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McLaurin
Elementary
Florence, SC

The Beginnings of Literacy

By: Asia Anderson

On a rainy day in Florence, SC, I walked into

a small, brick building on McMillian Lane,
called McLaurin Elementary. Inside, I saw a
lady with shoulder length blonde hair, a solid
black long sleeve shirt and a pair of dark blue
jeans on, standing at the front of the
classroom. She approached me with a soft
tone, welcoming me to her first grade
classroom. This is Mrs. Sheila Chapman,
winner of the 2013 Teacher of the Year. She
has been teaching at McLaurin for about five
years, and previously taught in Aiken for
seventeen years.

According to Mrs. Chapmans first grade class,

being a good reader is important in becoming a
better writer in order to be successful in life. In
the small classroom every child was in a
comfortable spot to read independently. John
Doe, a student in this first grade class, was
reading a book called Biscuit Meets the Class Pet.
He fluently read this story to me and told me he
really likes the book. The technique he likes to
use while reading is to follow along with his
pencil, making sure he reads every word
correctly. When finishing up reading their stories,
the students gathered around in a circle on the
carpet, for a group discussion on what they had
read and if it was beneficial. The students raised
one finger if they read the whole time, two if
they read some of the time and three fingers if
they didnt really read at all. They also gave a
brief summary of what they read to the rest of
the class. After they shared their readings, they
were given a gold medal for being able to reflect
and think about what they had read. This
encourages her students to continue to develop
good reading skills and strategies during their
writing process. Chapman says, Boys and girls
this is a very important part of our day (Sheila
Chapman). She lets them know that reading is a
huge part of life and that she takes it very
seriously in her class. Reading expands your
vocabulary and gives you better word choice not
only for writing assignments, but for speaking as
well. When she told them that its a very
important part of their day, this is true because,
you have to read in order to do anything in life.

Chapman uses stories to model reading

strategies. Each child has a bag of just right
books based on their textual reading levels,
so with each student it varies in the type of
books they have. They read those books
during independent reading time and she
models strategies they can practice before
sending them to read. For example, one
student was finding little words inside of
bigger words. Im very serious about this
portion of the day and they know it (Sheila
Chapman). This is the childrens favorite part
of the day; they love to read and they get
excited when its silent reading time. They
also read poetry weekly and they enjoy that
as well.

An interesting poster in the class of reading

strategies was an important feature because,
it gave students tasks to do while reading
like; visualizing, using context clues, build
connections, look for chunks of information,
picture walks, stretching words, checking the
picture and making predictions, looking for
figurative language, noticing the wording and
checking the spelling. It gave a number of
different things to look for in reading to help
break down and actually understand what
they are reading. Its never too early to start
analyzing text when reading, this first grade
class has proven this with the all the different
strategies they use.

Works Cited
Chapman, Sheila. E-mail interview 25 Sept. 2014
Doe, John. Prersonal Interview. 25 Sept. 2014

Mrs. Chapmans First Grade Class Page 2

1

Mrs. Chapman doesnt just tell these kids

that reading is important, she also shares
that writing is as well. She displays books,
dictionaries, and read aloud books
everywhere so theres always something
different to read to help them get started on
writing. The students had a spelling test and
played a game called sparkle before they
took the spelling test. This helped them
remember what will be asked on the
spelling test and to refresh their minds on
how to spell the words. Looking over at one
students spelling test, he had them all
right. She must teach them in a way that
they can remember, like the game they
played. Their spelling words build off one
another with words like; it, fit, hit, etc. were
on the test.

After reading they would transition

over to focus on writing. Her writing block
starts at 9:30 am sharp and usually
introduced with a literature piece. Giving
these children time to think before they
write is important because, it gets the mind
brainstorming. They might draw a picture or
web first to connect with the piece. Then
she models writing for them and think out
loud while writing along. One thing that first
graders do is stress out about spelling the
words wrong, but it isnt a major concern in
the beginning about the spelling because its
not as important. Worrying about spelling
cuts off the process of thinking and letting
your ideas flow. The topics they write about
are things they have experienced like
related arts. These first graders keep
response journals and after reading a piece
of literature, they write in it and reflect
what they have read and they also illustrate
a picture with it. They love sharing what
responses they wrote with one another and
how they have made a connection to the
reading. These are ways to help develop a
student to be a good writer.

Student named changed for article

The reading and the writers workshop is a large

part of the class and is really important to Mrs.
Chapman. She wants to make sure that her
students are benefiting from all her reading and
writing strategies. When her students discuss and
talk about what they have read, their responses
are better because they reflected on it. If you
dont reread and summarize what you have read
you wont always have a clear understanding of
what it is about. Reading also is helpful when it
comes to writing because it sets an example of
how your writing should look. Reading and
writing is not only beneficial in school, it helps
you when looking for a job as well.

There are a lot of people in our society who

cant read and write and some never had the
opportunity to learn how to. Its really sad
because every day you read even If you dont
realize it. It doesnt have to be a novel or a
poem; it could simply be a street sign or
instructions on an item and if you cant read,
how are you supposed to know what it says?
Same as for writing; some people can only
write their names and can barely read and fill
out a job application. Reading and writing are
not just important for school; we use them
daily. Theres no way to escape it. I look at
them as a part of life because its something
you need, you want and you have the
opportunity to learn it. You cant learn
everything about reading and writing in just
one class, its something that progresses and is
developed over the years. Im still learning
reading and writing techniques every day. You
can never stop learning enough about the two.
Starting these learning habits as a child will
help you become successful and have a brighter
future.