Interesting Observation....

After much deliberation about the LAP due in this course, I was unsure of who I would observe and focus my LAP on. I concluded my ideas and approached a member of my church who has a six year old daughter, she is in first grade and attends Edgewood Primary Elementary. I explained what the assignment was and asked if I could observe her daughter's classroom in order to gain a greater understanding of how her teacher organized reading time. I have yet to arrive to the point in my education where I have an abundance of field experience, so this was a new encounter for me.

It was well worth it! I had such a great experience and ironically observed the same day as the reading specialist visited the classroom. Moreover, I was delighted by the organization of the literature within the classroom. The classroom had a vast array of books for the students to read. Each genre was divided into plastic boxes with labels on the front indicating the type of genre. I did observe that this wonderful 'label rich' classroom was easily accessible for all types of readers. The classroom environment was a managed well with a great balance of encouraged autonomy.

The students were divided into groups of four and were assigned a specific area in the classroom. The reading specialist visited each group and spent twenty minutes with all groups. She incorporated a set of vocabulary flash cards that the students would study prior to reading the literature. After they throughly went through the vocab words, their reading performance was nearly flawless. She concluded her lesson with the game of Bingo. The students were thrilled by this activity and were extremely engaged during this time.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience!