My Literacy Block

My Literacy Block in Grade Four: 

My Literacy Block in Grade Four Kelly Jordan, 2012

Reading Strategy – 15 mins: 

Reading Strategy – 15 mins We focus on one CAFÉ strategy each week. We choose the strategy based on student needs. We have our CAFÉ Menu on display and once a strategy has been taught, it is put up on the menu.

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We use stories or texts on the IWB or occasionally big books to model and demonstrate the reading strategy. Reading Strategy

Independent Reading – 15 mins: 

Independent Reading – 15 mins Students choose a “good fit” book and read independently. They are to practise the reading strategy just covered with the class. During this time, I read with individual students.

Blogging – 15 mins: 

Blogging – 15 mins Our class blog is a big part of our daily program. Every day we check our blog, read new posts and read/respond to comments. We also visit our “blogging buddies” blogs.

Blogging: 

Blogging Our focus on blogging during the literacy block is on reading and writing. We use blog posts and blog comments to explicitly teach a variety of literacy skills, including: Spelling Punctuation Vocabulary Reading with expression and fluency Paragraphs, sentence structure etc Parts of speech Grammar and text conventions The list goes on!

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Reading Groups – 30 mins Students work on one reading activity each day in ability groups. Due to time restraints, we don’t follow the Daily 5 routine, but we have adapted some of the ideas from the program. The focus is on reading .

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Reading Groups Our students often do the following activities during Reading Groups: Listen to reading – students often listen to a story on the iPod and complete a response. The focus here is comprehension. Other weeks, students use apps and activities to focus on different areas of reading and literacy.

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Reading Groups Our students do the following activities during Reading Groups: Work on writing – students use our class netbooks to reply to comments on our class blog OR write comments on our blogging buddies’ blogs.

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Reading Groups Our students do the following activities during Reading Groups: Independent reading OR Read to Someone - Students practise the reading strategies, reading individually or with a partner.

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Reading Groups Our students do the following activities during Reading Groups: Word Work - Students practise their spelling words in a variety of ways (we use the Sound Waves spelling program).

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Reading Groups Our students do the following activities during Reading Groups: Guided Reading – I work with students on a text, focussing on comprehension, word attack skills, vocabulary, identifying text features, making meaning from the text etc.

Modifying Guided Reading: 

Modifying Guided Reading I am always reflecting on my literacy teaching and I have no doubt I will continue to modify my structure to best meet the needs of my students. Of particular interest to me is how I can best cater for individual needs during Guided Reading. Now that I am teaching Grade Four and have many excellent readers with sophisticated vocabulary and high levels of comprehension, I plan to investigate how different strategies can work. Some students will obviously still require formal guided reading with higher levels of support. For my very capable readers, I am looking forward to looking into how reciprocal reading, literature circles, individual conferences etc can extend their learning .

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Writing – 45 mins Our writing activity each day varies, depending on our focus. Our Grade Four students often complete writing activities over a couple of days. Sometimes we ask students to think of an idea/brainstorm/research some facts at home prior to the writing lessons. Our focus this term has been descriptive writing. Students need to use adjectives to make their writing interesting. We also place a big emphasis on editing writing to eliminate “silly” mistakes.

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Writing Our writing program varies, but it is structured roughly as following: Monday – Students write a recount about their weekend. The focus is based on student need. Examples include punctuation, using paragraphs and adding adjectives. Tuesday – Every second Tuesday students are tested on a unit of 25 words from the Sound Waves program. (Alternate Tuesdays – genre writing. See next slide). Wednesday – Genre writing (see next slide).

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Writing Thursday – Handwriting. We are focussing on joined writing in Grade Four and students earn a pen licence when they demonstrate consistently neat joined-up writing. Friday – Every second Friday, students work in pairs and test each other on their individual spelling words. I record their results. (Alternate Fridays – genre writing. See below). We have different genres to focus on each term. This term, we have covered descriptive writing. We try to link our current integrated studies topic into writing sessions to make it meaningful for our students.

Reflection: 

Reflection Our “reflection” or “share time” usually focuses on the CAFÉ strategy we are currently learning about. During independent reading (or Read to Someone, Guided Reading etc ) students focus on the strategy and we often discuss how the students went with this. Examples might include – jotting down interesting or new vocabulary, checking for understanding with a partner, demonstrating how to back up and re-read or modelling how to read with expression during a Readers’ Theatre.