In the kindergarten classroom, this teacher immersed the children in literacy.  She labelled all the objects within the classroom and implemented various activity centres throughout.  She would read aloud to the students while pointing to the words, so that the students could read along.  She also had the class read familiar text (i.e. today’s date) together as a group (shared reading). Classroom discussions would often center around the students’ previous experiences i.e. trip to a restaurant.  The class would then reflect on it and their thoughts and ideas were written (guided writing) on chart paper for the class.    Guided reading was then utilized to assist the children in reading their responses.  By role playing, the children could experience what it would be like to go to a restaurant (by playing the adults).  In doing so, they were “reading” their menus that they made and used that information to actually make an “order”.  This activity demonstrated the use of conversation, along with written and visual text, something that the children could apply outside of the classroom.  I thought that it was a very useful exercise when she asked the class to write a letter to the custodian about changing the light bulb in their bathroom, illustrating to the students that writing is a very effective communication tool.  In the reading buddies program, the children had a role model other than their teacher or parents, to look up to and learn from.  

Donna Hynd

Donna,

Your comments described very well the functioning of this classroom.  It was fantastic to see the way this teacher incorporated every nuance of life into learning (Lightbulb).  It's so important to make real life connections with everything we teach.  I appreciated the way this teacher used  every nook and cranny to facilitate creative learning.

Urmilla

This video contained many excellent ideas. I found it a little overwhelming to see all of the excellent ideas that this teacher was able to incorporate into her classroom. I hope that one day I will be able to do the same. I really liked her leader of the day and the roles and responsibilities that went with that. I loved her shared writing activity when the class wrote to the janitor to ask him to fix the light and its application to a real problem. She was able to apply so much in her classroom to everyday experiences. I think that this is a very important teaching strategy to increase learning and encourage further learning opportunities.  I feel that this is an important strategy to make learning interesting and that it will also help to create motivated life long learners.

Melanie Kehoe