Tompkins, Chapter 3

In Tompkins Chapter 3, one important point I read which I also see in my classroom is the description of reading, “teachers read aloud to children and use shared reading, guided reading, and the language experience approach to teach reading. This is one concept I see in my classroom all the time when they are doing literacy. My CT does a lot of the read aloud technique to the class, instead of with the class or guided reading. I feel as though having the students pop-corn read or do guided reading, the class would be much more engaged and the students would get more out of it, as the book mentions as well. I also read and enjoyed learning about the literacy centers and the different variety they can be put together, for example, “ Bag A Story”, “Story Reenactment” and “Messages”. The "Message" activity was pretty interesting considering we discussed the necessity of practicing different genres, types of reading/writing and message writing to classmates is an interesting technique to use in class. I would be hesitant to use writing messages to classmates here however because I would not want my students to continue it after the session lesson.