday then consists of twenty five words. Samples of my spelling sheets can be freely downloaded from my site.
This book by Folens is great for literacy too.
That is a brief overview of how I approach English in my classroom with 5th and 6th. I may change it all again next week but I am satisfied with it thus far.