LITERACY STRATEGIES

Observe your MST’s 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.

It’s a place where student learn new things and new concepts, the class in seprated from the
half for Arabic and English, you can see pictures and worksheet hand on the wall for every
lesson that they take. It’s a quit place with sky selling and nice painting on the wall.
Consider how the class is a print rich environment. What print can you see around the
room? (labels, captions, flashcards, headings, rules, instructions, timetable, flash cards, etc)
For each one you mention insert pictures and state the purpose of each one.

Is there a variety of books and genres in the class? Mention some. How are they displayed?
Describe the reading area in your classroom.

It’s a large area where you can see shelf’s with different books that arrange in order from A to D. Its mean
from easy to complicate books. And if a student wants to read he knows which shelf the best for him that
support his level of reading.

Does the teacher read to the children? How often? How does she motivate them to read?

Once a week the teacher read a book to the student

For example, my first week of observing in Monday teacher Tara reads a story but she didn’t show them the picture so
they can visualize and they have to draw the picture in their mind. And the week before she took a book from shelf C
that every student can read, and she just read the fist two pages and she chooses different students to complete. She
only takes 15 minutes from the class.
Describe the reading approaches have you observed? Where do the children sit? How does
the teacher encourage participation?

Read aloud Shared reading Guided reading Independent reading

When the students As I said before usually In English class we let the In every class we have
had a lesson about teacher Tara read a story student set in groups For activities and for each
visualizing and to the student, but example group A Jenna, activity is 10 to 15
inferring she used sometimes she choose a Mansour, Mahra, Khalifa set minute and they have
the read aloud a lot student that can red together, and in group B we the time to finish their
and it helps them fluency, for example she have Noor, Salama, Fatima, task but if they finish
more than I thought choose Jenna from grade Calvin and so on... everything the teacher
it will because they 3D to read the yellow fish The point here that they set want them to do they
were able to draw under the sea. She read 5 on their levels and Ms. Tara choose to do anything
the image in their pages and she let her give them a story to read for they want to unless they
minds also she can student to complete 5 min and after that she didn’t make noise in the
discuss with them reading. bring them to her table, so he class, and they is some
about do they think can read to her and she mark student who like to use
will happen next. his reading to see what he their time on reading
developed in reading. different books.
Consider how the teacher reminds children of any concepts of print when reading? (left-to-
right, top to bottom, punctuation, author, illustrator, etc)
Actually, in the classroom we have an A3 paper that have a example of each one of them because when had a
question about them they can see it, its like a reminder for them.

How does the teacher teach phonics and word attack skills to children? Describe a phonics
lesson you observed and mention how the children are scaffolded to recognise the word
and get the meaning.

I didn’t see the teacher give a lesson about phonics, but I saw flashcards beside the board and when I asked
her she said that she teach them the sounds by making them see videos.

What comprehension strategies are the children learning/using?

Most of the time we use the comprehension in reading and writing, and I saw my student use the DAD and
the WOW words such as who, what, when, where… to help them writing in details moreover it helps their
strategy.
Ask your teacher about special reading events carried out in the school - e.g ‘Book
Character Day’, DEAR Time, Book Fairs, ‘Extreme Reading’ competitions etc.

When the student takes a new vocabulary, they play a game and they have to spell it this game start with
the classmates and then the teacher choose a 10 intelligent students
Describe some types of writing activities or the method the teacher uses for writing – e.g
emergent writing, copy writing, dictations, etc