6. Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication
The competent teacher has foundational knowledge of reading, writing, and oral communication within the content area and recognizes and addresses student reading, writing, and oral communication needs to facilitate the acquisition of content knowledge.
Book Recommendations from Middle Grades Literacy
In life one of my other passions is reading. As a teacher I will teach reading and want to foster a love of reading books. I worked hard to find 20 good books for middle school students. Finding good books for students follows knowledge indicator 6G which says “understands how to design, select, modify, and evaluate a wide range of materials for the content areas and the reading needs of the student” (IL knowledge indicator 6G).Good teachers need to know how to find good curriculum and supplemental activities that fit the standards and learning needs of their students.
As a teacher I want to have a classroom library to encourage students to read and grow in knowledge. Finding material is important to create a love of reading. This follows performance indicator 6J “selects, modifies, and uses a wide range of printed, visual, or auditory materials, and online resources appropriate to the content areas and the reading needs and levels of each student (including ELLs, and struggling and advanced readers)” (IL performance indicator 6J). In my own classroom I plan to do this by reading book lists like mine and asking other teachers what they have that is grade appropriate. The goal is to have an awesome library and to get students to want to read as much as possible.
Listening Video Writing Methods
In writing methods we went over the writing process and the components of each part. My group had listening, which is about understanding spoken language. This follows knowledge indicator 6D “understands writing processes and their importance to content learning” (IL knowledge indicator 6D). The writing process is important to help students become thoughtful and meaningful writers that convey ideas.
Teaching thoughtfulness in writing helps students to have their ideas planned out and flow in written works. This is apart of performance indicator 6P “teaches students to develop written text appropriate to the content areas that utilizes organization (e.g., compare/contrast, problem/solution), focus, elaboration, word choice, and standard conventions (e.g., punctuation, grammar)” (IL performance indicator 6P). Teaching ways to show ideas in charts then transitioning to paragraph formal writing is something I want to incorporate to help students practice thoughtful writing in the writing process.