About Me

Welcome to 1st grade! My name is Kelly Champ and I

Mrs. will be your child’s homeroom teacher. I graduated from

Grand Canyon University with a degree in Elementary

Education and have been teaching for 8 years. This is

Champ’s my second year in 1st grade and I absolutely love

teaching this grade level! Previously, I have taught in

October 14, 2018 Early Childhood (Toddlers-Pre-K) and Kindergarten.

Classroom Although we will be focusing on all areas of academics

this year, one of my teaching passions is centered on

(323) 123-4567
Cont1CC@school.org
News
Special Person
Individuals will share
meaningful moments
from his/her life and build Strategies that enhance communication skills:
confidence when
speaking publicly. Each
student will present 10-
12 photos to the class During discussions, this is
and talk about significant
people/events. partner up, connect, and
I am thrilled to be your child’s teacher
nurturing social interaction and communication within
this year and look forward to sharing
the classroom. According to Hurst, Wallace, and Nixon
(2013), “Socially interactive learners are engaged
new learning adventures with your
child and creating strong partnerships
learners. Students learn more when they are able to talk
with you!
to one another and be actively involved. In short, social
interaction is vital to the learning process and boosts
curricular areas.
Readers’ Theater
Links performing and
reading aloud together.
The objective is to increase
‘Turn and Talk’ Brainstorming self-confidence and
reading abilities by
This is an opportunity
practicing to read with
a way for students to for students to
purpose and develop
generate ideas that
fluency (Bafile, 2018).
actively listen to they wish to
responses to build communicate during
understanding and the writing process.
perspective.

Examples to support communication at different levels:

What is Differentiated
Instruction?
According to Sparks (2015),
differentiated instruction is, “The
process of identifying students’
individual learning strengths,
needs, and interests and adapting
lessons to match them”. In the
classroom, I use differentiated
instruction to proactively engage
students, reinforce content, create
a supportive learning environment,
and demonstrate mastery, while
accommodating to their diverse
learning styles and needs.
• Emergent literacy skills – Reading picture books
For students that are at the emergent level, reading picture books is
beneficial because it allows for print referencing to take place and relevant
connections to be made. Print referencing refers to an adult’s use of
nonverbal and verbal cues to direct a child’s attention to the forms,
features, and functions of written language. These cues are embedded into
the shared storybook reading interactions of adults and young children
(Justice & Ezell, 2004).
• Students with special needs - Literacy play centers
Engages students in targeted practice through open-ended play situations,
encourages collaboration with peers, facilitates problem-solving strategies,
and fosters social language and navigating through conversations, writing
development, and reading comprehension.
• Gifted students - Guided reading groups
Students work autonomously and collaboratively with peers that are at or
within similar reading levels in a small group. Activities are comprised of
shared reading, word work, conversations, developing comprehension, and
cultivating strategies for communicating/reading.
• English language learners – Visualization
People from around the world can interpret pictures, and with minimal
linguistic skills, can interpret charts and graphs (Herr, 2007). ELLs are
beginning to acquire and apply new vocabulary. Visual aids support their
learning and offer a consistent reference point to utilize when
communicating thoughts.
 References

Bafile, C. (2018). Reader's theater: giving students a reason to read

aloud. Retrieved from
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/readers-theater- giving-
students-reason-read-aloud.

Herr, N. (2007). Strategies for teaching science to English language

learners. The Sourcebook for Teaching Science (1st ed.)
Retrieved from
https://www.csun.edu/science/ref/language/teaching- ell.html.

Hurst, B., Wallace, R., & Nixon, S. B. (2013). The impact of social interaction
on student learning. Reading Horizons. Volume 52 (Issue 4). Retrieved
from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol52/is
s4/5.

Sparks, S. (2015). Differentiated instruction: a primer. Retrieved from

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/28/differenti
ated-instruction-a-primer.html.