Journal Question #11

This entry answers #11 of the Reading Methods Journal Questions

What role does literature play in the daily curriculum?

In a balanced literacy classroom, literature is interwoven into every area of the curriculum rather than being a separate entity or discipline. From my observation, I did not get the impression that literature was a part of every curriculum area, rather that it was its own separate subject area. The children studied literature just as they would study math or science, clean cut and easily discriminated. Mrs. Overstreet’s presentation of literature was in accordance with a more traditional way of teaching in which each subject is taught separately at specified times during the day.

The time allotted for literature study was about 1.5 hours. During the first 45 minutes of the literature lesson the children had independent reading time in which they read on-level books that they had selected from the school library or the classroom library. During this time Mrs. Overstreet conducted her guided reading with her lowest reading level children. The remaining 45 minutes were spent in a writing lesson. Unfortunately, I was only able to see one literature lesson, for my practicum time was in the morning during the math lesson, but I did get the opportunity to watch the entire second half of the day including the literature lesson. While the literature instruction was purposeful and the children seemed to enjoy reading independently and writing together as a group, the literature was not specifically integrated into the other lessons. In Mrs. Overstreet’s class, the role of literature was as a specific discipline area rather than an interwoven, underlying theme.