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Monday, September 15, 2008

The Six Areas of Language Arts

There are six areas of language arts that we will focus on in the classroom: reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and visual representation. Reading, listening, and viewing deal with getting information. Writing, speaking, and visual representation are ways of sharing information.

Reading is getting information from printed texts. Students will have opportunities to read silently during the day as well as reading stories aloud together as a class.

Writing is sharing information with someone through printed text. Students will write in their journals every morning and will publish a work once every nine weeks.

Listening is gaining information from oral language, the spoken word. For 10 minutes after lunch each day, I will read aloud to students from a chapter book. Students also will need to have good listening skills to follow directions given throughout the day.

Speaking is giving information to others through the spoken word. Students will give book talks where they will discuss with their classmates a book they are reading, and they will take on roles to be performed during reader's theatre.

Viewing means looking at a nonprint form where meaning must be created. Students are practicing viewing when they watch a movie about the life cycle of a butterfly or when they look at a site on the Internet.

Visual representation is presenting a message through a nonprint source. Students will make a bulletin board about friendship where they will display symbols of friendship to share with their peers. Also, students will make posters for a report in social studies.

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