I have to say that the videos and reading this week were a little bit difficult to relate to the primary levels of Elementary Education where the majority of what we read IS basic literacy, intentionally, but there were some helpful insights that made me understand the importance of also going beyond basic literacy in our read-alouds and with those students who are ready. Reading Rockets highlighted Literacy expert Tim Shanahan who says that "disciplinary literacy is generally taught in middle school and high school, but that K-5 teachers can get their students ready. Here’s how: In the elementary grades, making sure that kids are reading about geography, economics, history, culture, biography, environmental science, life science, physical science, music, art, and current events is really important. Building kids’ stores of knowledge in those areas and giving them practice dealing with that kind of language and content is imperative" (WETA, 2025) There are some great books ...
This week was cut a bit short between President's Day Monday and a snow day on Friday. Sometimes that's just how it goes in teaching, you have to readjust plans and start again the next week! I was still able to observe and help teach science lessons on birds and amphibians. We have been doing much of our animal fact-learning and note-taking during our writing block because we don't have enough time devoted to science and social studies to get this learning and writing done. At first, I was unsure if using the writing block for science was a best practice, but Nell K. Duke changed my mind! In her webinar, Speaking Up for Science and Social Studies, she gives three reasons why she feels that more time devoted to science and social studies would greatly benefit literacy. Her first reason is that science and social studies knowledge greatly affects reading and writing, her second is that science and social studies provide a compelling context for teaching reading an...