My thought process

1. Sharing: This class loves to share their work and it is a way to motivate them. They are very vocal students and channeling this energy into their school work by sharing is a way to help them get their work done as well as maintain their interest in the matter. For literacy, they are often writing out their own jingle, or creating a new word by combining a suffix and a prefix with a root word and defining this, and the reason they stay focused and complete these tasks is because they know they will get to share out their work. Like connectivity, the act of sharing grounds them to their work and allows it to be personal which in turn gives each student the space they need to create.

2. Community: Every time class starts there is a student who is assigned to go around to every student and stamp their homework for completion. When one student is sharing, the other students tend to become quieter so they can listen to what they are saying. There is a great sense of community amongst these students which is great for creating a space of support, which also a result of connectivity, but it is not always the greatest for literacy. Very little reading is done on the individual level and if somebody doesn't know the answer to a question they are being asked the other students will help them by shouting out the answer. They rely very heavily on each other so reading most of the time is taken away in place of graphic organizers that can be completed as a class or in a group with the directions given out by the teacher. Nothing is left for the student to figure out which I don't think is helping them in the long run because they aren't thinking critically. If they can't even read directions on their own, what can they be trusted to understand? Here, this community is supportive, but it doesn't promote individual growth.

3. Connectivity: In this classroom there is a strong need for the students to feel connected to the subject matter being taught in order to make any progress. So as far as literacy goes, the teacher mainly uses direct instruction for the directions to assignments and provides a model for the class so they can proceed to work independently or in groups. It is always a class effort in order to complete any task, even if parts of the task are performed independently or in groups, and this method of teaching creates a space of support that these students need. There is less pressure put on the individual but that also means there are fewer opportunities for the students to read and understand any material on their own.

4. Assessment: This is a huge part of this class because there seems to be a constant strand of assessment throughout each lesson. It is tied to literacy because by assessing their knowledge of the lesson the teacher is gather an accurate representation of the class standing and the ways they interpret the lesson in their own terms. Lately they have been learning about suffix's and prefixes and the way context can help the reader interpret definition and even though the students love the games they play where they make up words they are using their literacy skills to accomplish this and it is also a way for the teacher to assess their skill level. It connects them to the material, creates a community environment and involves sharing which these kids love. I feel like this is the strongest area of the classroom as compared to the other 3 areas listed because it wouldn't work without the other 3.