Teacher+engagement

**Observations of teaching approaches and comparisons to ideal models in professional reading** The aim of this exercise is to observe a Literacy Block session in order to identify teaching approaches (e.g. Modeled writing/Shared reading) and compare them to ideal models described in professional readings. The literacy block is usually a two-hour session, however following lessons of the current topic, “Look at me now” needed to be finished so the teacher could start a new focus. There was no guided reading session in the program. The teacher, however, gave me an overview on how she conducts guided reading. The literacy block focused on nursery rhymes and included shared and independent reading as well as modeled and independent writing.

**Reading** During the shared reading, the teacher connects to other poems the children know, such as “Jack and the Beanstalk” and draws attention to phonemes (sounds) and word families (exploring connections with sounds and visual letters). It is conducted in a group and allows children to explore the conventions of print and the reading process (Hill: 73). There are various similarities to the teacher’s methods and ideal models in professional readings. During the reading of "Old Mother Hubbard", the teacher assists the children in reading the text and the children read in various ways, such as reading with actions once they are comfortable with the text. They solve problems together by identifying tough words and gaining an understanding of the type of text. They learn that "Old Mother Hubbard" is a rhyme and explore what makes it a rhyme. The teacher has the opportunity to teach phonemic awareness. She discusses the /ake/ sound in b/ake/ and c/ake/ and makes analogies between the known words b/ake/ and c/ake/ with other sounds and their rhyming words (e.g. the /at/ sound with the words m/at/ and c/at/). The aspects of shared book include repetition, pace, pointing and masking print, language experience, innovating on literacy structure and the aspect of the phonetic principle (Hill: 77).

When teaching new words, the teacher stretches out the word for the children to hear (e.g. "trampoline"). Some teacher's prefer to teach word families and others prefer to blend words (Hill: 250). Hill (2006) says, "Learning to blend sounds together is a very important step in learning to read". The teacher I observed used the blending the whole word strategy through helping the children to blend each letter-sound. She moved her finger under each sound and the children blended the sounds out aloud. As written in Hill (2006), the children held the sound vocally without stopping and carried it out through to the next sound of the word. They then go back to the beginning with the teacher moving her finger more quickly under the word.

Hill (2006) draws on games for making letter-sound connections. She speaks about matching games such as jigsaw letters and a matching letter game (Hill: 247). The teacher observed in the literacy program also included matching games in her approach to teaching. The puzzle (pictured below) was played in small groups, which provided social interaction and discussion on the task. It was focused on matching words, pictures and letters (both uppercase and lowercase) and assisted in recognition of letters and words that start with the letter, as well as an accompanying picture. Bingo was also a game that was played during the program and recognised in professional readings. It was different, however to the way it is described in Hill (2006), as the teacher was involved in the activity. This is because she added to the game by covering the letter on the card that had an accompanying picture and asked the children to say what the picture was so they could hear the sound of the first letter and determine if they had the same letter on their boards. It was used has a hearing the sound exercise.

During activities (which are closely related to the book in the shared reading) children have the opportunity to read independently by reading a text at their independent reading level. In the guided reading, the teacher usually has a couple of groups in each literacy program. The group members are at the same level of reading and the text is usually chosen to give the readers a new challenge. The teacher uses a big book instead of the children having individual copies of the same text as described by Hill (2006). She talks through the text with the children various aspects of it, such as format and genre.

**Writing** The teacher shows modeled writing by writing words on the board that are relevant to the children's learning. She wrote words such as 'mat' and 'cat' so children could visually see the words, recognise what makes them rhyme and hopefully build them into their memory banks. When speaking about the topic "Now I can", she modeled the writing by putting the text on the board "Now I can play on the trampoline", and also made a list of other verbs that the children spoke about for the topic. The modeled writing demonstrates simple sentence formations.

The independent writing has the purpose of building fluency and motivation. It also allows children to express ideas (Hill: 88). The teacher used the worksheet "Now I can" in order to test their fine motor skills, practice writing on the lines and the ability to follow with their eyes. She said that some children don't see the "Now I can" that is already written on the sheet and write it again.

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