ELA

Peer collaboration helps student solidify understandings of ELA. Similar to math, having additonal interactions with peers allows students to further their thinking and view math coursework through a different lens. Some of the ways in which I have integrated peer collaboration in ELA during my student teaching are highlighted below. 

Sentence Stems: Sentence stems give students a template or guide to form thier answer in the way you want them to. Students who struggle with formulating ideas benefit from the structure of the sentence stem. I give students sentence stems when looking at vocabulary terms as well as when we read our anthology books. The sentence stems help students stay on track and focus in on the specific area in which I would like them to. 

Partner Work: Similar to math, partner work or partner talk allows all students to share their ideas. When you use the hands up method of calling to share, not every student gets to share their ideas. However, when you give time to talk with a partner, every student gets a voice, and students can build upon their partner's ideas cultivating a deeper understanding. In addition to partner talk, partner work helps students improve thier communication and problem solving skills. Students learn to work with everyone in the classroom through partner work and I have seen first-hand improvement in communication and adaptability in students. One way that I like to integrate partner work in language arts is through partner reading. This allows students to help each other with words they struggle with as well as gives them a partner to bounce ideas off of. 

Whole-Group Collaboration: During ELA, my whole class chorally responds numerous times. In addition to this, we take time to pause and collect ideas from the entire classs. Similar to. math, students are able to bounce ideas off each other by saying "To add to that, I think ___." The consistency of this sentence stem allows for students to be comfortable in sharing their ideas throughout the day. Our class is better together and instilling that belief through whole group collaboration has let me see substantial growth in my students.

Supporting Articles:

•  Benefits of Collaboration

• Deeper Learning: A Collaborative Classroom is Key

• Enhance Learning with Collaboration

Productive struggle in ELA is prevalent during guided reading groups. I like to watch the students try to implement decoding strategies taught in kindergarten and at the beginning of first grade. Students experimenting with words and figuring out the corrrect word is one of my favorite parts of my day. Giving students time to experiment and retrieve what they know helps them be a problem solver and indpendent learner. When they are able to find an answer after a struggle, I have personally noticed that they are quicker to retrieve that information in the future!

Supporting Article: What is Productive Struggle in the Classroom?

Repitition is something that my CT learned about in her class she is taking this semester. It takes so many times for your brain to process and practice something before it is stored in the long-term memory. Because of this, the spelling and sound patterns of the week along with sounds and patterns from previous weeks are practiced everyday through choral response at the carpet, partner work, and independent "word work." When we make time to pratice, we see progress. 

Supporting Article: Importance of Repetition in Learning 

Sound arches are another tool I learned of during my time student teaching. Sound arches help student make a visual connection of where they hear the sounds and the spelling patterns in words. We collaboratively go through our phonics practice activity at the start of each week and create the sound arch together. This is left on the board for the week for students to refer to during group, partner, and independent work. It is important to have many ways for students to learn and remember new information, and a visual sound arch is a great support for new materials!

Sound Arch Examples: Sound Arch Examples