Task 3: Literacy Strategies

Objective: To observe literacy strategies in action over 4 weeks.

Procedure
This task is intended to be implemented over the four weeks.
For this task student should:
record examples of practices and/or strategies that they observe- e.g
phonics, guided reading, Sustained Silent Reading, graded readers, literate-
rich, print-rich environment,
take photos and/or video recordings (if the school and the MST give
permission)
ask questions about and reflect on best practice observed

Before the Observation

Pre TP classes

Discuss/review any relevant content from Learning to Read and Write, Section 2
Readers & Writers in the Making pp27-99
Neuman, S., Copple, C. and Bredcamp, S. (2000). Learning to Read and
Write. Washington: National Association for the Education of Young
Children.
(Neuman, Copple & Bredcamp, 2000, 56)

In the school

Explain the task to your MST so she can try to highlight and include some of the
strategies/aspects you may need to consider
Decide what time(s) each day you will conduct this observation.
See if you can find out what the teacher plans to do each day by studying his/her
plans, and/or talking with them.

After the Observation - Reflection

Choose 3 best practices you observed during your time in
school. Reflect on these and consider why you could
implement these in a UAE primary classroom in the future.
Explain how these practices will affect student learning
and reading levels in a primary class.
LITERACY STRATEGIES
Observe your MSTs classroom and general practices you see
around the school. Discuss the areas below in context of what you
observe in school and support with a photo and a reference to
reading when possible.

Describe the classroom environment.

The classroom is full of rich print environment, the teacher supported the
class with sticking up the HFWs on the wall, and she had an area for
reading whereas she put in some books, but all of them were in Arabic
none of them were in English. Also she has a board for students writings,
when they write. And the writing was about what do they want to be in
future, and it was good from the teacher to stick it on the board to
appreciate the students work and support their writings.
Consider how the class is a print rich environment. What print can
you see around the room? (labels, captions
(descriptions),flashcards, headings, rules, instructions, timetable,
flash cards, etc) For each one you mention insert pictures and
state the purpose of each one.

Print Rich Environment Picture The purpose of the Print

Rich Environment.
Classroom The classroom
Instruction instructions are
important in the class
because the teacher
reminds the students of
it daily, which makes the
students being
committed in the class
and focus in the lesson.
Also to build discipline in
the classroom.
Time Table The time table can help
both of students and
teachers, because
sometimes the teacher
may forget her lesson
and the students can
check the schedule and
remind her of the class,
also its helpful for the
students to check the
schedule and get ready
for the next period and
wait for the teacher to
come.
Writing Traits The writing traits poster
Poster is useful for the students
because the writing traits
can help the students in
their writing especially
for low ability students
that can help them in
organizing their ideas for
writing.
Is there a variety of books and genres in the class? Mention some.
How are they displayed?

Yes there are some books in the classroom, the teacher has a cabinet for the books and
the books she has are all in Arabic, she doesnt have any books in English which she
must have some English books so the students can practice on their English especially
the low ability students. However, the teacher labelled the cabinet with a clear font so
the students can understand thats a book cabinet, also she organized the books
according to their sizes, she put the bigger books in the back and the smaller books in
the front. So the books will be in order and will be organized and easier for the students
to see each book and read the title.

Describe the reading area in your classroom.

The classroom doesnt include a reading area where the students can sit together and
read the story, but they have a cabinet of the books and its labelled as I mentioned in
the previous question, the teacher has labelled everything and put it in the right place ,
but she couldnt do the reading area in a visual way where the students can have the
reading environment in the class, because the classroom organization is in a group way
and the teacher cannot change that and have to stick with the school rules. But as long
as she has books in her class that means that shes providing and encouraging the
students in reading.
Does the teacher read to the children? How often? How does she
motivate them to read?

The teacher reads for the students in a certain time, she reads for them
two days in the week, and the strategy she use for the reading is that she
picks a part from their journal book, and the story for them. at first she
reads for them and in the second time she let the students to read, and
she can involve the whole class in reading in a strategy which is, she picks
one student from each group in order, and the students she choose are a
high ability students so when the student will read out loud, the rest of the
students will repeat after the student whos reading. So that will include
the whole class doing the reading and helps the students to read and
encourage them to read. However sometimes the teacher gives the low
ability students a chance to read even if theyre making mistakes, and
thats to encourage and motivate the students to read even if theyre
going to make mistakes, also the teacher is helping the low ability students
to vibe with the class and be comfortable in the class.

Describe the reading approaches have you observed? Where do

the children sit? How does the teacher encourage participation?

Read aloud Shared Guided reading Independent reading

reading

I observed I observed I observed guided In English class

reading aloud shared reading reading in Islamic the teacher gave
lesson in with Ms. Saadiya class, and the teacher the student a part
English class, in English class, who was reading for in their journal
the teacher she sits with the the students, she was book, and told
was reading students in a reading aloud to get all them to read them
the story for circle, and starts the students attention, silently and
the students in and she had a group of everyone should
reading the
a loud voice 4 students who were read alone, then
story with them,
and with sitting with her in the the students
expressions to and show them group and she was started reading
entertain the the pictures and reading with them. the part of the
students and asks some She was asking them journal quietly,
keep their questions about questions about the and the teacher
interest during it, she let the story she was telling was moving
the story. And students predict them to make sure around to check
it helps the whats going to theyre on track and on the students
students to happen during listening to her. and see if they
imagine the the story. need any help in
story events. spelling any word.
Consider how the teacher reminds children of any concepts of
print when reading? (left-to-right, top to bottom, punctuation,
author, illustrator, etc)

The teacher uses some of concepts of print in the class during her reading lessons.
Before she starts the lesson she asks the students about the writers name and the title
of the story, then she let them guess whats the story is about based on the cover of
the story, then she writes the suggestions of each group and then they will check if one
of the suggestions is right or not. When it comes to reading, the teacher reads fluently,
and uses punctuation correctly. And she asks the students if they know what
punctuation mark is it, and where they can use this punctuation mark. Also the teacher
asks the students how they should read in a correct way and where they should start
reading. (left to right or right to left.)

How does the teacher teach phonics and word attack skills (when
the child doesnt know the meaning, how are they going to know
the meaning?) to children? Describe a phonics lesson you
observed and mention how the children are scaffolded to
recognise the word and get the meaning.
Ms. Saadiya has strategies for teaching phonics and explaining the meanings for the difficult
words for the students. And as I observed in her English class when she had a phonics lesson,
first she introduce the lesson for them, and start talking about the letter or the phonics that
they will take it but in an implicit way not explicit way. What she do is first she uses the words
with the phonics in it e.g (sandwich, chair, chicken, etc..) after she explains it implicitly she start
making it more explicitly, when she starts asking the students if they can notice anything in this
word or a sound. Then she starts explaining that /ch/ is a phonic and they can use it in some
words. After she explains the phonics, she starts asking them if they know any word that have
the sound /ch/ and the students will start to interact with the teacher and will answer the
questions. and about the students who face some difficulties in understanding some words, and
what Ms. Saadiya does is, she shows them some pictures thats related to the word, then she
starts explaining the picture of the word and the students will start to realize the meaning of
the word. Its a different strategy but it really works with grade 3 students.

What comprehension strategies are the children learning/using?

The most comprehension strategies that Ms. Saadiya uses it for her students are
making connections and predicting. The reason why Ms. Saadiya use this two
comprehension strategies is because it gives the students a chance to talk and express
their feelings toward the story or the lesson they have. The teacher always gives the
students a chance to predict the story events or the story is about, also she asks them
questions about the story if they can relate it to their real life, which that can make the
students feel confident and able to express and share their stories or some situation
that they had experienced it.

Ask your teacher about special reading events carried out in the
school - e.g Book Character Day, DEAR (drop everything and
read) Time, Book Fairs, Extreme Reading competitions etc.

I asked my teacher if they have special events in the school, and she said that they
havent did any. But she plans for her students one day in every week to go to the
library and borrow two books, one in Arabic and the other one in English, and thats to
practice on their both language. When the students borrow the book, the teacher asks
them why they chose this book. And after they finish reading, the teacher asks them if
they liked the story that they read and would they like to recommend it for their
friends/family.
Describe some types of writing activities or the method the
teacher uses for writing e.g emergent writing, copy writing,
dictations, etc are they using different genres in writing? Writing
stories/poems..

Ms. Saadiya always gives the students a time to practice on writing, she let the students to
write a story or a paragraph about anything they want. The reason why Ms. Saadiya do this for
the students is to improve their writing skills, and to see if the students can use the writing
traits in the right way, also to check every student level in writing and how good they can do.
About the genres of writing that the students use it to write is, writing story about a topic that
the teacher asks them for to write it by their own words and ideas. This is the only genre that
the teacher use it in the class to practice with the students.

REFLECTION
Choose 3 best practices you observed during your time
in school. Reflect on these and consider why you could
implement these in a UAE primary classroom in the
future. Explain how these practices will affect student
learning and reading levels in a primary class.
The best practices that I observed in ASCS is the English lessons. Because with
Ms. Saadiya, the students have fun and explore lots of new things with the
teacher during the lesson. The first lesson I liked was about phonics, when the
teacher was teaching the students in a way that they can have fun learning
phonics, although the students understand how the phonics works because the
teacher gives them examples and models the sound of the phonics and how to
pronounce it right. The second lesson was about writing whereas the teacher
gives the students a topic and they have to write about it, and that helps the
students to write with their own words, even though the teacher gives them a
spelling paper which the students can use it if they faced any difficulties in finding
the right word for their writings or to check their spelling of the word if its right or
wrong. The third lesson was about syllabus whereas the teacher teach the
students the words, especially the difficult ones to make it easier to pronounce it.
Syllabus helps the students to understand the words and pronounce it right, and
Ms. Saadiya always do this in her class and the students enjoy doing syllabus. And
according to the UAE primary schools these 3 practices that Ive had observed,
they can affect the students in a positive way whereas the students will be
confident in the class, and will not be shy to make mistakes because the
environment of the class is warm and comfortable and thats can let the student
to interact with the teacher and answer the question whether its right or wrong.