I am requesting $500 to build Mrs. Cooper's Classroom Library. This year I worked my first year as a certificated teacher at Glenshire Elementary School. Throughout the school year I took Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling better known as LETRS. This program taught me many things, but one thing that stood out was the use of vocabulary in the classroom. One way we learned to introduce new vocabulary was through the use of read alouds. After learning the material in my LETRS course, I set to work implementing the practices in my own classroom. Watching my students not only learn the new vocabulary though my read alouds paired with activities, but also using the new vocabulary in everyday classroom practices was exciting. Read alouds allow the teacher to model vocabulary development, reading fluency, and comprehension strategies. By enhancing my classroom library with vocabulary rich texts, I will be giving the students the tools to become participants in the success of their own learning.
Students directly in my classroom, EL students, as well as school wide as other educators see fit using in their classrooms.
The success of this literacy will be proven through students' advancement in literacy. As students read vocabulary rich texts, they start to create their own vocabulary bank that will lead them to reading higher level books. As they explore their new found vocabulary and books, they will start running into new words they may not know. My goal is to provide students with the tools (through read alouds) to come across new words, and be able to come to a conclusion as to what it means in order to comprehend what they just read.
The first set of students that will benefit from my read alouds are the students in my class. By doing multiple vocabulary lessons a week, students are able to build a higher word bank, in turn being able to understand multiple other texts and conversation that they might encounter.
Another set of students that greatly benefit from read alouds are EL students. Read alouds give these students the opportunity to be exposed to vocabulary that is new to them while making connections to their prior knowledge. Building bridges between students' current home language and newly learned classroom vocabulary, might be the single most important strategy in becoming a successful reader for EL’s.
These texts can also be used school wide for teachers who want to introduce new vocabulary.
This grant can be shared with all the grade levels at GES. Read alouds can offer new vocabulary at all different levels. One single book offers a chance for a word study across many different classrooms. For Example; a kindergarten class could read a book about a dog and talk about what the word “bark” means. While a second grade class can read the same book and talk about how there are multiple meanings for the same word. My new classroom library would be communal for Glenshire Elementary.
I did not.