Classroom Structures: Organizing for Literacy

The chapter, 'Inside Classrooms That Work', in the book, "Classrooms That Work: They Can All Read and Write" by Allington and Cunningham gives detailed schedules using all essential components of effective instruction.

Here is a sample schedule that I found on

This chart is cute, and colorful, and a great way for students to know what is coming next during the day. This schedule may be limited just because it is easy to write only one or two words for something like this, or it actually may be leaving out important aspects to a classroom schedule.

The book talks about doing choice centers and assigned centers. This chart only lists centers once. Beginning their day with a center of their choice can their day off to a good start. 

This chart also leaves out an opening to the day. Unless that is what 'assembly' stand for. It is important to open the class with the calendar, and any possible messages. 

This chart only mentions reading once. The book has illustrated that it is best to break up reading and split it up throughout the day. It is also good to have different kinds of reading- independent, teacher read-aloud, guided reading, etc. The chart leaves out writing as well. Writing is super important and it can be as simple as abc's for kindergarteners, or complex as journal writing for any upper grades. 

It is so interesting to see how just a few things can affect how a classroom works, and how effective that classroom for student learning!

Things to think about:

1. Why is opening the day with a calendar and messages important?

2. What are important things to do as a teacher during the dismissal part of the day?

Guided Reading and Book Clubs!

Guided Reading is a great comprehension strategy for students!

It's not always the most fun activity for kids, especially if they are just handed out a chart that looks like this:

It may be more exciting for students to see something that they can use other skills such as drawing or coloring such as this:

This worksheet is more about character and character development, but you can use worksheets similar to this for any kind of guided reading!

Book clubs are great ways for students to read something that interests them and share what they have learned! A great way for students to be involved in choosing what they want to do is for the teacher to have a few books picked out, and for the students to vote on which book they want to read. 

Switching jobs each week: discussion director, illustrator, word finder, connector, etc., keeps students from doing the same thing every week while still providing them with examples from each job from classmates in their book club!

Building Vocabulary

Vocabulary is so important to learning and reading comprehension. Whether you're in the Logographic stage, or the Orthographic stage, vocabulary is just as important! BUT, it is important to remember that when words are taught directly, they must be kept to a small amount- words need to be  taught thoroughly and there needs to be time for students to meet them in many different contexts in order for them to understand and remember the vocabulary! 

"When you see or hear words, your brain makes connections to those words. Your brain does not think of definition"(Allington & Cunningham 95). 

It is important to bring real things into the classroom and give them meaning!

This simple activity is such a great way for children in any stage- but ideally in the beginning stages. All you need is a cup, or bowl, and items that you can you put in it that serve as "vocabulary words". 

This activity is for children in the orthographic stage of literacy. This is a great resource for students to understand words that may not be tangible or just simply new vocabulary words that are foreign to students! Understanding all of these different aspects of the key word is such a great way to fully understand and remember the vocabulary word!

Things to think about: 

1. How many vocab words do you remember having to learn in your language arts classes in your early education? 

2. Do you remember all of or any of the vocab you were taught in language arts? 

Comprehension

The book states that in order to think while you read, you must:

1. Be able to quickly identify almost all the words
2. Have sufficient background knowledge that you can connect to the new information
3. Be familiar with the type of text and be able to see how the author has organized the ideas
4. Have a mindset that reading is thinking and know how to apply your thinking in comprehension strategies

Making story maps, making graphic organizers, making KWLs, participating in think-aloud's, and participating in literate conversations are great ways to practice comprehension strategies!

With all this in mind I found a great acronym for comprehension strategies!

The acronym "RISE" uses Retelling, Inferring, Synthesizing, and Envisioning/Connecting to make up the comprehension strategies being used. This is a great exercise to follow along with after reading text. Talking about the story is more effective for students than answering simple questions about the story. This makes students think, comprehend, and communicate about the text.

This is a slightly different, and more visual version of the last activity. This activity expands on the connections part of RISE. Making connections and communicating those connections to peers is a great way to enhance comprehension for students. Discussion groups would be a great vessel for this activity.

What other ways can you incorporate comprehension into your classroom?

Word Study

   Morphemes, Context, and the Dictionary are three helpful things to help students refine the meanings of words.

   Learning root words, prefixes, and suffixes makes it easier for students to predict a word that they do not know.

   Learning how to use context to figure out a word, or what a word means, is an important concept in learning how to read.

   The dictionary is an important tool for young readers to be able to know how to use. Looking up words that are unknown and copying the definitions are a great way to use the dictionary to learn new words.

This Word Study chart is a great way to build                       This is a great worksheet that could be
vocabulary for your students. Each day of the                        added to either the word study chart on
week is a different activity, all incorporating                         the left, or used in the beginning of a new
word study! If teachers have new vocabulary                         lesson or vocabulary list! This is a great
every week, then this is the perfect way to study                    way for students to really understand
the new words throughout the week before a                          everything about the new word!
spelling or definitions test!

Choral Readings:
What are they?

• Reading aloud in unison with a whole class or group of students. After hearing the teacher read and discuss a selection, students reread the text together
• Choral reading helps build students' fluency, self-confidence, vocabulary knowledge, motivation, and enjoyment of literature. 

Fluency

"In order to become avid and enthusiastic readers who get pleasure and information from reading, children must develop fluency." -(Classrooms that Work)

     Modeling behavior is so important for kids who are learning how to read. Reading aloud to kids can be the first step in developing children's fluency where they can at least learn what fluency sounds like. Finding easy material and having students read and re-read that material is also important for developing fluency. Finding material that is interesting to the student helps create a desire to read rather than reading something that is boring to them.

Echo and choral reading are other great idea for developing fluency. In echo reading, kids can echo sentences at a time after their teacher or even their parents at home. In coral reading you can divide students into groups and have each group read a part in a script, or a book. 

     I found this activity on Pinterest and loved it! With this activity you read every word in a box in one breath. This is a great way to practice saying words fast which will in turn help fluency in reading! It is also a fun way for students to participate- kids love to be silly and I think this incorporates an aspect of silliness in it (:

     Another great way to incorporate fluency in the classroom is to have a sight word wall. This can be set up according to preference, but as for me I think I would like to make the sight words and the caterpillar bigger so that students would be able to read it from across the room. 

Here are some questions to think about regarding fluency in the classroom:

1. What are other ways you can incorporate fluency in the classroom?

2. How are fluency and word recognition related?