Inside the Classroom: Nellie Whitmire - Nance Elementary
Inside the Classroom: Nellie Whitmire - Nance Elementary
Inside the Classroom is a series that visits Northwest ISD campuses throughout the year and highlights the magical moments that happen between teachers and students each and every day across the entire 234 square miles of NISD.
“I love to find ways to make it exciting for them and continue to stretch their learning in various ways,” said Nellie Whitmire.
The next edition of Inside the Classroom takes us to Nance Elementary and Ms. Whitmire’s first-grade classroom for a phonics-based reading lesson. During our visit, the young Golden Eagles were always on the move and constantly engaged thanks to the preparation and creativity of their teacher.
Northwest ISD utilizes UFLI Foundations curriculum for reading and phonics in its youngest learners, and that provided the base for Ms. Whitemire’s lesson during our visit. It is a curriculum that helps children learn letter sounds, how to blend sounds to make words, how to read and spell, plus it also teaches them how to build fluency and comprehension.
UFLI lessons typically are broken up into two days, and we visited on the second day. Previously, Ms. Whitmire’s class had learned all about the “ng” sound, including the rules and patterns associated with it.
Our visit started with a review of the sound and those rules and patterns. Ms. Whitmire stood in front of the class and led them in reading examples of “ng” words out loud. Then, students moved from the carpet to their desk, a trek that would become popular during our visit.
At their desks, students used word charts and letter tiles to build and manipulate words that Ms. Whitmire called out. Students were using their previous knowledge to sound out the words as Ms. Whitmire walked around the room to lend a helping hand.
After completing a few words, the word charts were collected and students returned to the carpet. There they looked at irregular “heart” words and read them along with Ms. Whitmire. These are high frequency words students have to learn by heart, because they contain one or more irregular parts that can’t be decoded yet using the phonics rules students know.
While reading the words out loud, students moved their hand to their heart when they read the sound that is irregular. The motioning while reading is a staple of the UFLI curriculum as it engages more than just listening, helping to reinforce the connection between sounds, letters and words.
Next, students returned to their desk and used whiteboards and sound charts to write words that Ms. Whitmire called out. They then came back to the carpet for a third time, this time to work on connected reading with Ms. Whitmire leading the class in reading through full sentences.
Students then returned to their desks for the final time and discussed the rules of building and writing sentences. Ms. Whitmire reminded students to start with a capital letter, maintain spacing between words, end with punctuation and make sure the sentence makes sense.
Ms. Whitmire read a couple of sentences out loud that students wrote on their whiteboards. Then, for the final hands-on activity of the lesson, Ms. Whitmire’s creativity was on display. In groups, students got a bag full of fall-themed papers. They had to color each paper to reveal a word, then organize the words as a team into a sentence that made sense.
Before class, Ms. Whitmire had created the “magic” pumpkins and bats by writing words in white crayon that could be revealed when colored over.
After showing off their teamwork skills while Ms. Whitmire walked to each group and helped them work through creating their sentences, students individually wrote and illustrated their sentences.
Finally, the class moved to the carpet one last time, and Ms. Whitmire closed out the lesson by bringing a member of each group to the front to share their sentences and celebrate their work.
We visited Ms. Whitmire’s classroom for about one hour, and in that time students moved from their desks to the carpet (or vice versa) six times. With the movement, creative tools and intriguing hands-on activities, Ms. Whitmire’s goal to find exciting ways to stretch her student’s learning was certainly achieved.
The level of engagement that her first graders displayed, and the love they showed for reading and writing, was truly inspiring. Teachers like Ms. Whitmire are going above and beyond the standard curriculum every day, and their students are reaping the rewards.
Check back regularly all year as we continue to visit students and teachers throughout Northwest ISD and offer a rarely seen look Inside the Classroom.