This is my first year teaching and it has been a challenging year to say the least. While school and student teaching have prepared me, there are moments I realize I must use my own creative inventions to get through. Teaching first graders reading comprehension was just that moment. Reading takes more than general knowledge–practice, repetition and reaching each child on their own learning level is imperative. In my classroom I have had to create my own reading strategy.

First grade is an essential time for students to not only learn how to read but comprehend what they are reading. This has turned out to be the most challenging part for many students in my class. Towards the beginning of the year I had my students reading and explaining in pairs what they have read. While this was working I started thinking of ways to not only make it more creative but more fun. It wasn’t till I was reading the comics that day it popped into my head.

I took a foam piece that night and cut a “thinking bubble” complete with a hole for students to put their heads through. My new reading comprehension plan involves 2-3 student groups. One student becomes the “thinker” as the other student reads the “text” out loud. The thinker is encouraged to yell out their thinking as the other student is reading the book. So far my kids love this strategy and the reading comprehension in my class has clearly increased.

My mom was an early childhood teacher for 30 years and inspired me to go into teaching. She always
had such great creative ideas! One of the ideas she had was for small group guided reading lessons.
My mom would have students hold a marker up and pretend that they were broadcasting for a radio
show. The student’s enthusiasm was palpable as they read. They were more expressive and more
fluid in their reading, when they were “play pretending”. To upgrade this idea to the 21st century, I
bought a few recording mics from Amazon (only $15/microphone) and started recording and loading
my students “broadcasts” onto the computer. We create their broadcasts, and make them available
for the parents at the end of each week. The parents love it, and students couldn’t be more excited to
hear themselves reading. From a learning value perspective, the enthusiasm and emotion students put
into the reading helps to increase their fluency and leads to greater comprehension. When they hear
themselves, they also get to hear how they pronounce words which is really helpful for our ESL students

In my classroom, the daunting task of learning to read is made fun by engaging students and connecting to their interests. For every reading that is assigned, the students are also allowed to pick one themselves (as long as it is an appropriate reading level). This gets them interested and allows for variety in the materials that are covered. We also allow students to pair up so that they have not only teacher assistance, but peer assistance as well. This allows the students to showcase their strengths and weaknesses while helping, and learning from their friends.

Although somewhat dated, the idea of pen pals has always appealed to children, so rather than writing to outside sources, we simply allow the students to write to each other. They keep large, decorate envelopes in the classroom and throughout the course of the year will write to each and every classmate. Because the students get to choose what to write about, they are excited about their weekly pen pals, rather than intimidated.

All in all, reading in our classroom is about engaging the students so that they are excited to continue learning! By using an assortment of materials and methods to teach reading, the students stay interested and have more than one way to learn!