Task 3

Promoting
Literacy
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The Power and Pleasure of Literacy

The Literate Environment
Knowledge of Print
Literature Responses
Phonological Awareness

Task 3 Promoting Literacy

Objective:
To observe literacy in action over the 5 weeks.
Procedure

This task is intended to be implemented over the five weeks.

For this task student should:
should record examples of practices and/or strategies that they observe

They used many ways to read in the classroom for example;

Individual reading.
Shared reading.
Guided reading.
Reading aloud strategy or silent reading.
Imagine finger following text strategy.

should aim to make notes from at least 3 activities/strategies for each area. These may
or may not be listed.
Individual reading activity the Ss used some strategies like, Imagine
finger following text, and read with your eyes.
Shared reading activity the Ss used some strategies like; reading
aloud, participating Ss in reading, and asking question or guessing
during reading.

are encouraged to take photos and/or video recordings (if the school and the MST give
permission)

Before the Observation

Pre TP classes
Discuss/review relevant content from Learning to Read
and Write, Section 2 Readers & Writers in the Making pp27-99

In the school
Decide what time(s) each day you will conduct this observation. The length of time needed
will vary depending on the activities observed.

It is suggested that at least one hour per day be dedicated to this task over the placement.

Choose the key areas that seem most relevant to the age of the children.

See if you can find out what the teacher plans to do each day by studying his/her plans, and/or
talking with them. Try to identify the relevant areas for each observed activity/strategy.

Make sure you discuss this task with your supervising teacher.

During the Observation

Make notes about what is happening under the appropriate key area.

Take photos and collect any samples for your portfolio.

After the Observation

In Post School Experience TP Classes
You will be presenting your experiences from this placement to your peers. Consider these
ideas for presenting your findings, using strategies for organizing and remembering.
*Time will be given in TP classes post school experience to prepare for the presentation.
a. Mapping Place the key area in center then place information under extended headings
around the center. Graphics/photos can be used instead of/as well as text.
b. Photo Essay Use visuals to organise thinking. Photos should be organised in a sequence
that will support your presentation in class.
c. PowerPoint/ Prezi presentation

Reflection
Reflect on each section you have chosen as you comment and discuss your
observations and refer to your reading as much as possible.

1: THE POWER AND PLEASURE OF LITERACY

Observe your MSTs classroom and general practices you
see around the school. Discuss each statement below in
the context of what you observe and support with a photo
and a reference to reading when possible.

Does the teacher read to the children? How often

does she read? What types of reading have you
observed? Where do they sit?
Does the teacher rereads stories? Why?

Yes, she did2:

through
readingENVIRONMENT
stories in curriculum
THE LITERATE
(language arts book), reading story individually, and
stories from library.
Observe your MSTs classroom and general practices you
They are 3 sessions on the week, so 1-2 periods read
see around the school. Discuss each statement below in
from curriculum book in the classroom, but 1 period
the context of what you observe and support with a photo
each time reading online in library or making guided
and a reference to reading when possible.
reading.
Sometime T restarted opining audio from the smart
What print has the teacher around the classroom ( labels,
board but she didnt reread the story for Ss.
captions, flashcards, headings, rules, instructions, timetable,
statements etc) For each one you mention insert pictures and
Who selects the story/text that is read? Do the
state the participate?
purpose of each one.
children
How does the teacher encourage participation? How
Labels:
forparticipate?
their cubbies and classroom jobs
do they
Most of the stories selected by teacher who
conformist to follow the curriculum. T encouraged Ss
to participate by rewarding them if they answer her
questions during reading time or read with her.
Flashcards:
for the
topicsabout
relevant
toexperiences
the lesson or
Ss read aloud
or speak
their
ideas that add up to the story

Describe the reading area in the classroom.

Timetables:
avoid rug
interrupting
and asking
the
It has a reading
so all student
sit andwhat
readis
the
next
session?
story
with T. Also they read story as groups and as
their level when T made guided reading.
Rule: to remind them about the rule and controlling
misbehaving in the classroom.

When do children choose a book to read for pleasure

There is a book library in the back of the class included

different kind of book that the Ss could borrow books
from it or read it in their free time.
What print materials and books are in the classroom? Is there a
variety of books and genres mention some examples.
There are a variety of fiction and nonfiction books. For
List any opportunities/activities that the children
experience that allow them to see how we use print in
daily life experiences.

example,
The puppet man: non fiction
My clothe: non fiction
Tooth trouble: realistic fiction
How are the books displayed? Can the children access them
easily?
The books are in Library cabinet and it is easy for kid to
access. I saw some students in their lunch time talked a
book and read, while some talked permission from the
teacher to borrow it and read it in home.

Are there any books referring to the UAE Culture? Are there
books about other cultures? Do you think this is important?
Why? How can this develop schema?
No, It is referred to American culture which that is very
bad, because we erasing the history of the UAE from
the child brain. As a result, he got affected from their
ideas, clothes, and tradition. As well as, the child
characters become like American people.

Where do the children read? Is there anywhere comfortable

inside or outside the classroom for them to relax and enjoy a
book? Describe the area and add a photo.
Ss read on the mat or in the library.

 Does the teacher provide the children with opportunities and

materials to write? When? Give some examples.
Yeah, during language Art writing sessions.
For example, Ss write description about the picture in
the board or in the work sheet.

3: KNOWLEDGE ABOUT PRINT

(suitable for very young learners)
Observe your MSTs classroom and general practices
you see around the school. Discuss each statement
below in the context of what you observe and support
with a photo and a reference to reading when possible.
Does the teacher remind the children that we read
English from left to right / top to bottom? How?
When? Does she do this in reading and writing?
Yeah, she remind them that in English we open from
left to right while in Arabic form right to left. T did
that in reading and writing time because Ss are
confused about the directionality in both Arabic and
English. So she asked randomly one student to
remind Ss about concept of directionality.

 What features of a book does she ask the children to

identify when reading?
(author, title, illustrator, index, table of contents,
blurb etc.)
In grade one, T didnt ask Ss to identify the type of
book that they are going to read wither is fiction or
nonfiction. So, T made Ss recognizing the title by
asking who will read the title for me. Also, she
mentioned the author name and explained in detail
about his job.
When does the teacher point to words, labels, letters
and does she read or name them? How does she ask
the children to recognize these words? Does she have
a word wall? Do the children learn HFW?
Teacher introduced the main vocabulary word on the
board using Power Point for reinforcement theyre
shown on the bulletin board.
T asked Ss to decode these words if they are enabling to
read it, or read it automatically if they are HFW because
they have a wall in the classroom and print rich
environment so they can recognize them and
comprehend the using of them.

 How does she support the childrens development in

understanding the use of uppercase and lowercase
letters, punctuation, and other print features?
She reinforced Ss knowledge by making sharedwriting by showing in the board that the sentences
begin with capital letter and end with full stop. Also,
she gave them a lesson about Proper nouns that
began with capital letter. Sometimes, through reading
the Ss become aware and recognize the print text if T
mentioned that verbally and reminding between time
and time.
Other

4: RESPONDING TO READING
Observe your MSTs classroom and general practices
you see around the school. Discuss each statement
below in the context of what you observe and support
with a photo and a reference to reading when possible.
How and when do the children have opportunities to
retell stories in their own words? Provide at least 3
examples.
- Each pair re-tells the story for each other.
- T gave card to draw and re-tell the story by
writing it.
- T selected one S to stand in front of the class and

re-tell the story to the rest.

Do the children act out the stories? Do they role play

any stories? Do they take on the roles of different
characters as they read?
Where I was in the class room, I didnt see any roleplay in English class but they have in Arabic class.
Does the teacher use story maps, puppets or any
other props when reading? Does she have any other
tricks that motivate the children and engage them?
T used card and good intonation for presenting the
characters in order to identify the main and minor
characters and the differences between them whither
they are evil or wise in story.
Do children predict and guess the events of a story?
Give an example?
Yeah, during reading story for example when T finished
reading about one event she asked Ss some question
such as: what will happen next?, what the characters
will behave next and so on.

Does the teacher do any interesting activities that

extend the reading and allow children to respond to
the story? Mention 3 examples and explain these
clearly.

Guessing and predicting the events in story.

Mimic the character role in story for his friends.
Resorting pictures and relevant text

 Ask your teacher about Book Character Day, Books

Fairs, visiting theatre productions, Extreme Reading
competitions or other such competitions that take
place during the school year. Explain each one.
N/A
5: PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
Observe your MSTs classroom and general practices
you see around the school. Discuss each statement
below in the context of what you observe and support
with a photo and a reference to reading when possible.
How does the teacher draw childrens attention to the
sounds they hear in words? When does she focus on
sounds?
They pantomime. For example, T spell (b) letter with
voiced while letter (p) is voice less.
How does the teacher teach phonics and word attack
skills to children?
Through displaying picture cards and active
pantomime to say the letters and sounds.
Describe a typical phonics lesson that you have
observed. Mention how the children are scaffolded to
recognize the word and get the meaning? (Word
identification and word recognition. Refer to your
work in EPR 2603)
T used sigh word lesson which that helped Ss who
had low-level in reading to read the text or story
fluency. For example, when the student recognizes
sigh word he becomes able to understand the text he
exposes to.

 What phonics did you see presented to the class?

(CVC, diphthongs, diagraphs etc )
I saw consonant diagraphs presented in the
classroom. T first put a video representing the Sh/ch/
th sounds and Ss sing song that was in the video.
Afterward, T gave worksheet for Ss to match picture
with the sound that they heard. As a result, Ss come
up with different words that contain the sounds.
Here is the video that T used in the classroom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFQ2g_AZW4c&nohtml5=False

What games or activities does she provide the

children with the develop phonics?
When T said the sound the Ss clap their hand.

Does the teacher read stories that have predictable

sound patterns? Mention some you heard?
In real, T depend more in technology so she repeated
the audio many time to ensure that Ss learned the
sound patterns in story and sometimes the story
included the sound patterns that Ss learned.
Does the teacher encourage children to sound out the
words they meet? When?
Yeah, during the instructional phase.
Other