Language Arts ~ A Priority

There is so much to think about for new teachers. It can be quite overwhelming. As I have gone through my first year of teaching, I have come to realize that it is quite helpful and effective to organize and prioritize all of your thoughts and goals, even if it is simply in your mind's eye.

So here is my helpful tip to all of my fellow new teachers to help prioritize goals and thoughts. Don't skimp on your Language Arts instruction.  By that I mean, make Language Arts a top priority in your classroom. Students will never be able to know too much about reading and writing. And I think of it this way: if our students are able to read and write well, they will eventually be able to catch on to any other lessons or information we throw at them. In fact, the philosophy behind the Common Core State Standards is that educating for literacy is a shared responsibility across curriculums. On the K-5 level, reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language expectations are applicable to all content areas.

There has been a moving trend toward amping up the Language Arts instruction in classrooms, especially elementary classrooms. This is evident in the Common Core State Standards, which are showing that students as young as kindergarten are able and willing to become accomplished (developmentally appropriate) writers.

In a National Council for Teachers of English Language Arts journal article, there is suggestion that using the "writing workshop" approach to teaching students as young as Kindergarten has resulted in a structure to not only meet the new national standards, but to even exceed them. The writing workshop approach suggests putting down the basel readers and worksheets and replacing them with teacher-led Language Arts instruction, followed by at least a 45-minute writing period. Students are then asked to dictate their work to the teacher and/or class and share their stories. This is something that can even be done as early as the first week of Kindergarten. Of course, writing workshops must be done in a developmentally appropriate way. For example, if you choose to give a lesson on writing about what students see in the classroom on the third day of Kindergarten that is followed by a writing period where students can walk around the room and write about what they see, and then ask them to "read" their work to the class, it should be acceptable that some students may simply draw pictures or scribble while others may just jot down a few, misspelled sight words. The point is that we can start from the very beginning of elementary education and foster a genuine love, interest and talent in Language Arts, thus setting the stage for a successful academic career for our students across curriculums.

Not only will a solid Language Arts foundation set the stage for a successful academic career, it will also give students skills they will use for the rest of their lives.

The above picture is an example of a way that I incorporated reading into a lesson on the letter "C." I chose "C" books and then we read them together and looked for the letter "C." This was also a great opportunity to send the message to my students that reading is fun (I always read the Pete the Cat song in a silly voice) and that reading can always be related in some way to real life!


Source 
Kramer-Vida, L., Levitt, R., & Kelly, S.  "Kindergarten Is More Than Ready for the Common Core State Standards"  National Council for Teachers of English Journal, Language Arts.  November 2012.