Blog 3

A few thoughts after reading the Tompkins article:
I love the different ideas for centers found in the Tompkins text. My kindergarten CT uses the "reading the room" idea in one of her centers and the kids love it. They are allowed to use the teacher's special pointer as they walk around the reading area reading high frequency words, and the words for the letter of the week which are hung in a special clear pocket holder that changes each week.

I love the idea of the "Bag a story" center, I would never have thought of something so creative and engaging! It is a great idea because not only is it hands on but it is a great way to make the students interested in writing a new story. They get to play and also be creative while they write. Also they imagine the story but they are given ideas and don't have to create every detail which, I think, can be somewhat dauting for young children. They become too nervous about the story that they forget what they are writing and the story can become illegible and confusing. I think providing this interesting brainstorming technique also helps the students lay out what they are going to say before they say it becuase they have to fill out a chart.

I must say that I think my teacher is not doing enough of the strategies listed on page 85 of the Topmkins chapter 3. I feel like some of the things are done naturally, ie by reading books aloud she is introducing them to new vocabulary, however, there aer other very important things I feel that she should be doing to foster their literacy development as this chart talks about. One thing that I think could very easily be done would be to work on comprehension in the form of predictions by looking at the pictures. I think this is a remarkable idea for kindergarten classrooms becuase most students cannot yet read full sentences but they can predict from the pictures and the title.

One of my biggest concerns about my classroom is the fact that the students have not yet really started writing. Next week they are celebrating their 100th day of school and they have barely done 5 writing activities. The students are only expected to write their name on each assignment and up till this point in the year they have only had a handful of writing experiences. My biggest concern is that becuase they have not been working on writing, the students are extremely self-conscious and they complain about not knowing how to write or spell. I feel so frustrated having to tell them to try their best becuase I know that that's the last thing they want to hear. They know that their best is still not accurate. I also know that the only way they will improve is to work on writing daily and be taught positive ways to improve and have more confidence in their mistakes. I am hoping to implement more writing activities with the teacher, she has said that she wants the two MSU seniors in her room to work with the students on writing every afternoon during centers. I hope that we will be able to instill more confidence in the students from more practice. I also want to use some of the "opportunities for students to experiment with writing" that are on page 86 of Tompkins. One that particularly interests me is the letter to parents from the students. I think it would be great to work on a letter to the parents each week and see how the students improve as the rest of the year goes on. I would love to see their writing become more letters and sounds (if not actual words) rather than frustration and scribbling.