OBSERVING PYP 1B- Reader's and Writer's Workshop (Literacy Blog entry)

 HELLO,

After the intensive summer camps I am continuing my internship with the "real" classes! I am excited to share my experiences with you. I am observing the PYP 1's (Primary years programme) in IB school. It was very exciting for all of us because the children have made a huge step from kindergarten to the PYP 1, which was stressful for them because it was play-based and now they need to make enormous steps at the school with classes. I was lucky that I had the chance to observe them from the first week of school as they were assigned to the classrooms. 

The first thing I want to say is that, all the kids welcomed me very warmly, I think I am going to miss them.. The first thing that have impressed me is classroom management, I have been studying this topic during my first year and most of the things were in that classroom, including both physical and mental. The class had the routine, which I realized in practice is very important for the kids, to what to expect. The sitting arrangement is usually random, so kids have the right to choose where to sit. It is very different when the things that you have studied during the year on a theory, becomes real on practice and you can try it... different feelings :) So, the day begins with a morning meeting on the front carpet, and the teacher takes the attendance, children say good morning in any language they want, then a volunteer is being picked up by the teacher to go through the agenda on the white board by a pointer. (they use the magnetic agenda cards) Here is the timetable so you can see. In the homeroom time we were doing introduction and assessment to the "classes" they are going to have, for example Phonics, Math, Writer's workshop, Art and Reader's workshop. I will tell more detailed in my next posts. The IB system is very different I think, they have some disciplines and values which they teach from the early age. The thing that I liked the most from the first day is the teacher always says "what if everybody did that?" when student do something that is not nice or appropriate, for example if a kid talks without raising a hand. Of course on the first day of school, they teach some hand signals that are useful for kids to show and to tell their needs. It was a very emotional week for them and for me too, because when I saw some of them struggling with the tasks or reading, they are making a very concentrating face and their tongue is out, I think this is the cutest period of the school. I liked teaching the first grade since my first practice in Poland and I have believed that that was for a reason, because I think the 1st grade is the fundament of everything, because during that year they are making huge improvements from the childhood. 

Literacy in the practice

As my mentor teacher told me, this year the school was changing teaching literacy to the workshop model. In the very first lesson we have designed with the kids a cover for their notebooks with introducing the writing and reading to them. Helping kids to get to know the books and letters was the first task, as for the reason that kids had different knowledge about the letters: some of them already knew how to read, some of them were getting know the alphabet again. The activity that amazed me was "3 ways of reading a book" we have first read a book to the kids and then showed the book to them and asked a question how we can read a book. Kids said we can read a book as connecting the letters, by looking at the pictures and the teacher added reading as whole sentences or 2-3 words. Kids were very happy that they have got the answers right. Then we have introduced them that we should love the books and they can find the books at the back of the classroom by the alphabetical order. 

After 2 weeks, we had the reading test to test the level of the children. And the program that they were using was very advanced and detected the books as for the kids interests. After it we have used plastic bags for each kid with the books of their interest and in the reading workshops each child was reading their own book, so they enjoy and love reading !

To conclude, it is very important to make children love reading and reading by applying different methods.