Ms. Owen's lesson was full of effective uses of literacy building strategies. The teacher clearly made an effort to make wise decisions regarding how the instruction was to take place in order to provide each and everyone of her student with plenty of opportunities for learning, growth and ownership of the learning. It was clear that Ms. Owen care for her students by making an effort to show respect of the children's cultural background. One of the strategies she used was building upon the children's native language, culture and what they had learned at home already. As she explained, many children came with a developed language base, while others' was minimal. She knew the children's levels and made sure that she provided them with the language necessary to be a successful reader and writer. During read aloud, she constantly assessed the students reading comprehension by asking questions, making connections, and promoting skills such as predicting and inferring. The use of literacy centers was effective as these centers provided the students with appropriate instructional activities and an array of opportunities for the students to improve their reading level based on their interests. Students were able to work independently, with a partner or as a group.
I thoroughly enjoyed how the children went through the writing process. During interacting writing the students were able to help each other build their vocabulary, as well as learning writing conventions and sentence structure.
ELL students were definitely involved in the process. Instruction included time for the teacher to assess and guide the students in vocabulary building, and the students had access to a teacher's assistance who was bilingual and who could provide assistance to the students whenever needed.
Thank you for pointing out the literacy center. Teachers can use the center activities to engage children from different entry levels to allow differentiated instruction with individual or collaborative efforts. :D
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