With the help of my school sites primary learning center librarian, Ms.

Malissa, I was

able to fulfill my volunteer work for reading. I volunteered most Thursday’s during my break

and read to the Transitional Kindergarten class. Ms. Malissa would choose a book for the week

and her and I would discuss the book that was being chosen. Many of the books I read focused

on the letter for the week or a topic based on social sciences that they were learning in class. For

example when students focused on the letter “d” I read a book about dinosaurs. When students

focused on different methods of transportation I read books about about transportation. Students

also focused on butterflies and I read about the life cycle of a butterfly. I began by welcoming

students to the library as they walked through the door I greeted them with a high five. I had all

students sit down quietly in a rug area, each student sitting on a particular shape. Depending on

the lesson and book I would have students make predictions on what we might be reading for the

day. For example I would say “What is the letter for the week?” Students would respond. I

would continue by saying, “What words start with this letter?” Students would respond, and then

I would have them predict what we might be reading. For example when students had the letter

“d” they said that “d” starts the word dinosaur. I then I asked them what they thought they might

be reading today, they responded loudly by saying “Dinosaur books!” When I would begin

reading I would show them the front of the book and have them look at the title and the pictures

to again try to make predictions about the book. I began with simple concepts of print, the front

of the book, moving the the different pages until we got the end. As I began reading, I made sure

I was loud and annunciating correctly for students to notice my mouth and to be able to properly

model an effective reader. Again I had students look at the pictures and make predictions of what

might happen next. I also focused on words that students might not understand and made sure to

clear them up in order for them to better understand the text. At the end of a book I allowed
students to ask me questions and I would try my best to answer as best as I could. At times our

discussions ended with many “what if’s?” as students developed other stories that might have

occured. We had many open discussions but many times had to rally students back to the topic at

hand as many of the students could lack focus. At the end of each book students would color or

create a picture of what they had read. We worked on letter sounds for a particular letter we

focused on. Sometimes we plays games where students sounded out the letter, thought of a word

that began with the letter, and then we tapped on our legs in order to hear the syllables. Students

were engaged and focused on reading.