Classroom Video: Choral Reading

           Choral reading is reading aloud with a whole class or group of students. Choral reading is important to children because they can build reading fluency. As they practice same sentence several time, children’s fluency will develop a lot. Choral reading is helpful for children to have self-confidence. Especially a child who feels self-conscious or nervous about reading aloud in front of classmates can get self-esteem from presentation. As children practice choral reading, children also can improve with vocabulary knowledge in fun ways. Then it is automatically related to enjoyment of literature.  Lastly, children can have good collaboration with peers during practice and presentation time. During choral reading, children should have same beats and say sentence together at the same time, children will have good harmony.

Classroom Video: Literacy Choice Time

           The video, Literacy Choice Time, has several good ways to communicate with children. I see that the teacher respects children’s thoughts and choices and the children also try to have good interaction with the teachers. After I watch the video, I learn several things.

           I firstly learn how the teacher leads children to think, explain, and connect to their reading as they teacher asks questions. Each child has their own thoughts on their reading and interacts with their reading differently. Because of that, teachers need to interact with children differently. As the video shows, children can have different answers even thought the teacher asks the same question.

           Next, I learn how the teacher makes children develop problem solving skills. The teacher asks children that how they know and why they think that way. As children find reasons for their answers, children can improve their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Also the teacher uses blanks when she asks questions.

           Lastly, the teacher always agrees with children’s thoughts. This is very important because children should feel that they are respected by other people. As teachers provide this learning environment, children can have more confidence about their ideas and willing to express their thoughts.

Maturation Discourse

Maturation discourse can be defined how much children have “readiness” for reading. However, teachers often tend to focus on standard and apply that to children. Because each child’s reading levels are different and their learning styles are also different, teachers should not teach them with same book or instructions for every student.

Teachers can assess children for readiness with using fine motor skills and letter naming/recognition. As children are assessed with those methods, they can have better instructions that are matched with their level. As teachers identify each child’s maturation discourse level, children can catch up their peers during kindergarten.