Kristina Arkhipova

English 414
Richard Burke
December 8, 2016

Comprehensive Plan
As a teacher, my vision for childrens literature and its role in my elementary school classroom is
multi-layered. My first objective would be to introduce children to the joy of reading. Children
need to understand that literature is extensive and will serve many purposes. I want to teach my
students, that through reading, they can gain knowledge and experiences. I will incorporate
childrens literature into my class both formally and informally. My role as the educator is to
ensure that my children are able to read and write. Additionally, I also need to provide reading
experiences that are interesting and meaningful. Therefore, in planning how to teach literature in
my elementary classroom, I have much to consider. I have selected a first-grade classroom to
focus my comprehensive plan for childrens literature.
Governing Principles
Reading will occur every day in my classroom and be a meaningful and engaging experience for
my students. My instructional practices will reflect an approach that balances reading skills and
exposure to a variety genres of literature. It is my hope, that literature will extend outside of my
classroom through a variety of reading experiences at home. At the end of the school year, my
goal is to have a classroom of boys and girls that understand the purpose of reading, are
confident in their phonetic skills, and love to read.

Class Activities
In my first-grade classroom, there will be a variety of literature based activities for my students.
My students need to understand that literature involves reading and writing, and can be found in
all learning experiences throughout the day. For first grades, who are beginning readers, they
need time to understand and practice the process of reading. Therefore, I will use oral readings to
model reading from left to right. Read alouds will occur daily in my classroom. During this time,
I will discuss vocabulary, story structure, and the theme of the story. Through conversations with
my students, I will help them investigate the big idea. I will provide reading material that is age
appropriate and diverse in content. It is important that my students have books to choose from
with pictures and words. I will organize a classroom library for students that would be inviting to
my students and be manageable for me. Phonics is an important part of reading and will be
taught each day. Phonemic awareness teaches children that letters have sounds and when put
together, these sounds create words, and words come together to make sentences. Writing would
be an important component in my class. Having students write is valuable in many ways. First,
students need an opportunity to apply the phonics they are learning in class. Writing allows them
to develop beginning, middle and end sounds, and even though this is usually done through
inventive spelling, it is still very beneficial. I will encourage creative writing in my class. This
will allow my students to write stories that tell about personal experiences. They will also write
in response to stories that we have read in class. I would like readers workshop to be part of my
first-grade reading program. Readers workshop helps build a community of classroom readers
and creates opportunities for students to read, write and talk about a variety of ideas. It will be
my responsibility as a teacher to organize, teach procedures, communicate appropriate behaviors
and classroom expectations during readers workshop. Some potential activities that I would

consider would be reading to someone or read aloud center, a reading notebook or journal for
students to write about or keep a log in response to their reading, a reading center where students
will choose their reading material. Thinking about incentives in my classroom there are several
possibilities. Fundamentally, I would like for the reward to be intrinsic and my students reward
would be the joy of reading. However, realistically I understanding that incentives can help
students reach goals in their reading. Some ideas for classroom reading incentives would be book
marks, a classroom popcorn party when all reading goals are reached, a book dedication to a
student, or watching a movie trailer of the book. In closing, I envision a reading block that is
filled with a variety of fun, engaging, educationally sound activities that will grow my students
into readers.
Classroom Set Up
In my first-grade classroom, I think the best way to organize my library is by grouping the books
by topics. I believe this will provide my students an opportunity to make appropriate reading
choices. This method may be somewhat problematic due to the students different reading levels.
Hopefully I will be able to provide guidance to my students in making choices that fit their
reading levels. I will keep the books neatly in bins, and I will use labels with both print and
pictures displayed on the front. Some possible topics I would like to include: animals, science,
poetry, fairy tales, chapter books, non-fiction, sports, mysteries, multicultural and biographies. I
will also ask students to make recommendations of books they would like to see in the class
library. Also, matching stickers or dots will be placed on labels and corresponding books. So,
students who are nonreaders can check out books. Initially, in the beginning of the school year,
students will not be allowed to check out books from the library. After modeling this process, I
will have a grand opening and invite students to check out books. Part of the modeling will

include appropriate behaviors and consequences. The reading location for my library should be
in an area separate from the daily routines in the classroom. It should provide a quiet atmosphere
for students to read. I would like to have a small piece of carpet, bean bag chairs, and lamps.
Students must be taught accountability and responsibility when checking out books. So, a check
out system needs to be in place. Even though I know library pockets and cards are old-school, I
feel that it would be a simple system for my first graders to use when checking out books. I will
allow students to check out two book at a time from the classroom library, and I would also like
to have a parent volunteer to help manage this area. The organization and upkeep of a library will
be time consuming, however, the benefits to my students will far outweigh the disadvantages.
My classroom library will allow my students to have access to more books. This in turn, will
create students who are better readers. It is my hopes that my classroom library will foster a love
of reading and books.
Teacher/Parent Relations
As I mentioned, I want reading to extend beyond my classroom walls. Parent involvement in
student reading progress is very important. Many parents believe that teaching their child to read
is the job of the teacher in school. In my classroom, I want to build a partnership that promotes
the growth of students reading success. Therefore, I will begin communication early with my
parents in the form of a Reading Open House. During this meeting, I will provide my parents
with reading schedules and strategies to use at home with their child. Other strategies for
beginning readers would be having parents model reading aloud with voice and inflection,
making predictions, and asking questions while reading and picture walks are just a few.
Knowing all families will not attend, I must be prepared to make calls or send emails in order to
communicate the information. I will work with parents to set reading goals for their children. I

will implement reading logs and have parents record the amount of time their child is reading
nightly. In my weekly newsletter, I will promote reading and related activities and make
suggestions on titles of books, parents could be reading at home to their child. Creating a strong
homeschool partnership is essential. Involving parents in promoting strong literacy skills in
students is a win-win situation for everyone.
Integrating Childrens Literature Into Other Subjects
At the conclusion of reading class, the process of reading doesnt end. One strategy I will use in
my classroom is the cross-curricular approach. By using this strategy, I will plan lessons that
incorporate other subject matter into my reading and vice versa. By connecting my curriculum,
my students will gain a greater understanding of the content being taught. The availability of
childrens literature to teach across the curriculum is limitless. For example, after reading a book
about a penguin, I could easily incorporate animal habitats and continents (geography and
science content) into an extended lesson about this book. After reading Ruby Bridges, I could
teach a social studies lesson on rights and differences. This could be easily extended into a
writing lesson where students could write a story about a time when they were treated badly or
unfair. Poetry is high interest literature for students in all grades. The poetry book Comets, Stars,
the Moon, and Mars would be a wonderful book to use in a cross-curricular science and literature
lesson. First graders must understand the interrelationships in earth and space systems. Using this
book would be a fun and engaging way to teach this topic. Learning should occur in a continuous
flow and literature based cross-curricular planning allows students to connect the content. This
type of teaching provides students with endless opportunities for high interest learning.

Resources
As a teacher, it is my responsibility to be well-informed in the content that I will be teaching.
This idea extends into the type of literature I choose for my classroom. Realistically, there will be
limitations, however, I recognize the importance and commitment I have to my students.
Although, I will receive good instruction about childrens literature during my training to be a
teacher, I must explore other avenues in order to learn more about choosing and teaching
childrens literature. One idea would be to join teacher groups or blogs that discuss popular
childrens literature. I could research award winning childrens literature books and challenge
myself to read some of the recommendations. Finally, I could explore unfamiliar genres and
topics to broaden my own personal experiences. Becoming a member in the Childrens Literature
Assembly would educate me on the research and classroom applications related to childrens
literature in the classroom.

In teaching childrens literature I am creating a platform for students to experience the world.
Through the activities provided in my classroom, the tone for how my students relate to reading
will be set. Although I feel the responsibility to develop proficient readers, I am more compelled
to produce lifelong readers that understand the endless potential that lies in reading.