Literacy

As you may have read in my Home page, **I am a teacher who values independent reading time** for a few reasons: so students can explore literature, find what type of books captivate them, and actually read for enjoyment. Students must have access to various genres and level appropriate literature to enhance their reading experience and skills.

Not only is independent reading time important, but other classroom **literature experiences should be powerful** so the students may prosper and succeed in all other subject areas.

During a literacy block, there are many tasks to accomplish including: readers workshop; literature circles; word study; guided reading; reading conferences; read alouds; running records and DRA's; and literature study. Although all of these things may not take place during one hour of readers workshop, there are ways to incorporate all of these aspects over time.

TR: Teacher's Role || TR: || TR: || TR: || TR: || TR: || TR: || TR: || TR: Teacher's Role || TR: || TR: || TR: || TR: || TR: || TR: || TR: Teacher's Role || TR: || TR: || TR: || TR: || TR: || TR: ||
 * Take a look at the sample literacy block below that I have created based on the Fountas and Pinnell literacy framework, classroom experiences, and personal beliefs. This is a five-day schedule with a two hour block of time set for literacy each day.
 * = = Monday, Wednesday = ||||= SR: Student's Role
 * 9:00-9:15 |||| Reading Mini- Lesson |||| SR:
 * 9:15-9:45 |||| Guided/ Independent Reading |||| SR:
 * 9:45-9:55 |||| Group Conference/ Close |||| SR:
 * 9:55-10:10 |||| Writing Mini- Lesson |||| SR:
 * 10:10-10:40 |||| Independent Writing |||| SR:
 * 10:40-10:55 |||| Writing Conference with a Partner |||| SR:
 * 10:55-11:00 |||| Close |||| SR:
 * = = Tuesday, Thursday = ||||= SR: Student's Role
 * 9:00-9:15 |||| Interactive Read Aloud |||| SR:
 * 9:15-9:45 |||| Literature Circles |||| SR:
 * 9:45-10:00 |||| Writing Mini- Lesson |||| SR:
 * 10:00-10:30 |||| Independent Writing |||| SR:
 * 10:30-10:35 |||| Group Conference/ Close |||| SR:
 * 10:35-11:00 |||| Independent Reading |||| SR:
 * = = Friday = ||||= SR: Student's Role
 * 9:00-9:15 |||| Read Aloud |||| SR:
 * 9:15-9:40 |||| Book Club |||| SR:
 * 9:40-10:05 |||| Word Work/ Language Study |||| SR:
 * 10:05-10:35 |||| Independent Writing |||| SR:
 * 10:35-10:45 |||| Peer Conference/ Peer Revisions |||| SR:
 * 10:45-11:00 |||| Independent Reading |||| SR:

=Assessment=

__Formative__ assessments should be given throughout every lesson. This could be something you noticed the students are struggling with or even a post-it students write notes on that show what they learned. These small assessments help you drive your instruction daily based on the needs of the students. __Summative__ assessments should be done at the end of a unit, like a unit test for example. By the time the students are given a summative assessment, the teacher should already be confident of the student's success because her instruction was based on constant formative assessments.
 * I believe that assessment drives instruction.**


 * = === Types of Formative Assessment === ||= === Types of Summative Assessment === ||
 * **-** Running Records || **-** Published writing ||
 * **-** taking notice of students strengths and needs throughout the day || **-** Unit tests ||
 * **-** Post-it notes with examples from their books of what was learned in class (Ex: use of alliteration from their ind. reading books) || **-** Completed assignments that demonstrate what they have learned after a lesson has been completed ||


 * Below are two formative assessments I conducted after two lessons**. The first picture shows formative assessment; **students wrote a prediction on a post-it note during a read aloud (the prediction point in the story was predetermined).** The second picture shows summative assessment**; after the lesson, demonstration, and guided practice, students individually highlighted the main idea, underlined a supporting detail, and explained how the details supports the main idea on two separate post-it notes.



=Standards=

The skills I teach are based on formative assessment, the standards, and curriculum. My assessment, then, is also based on the standards; what the students need to learn and //can// learn.

[|Common Core Standards]