Describe the classroom environment.

(Photo)

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.

The classroom environment is peaceful and quiet; it has walls that are full of colorful posters along
with flashcards that together make up sort of a giant collage. It also has labels and a bulletin board
which is used as a place to stick up important news and other information that can help the students
prepare better for their examinations.
Describe the reading area in your classroom. What genres of books are there and how are
they displayed? (Photo)

The reading area in the classroom is very well-lit; it seems to have better lighting compared to the rest
of the environment. There is a huge collection of books that are well stacked as per their genres like
children, fiction, etc. and they are neatly stacked in horizontal piles on wall-mounted pocket shelves.
The floor is carpeted for the children to sit comfortably while they read the books, and the walls have
a bulletin board filled with illustrations of various kinds that were drawn by students as well as other
forms of printed media.

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

The teacher focuses on the repetition of the words by the students; the students continue to read the
words after the teacher and they continuously do so several times. In time, the students are scaffolded
as they repeat the same words time and again which helps them retain the information (the
pronunciation and spelling of the word, respectively) in their memory.
Consider different reading approaches have you observed? (Guided reading, Shared
Reading, Sustained Silent Reading).
Choose 2 and describe how the teacher implements these approaches in the class in detail.
(Photos, and refer to EPR 2603)
Consider seating arrangement, participation, comprehension, reading strategies in your
discussion.

The teacher used two of the strategies including shared reading and sustained silent reading.
1. Shared reading
- Teacher tells the main details of the chapter, like the name of the story, the name of the
author and illustrators.
- Students are asked to guess what the story might be about
- Following a brief session of discussion (where the students tell what they think the story
might be about), the teacher starts reading the story loudly with a slow pace.
- At times, the teacher pauses to ask simple questions about what was just read by them to
check if the students are listening or not.
- Finish reading the story aloud and then ask the students to discuss their own
understandings of the story as well as experiences. Alternatively, they can ask the students
to tell the story or summarize it shortly as they have understood it.

2. Sustained silent reading

- Teacher takes out the textbook, asks students to go to a certain page and start reading
silently.
- Students are encouraged to take a pencil and mark words they find hard to spell or
pronounce, but they must be silent during this process.
- Teachers walk around the class to see if they can find any student is not reading or
highlighting the words.
- Following the silent reading, or once all the students are done reading, the teacher gets the
class open or free to discuss about what the students understood from the story or whatever
it was (in their own words).
Something to note here is that in the case of shared readings, the interacting is maximum (since it is
‘shared’ as the name suggests). In the case of sustained silent reading though, thinking is maximum
(due to minimal interaction, so when the students cannot find other sources of help, they are forced to
think for themselves if they come across a problem).

Describe some types of writing activities or the method the teacher uses for writing – e.g.
emergent writing, copy writing, dictations, etc.

Some of the activities that the teachers use in class include emergent writing and dictation. In the early
stages, when the students are starting to learn writing as a form of communicating information, they
might make marks on the paper, which is covered under the definition of emergent writing. However,
later when they are comfortable writing words (or their spellings), the teacher can then practice
dictation to determine whether they are aware of the spellings of the words given or not.