Entry 5 ~ Instructional Methods

Mrs. Grigg uses balanced literacy for parts of her day. She does a read-aloud every morning, usually on a specific unit. For the first few weeks I was there though, she read a book that did not really have a specific purpose except for to get the students' thinking. For me, I would rather have my instruction be integrated so that it has a dual purpose, and let the students read for fun during independent reading. But she may have done this just to get the students into a routine for the school days.

Mrs. Grigg also does making words activities to familiarize students with the high-frequency words. They do timed word sorts for spelling. Another way they do this is they get in random partners and take turns spelling the word sort words. I, personally, would form partners for each student so that the students do not just get with their friends, but they are actually being challenged.

When the students are asked to write, they always have a writing prompt. They never free write. It is always, "Write five sentences about __________". I know this is needed sometimes when they are reflecting on what they are observing in science, or the teacher gives them a topic, but there also should be times that they have the opportunity to write what they want to write.

Another thing that Mrs. Grigg promotes is a lot of chanting and music. They watch videos about the silent e and chant even numbers or odd numbers. This is a great way to get the instruction stuck in their heads. During one of my lessons, I showed a video with music about bats, and they kept singing it after the lesson was over. I attached the video below. I can tell that is a way to get knowledge into the students' long-term memory.