Supporting All Literacy Learners

Supporting all learners in a literacy classroom is no easy task. You have children at all different developmental stages which makes differentiating necessary. Some children are above grade level, some below, some children with special needs, some who love reading and some who hate it. As a teacher I would have a variety of texts to accommodate all my students at their different developmental levels. I would also have a variety of genres for students to pick from so they can choose what interests them the most. I would have a comfortable reading corner with either bean bag chairs, shaggy rugs, pillows, to make it as comfortable as possible for them to enjoy reading. I would encourage my students to bring in a pillow and blanket from home to keep in their cubbies for reading time. I have seen this done successfully when I went to observe a public classroom. For kids having difficulty I would offer books on tape/CD so they can follow along while listening.

My Perfect Classroom

I bet most soon to be elementary school teachers picture their perfect classroom as spacious room with an extensive library with comfy seats, ipads or computers, brand new desks and student work displayed  around the room as well as colorful posters and fun things hanging from the ceiling. Looking at this room would be a special education teachers' nightmare. For me, my ideal room would be about half the size of a regular ed class with a SmartBoard, and plenty of access to sensory objects like stress ball or things that kids can use as calming tools. I would love to decorate half the room with non over stimulating materials maybe like student work and some fun pictures they can look at. I would also be interested in having hands on games and puzzles and the ability to make everything fun, interesting and engaging to my students. This is based off the population I work with currently, the moderate to severe kids with special needs, which is the population I want to work with after I graduate. My second perfect classroom would be somewhere in South America where I can give my students with special needs resources like books, food, help learning to read and write and tell time and maybe even learn English. This classroom I would decorate by displaying their work around the room, I would also like to have computers and Ipads so they can learn using technology and be motivated to work

Me as a Reader/Writer

Who am I as a reader or a writer? I am all over the place with that question. I love learning because I see how much my mother loves learning and she will always be a life long learner. She is an ESL teacher among many things so part of me feels like reading and writing should be something I'm good at.

Reading and writing are a huge part of learning however, writing is difficult for me sometimes because I obsess over trying to get the best possible grade and I am all over the place with my thoughts. It never came easy to me for many reasons. The first being that I learned English and Spanish simultaneously then came Portuguese. I spent a lot of time with my Spanish-only speaking grandmother up until around age 13. I went to four different elementary schools (K-5) almost two grades per school, private, public, magnet, each school had different expectations of me and I progressing at a normal pace in all academic areas. In 7th,8th, and 9th grades I had really good language arts teachers who made me appreciate reading and writing. In these classes we focused less on boring texts and we were able to read more for pleasure and do assignments based off the books we chose. There was a plethora of books to choose from and we were able to work in groups in certain assignments if we chose the same book as anyone else in the class. Another thing I enjoyed was when we studied Shakespeare we were given a book with the Old English and the modern writing to help us understand an appreciate the book. We also looked at Roman and Greek mythology which I find very interesting.

I feel more comfortable writing in a blog because it's more casual and I can express myself in a more relaxed setting, I don't feel like I am being judged in the same critical eye as I would if I were writing a research paper. 

Thanks! 

Clarisa