Oral Language and Morning Meeting: Video Segment

Like many primary-grade teachers, Dr. Frost uses the morning meeting as community-building experience. Dr. Frost also emphasizes oral language development in the morning meeting.

• What is the benefit to sharing news from home?
• Why does Dr. Frost connect the reading of the poem of the week to the morning meeting?
• How does Dr. Frost use information shared during the morning meeting to inform other aspects of her literacy program? How does she connect the morning meeting and the theme of the day? How does this connection foster oral language? How can Dr. Frost use informal observations about students to provide assessment data?

Interactive Writing: Video Segment

When she began the year with her multi-age class, Dr. Frost thought interactive writing might be appropriate for the first-grade students in her class but not for her second-grade students. She came to believe, however, that interactive writing is an important shared literacy practice that provides learning opportunities for everyone.

• How does writing at the front of the group benefit students academically and socially? How does Dr. Frost decide which students to call up to the chart during lessons?
• How does Dr. Frost use students' writing attempts to meet the needs of the student as well as to help the entire group? What other word study skills does Dr. Frost reinforce in this particular interactive writing lesson?

Comparison of Books: Video Segment

Dr. Frost plans group activities that bring students at different levels together. In this comprehension activity, she asks students to compare and contrast five different books about "100th day of school" celebrations.

• How does Dr. Frost's comparison chart help the students understand the purpose of comparing books? How does it scaffold and encourage higher-level thinking?
• Dr. Frost uses a student's comment to highlight the difference between descriptive stories and stories that have a conflict or problem. What do you think about this teaching example? How does this activity develop students' reading comprehension skills?
• What other examples in the video demonstrate Dr. Frost's ability to use a student's response to enhance a lesson?
• Why does she ask students to identify their favorite book? What is gained from this exercise?

Next > Summing Up