Reflection 7

In class this past Monday, we went over a variety of things. A few things caught my interest such as sight words, descriptive words, and function words. I learned that the during the first couple weeks of school in a kindergarten classroom, the teacher usually only has the students name on the word wall. Their names are their first sight words. I think this is a good idea so not only can the students see all their classmates names, but they can go back later and connect other words to those names. For example, if a students name on the word wall is John, then kids can look at that name and say, "Oh yeah, job starts with a /j/ and /o/ like John does". I really liked talking about descriptive words, because adding descriptive words to a story can make a simple story into a great story. Descriptive words really grab the readers' attention and get them seeing the story in their heads.

We also talked about story starters. The article we read has some great tips for teaching about story starters. I also like when we got with a partner and made a vocabulary idea book. I think having the class put all our ideas into one book that we can all have a copy of is such a great idea. The book will be very useful for us when we become teachers. I really liked doing the Writer's Workshop first thing in the morning. I feel that when we do it at the end of the day, my mind is just focused on going home and not writing, so having writing time in the morning is better for me.