A Day in an Inclusive Setting: Focus on Language and Literacy (continued)

Another group is guided by an adult in practicing name-writing skills. As children write their name, the adult fo cuses on directionality, saying words like short line, long line, small curve, and big curve while referring to the specific letters in children's names. These comments promote rich conversations about children's names. "I can write my first and last name now," Lyric says. "My L and lion [let ter link] is like Lilly's leaf." I am with a small group of very active children quietly look ing at books and listening to classical music through earphones. These calm activities help some children better organize themselves and become ready to focus and learn.

Reading Time

After an active time in the gym and eat ing break fast, the children gather in groups of three to five to read with an adult. Children in one group are predicting what they think might happen next as they listen to the story. Children in an other group, exploring a book they are familiar with, enjoy changing the ending of the story. After a group of four children and I take turns picture-reading, they smile broadly and say, "Hey, Brink, I'm reading!" And indeed they are.

Interactive reading provides a calm, cozy environment for a handful of children to enjoy a book as well as share their own experiences related to the story. It is also a time to develop chil dren's listening skills, phonemic awareness, and ability to have fun with language. Several types of reading may take place, depending on children's needs and in terests and the type of book: it may be a traditional read (reading from the title page to the end), a picture-read where the children talk about what is happening in the book by looking at the pictures, or a retelling-hav ing children tell a story they have heard several times.

Greeting Time

At greeting time children gather as a large group to share announcements, preview the day, and sing songs, recite nursery rhymes, or join in chants. Songs, rhymes, and chants all provide opportunities for children to hear and reproduce the sounds of language. Rhymes help build phonological awareness by focusing on ending sounds or syllables of words, while alliterative songs and chants call attention to initial sounds and phonemes. Children add verses or change the words in familiar songs and poems to make up rhymes and alliterations of their own.

At the message board, children decode messages written in pictures, symbols, and words. To help them understand the sequence of events and special events that will happen to day, children help put up cards showing the parts of the routine.

Children build vocabulary and awareness of rhymes as they use a pocket chart with pictures. The leader of the day touches each picture on the chart as the class names it: dog, hat, log. An other child points to the pictures that rhyme. Josh says, "Dog/log-I hear the rhyme" as he touches the pictures with the pointer. For children who are not yet rhyming, talking about each picture helps build their vocabulary. Other oral language activities at greeting time include a share bag and songs or games, chosen from a song book or activity book.

During greeting time, some children with special needs need support to be successful. For instance, a visually impaired child sits on a carpet square to help define her sitting space. Sitting on a ball helps a child with attention difficulties focus and stay alert-attention is needed to balance while sitting on a ball! Some children hold "fidgets," a small item that they can manipulate. This helps improve their concentration and ability to listen.

Small-Group Time

Small-group activities offer an opportunity to celebrate the many types of children in our class room. Children benefit from watching, interacting, and communicating with each other while using the materials in their own way. While all small-group times provide language and literacy opportunities, some are planned to fo cus specifically on literacy concepts. Today, the children in one group take turns reaching into a discovery box to find an item and guess what they are holding be fore they look at it. They have lots of un usual looks on their faces as they try to guess what is in their hand, and they talk excitedly to one an other.