Language Arts Survival Tips for the Elementary Classroom
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First and foremost, focus on the foundation; children need to know the alphabet, and the relationships between sounds and their symbols, or reading will not take place.
Practice letter-sound relationships daily. Make a game of it.
Note how children learn television commercials because they are repetitious, short, and often sung. Let's take a cue from this.
Read aloud to children every day. You are modeling the language and enriching their vocabulary. Poetry works well for rhyming sounds.
Encourage parents to take children to Story Hour at the local library, and to get a library card and books for their child.
Have jigsaw puzzles in the classroom for children to use. The experience with shapes helps them to notice curves and straight lines that will be helpful in distinguishing letter shapes.
Keep in mind that small-motor coordination is still being developed in elementary-school students, so it's difficult for these children to stay within lines. For variation, they can practice making letters at the chalkboard (with chalk or with a brush and water) or form them with clay.
Have rules for listening. Don't speak until everyone is quiet.
Establish a signal for quiet listening such as turning out the lights or clapping a pattern.
Give children opportunities to speak to the group. Show and Tell is the original oral report.
Provide listening opportunities with music, sounds, stories, and bells.
Don't get caught up in the “phonics vs. whole language” debate. It's simply not an either or issue. Children need a wide variety of skills.
Have many print samples in the classroom – newspapers, magazines, picture books, pamphlets, menus, and so on.
Show a story video with the sound on mute, and have students talk about the story message. Then listen to it.
Remember that wordless picture books invite children to create the story with language in their own words.
Engage in partner-reading with picture books. That is, have two students look through a book together and talk about it.
Invite children to bring stuffed toys into the classroom and prop them up in your reading area. Children can read to them.
Keep a variety of colored pencils in your writing area.
Set up a listening center in the classroom so children can listen to a story and look at the text simultaneously.
Record directions on cassette tapes and have children listen to them. This is especially helpful for the child who needs help with listening.
