Interview question for 5th or 6th grade

[shandannon1]

Hi, all!!! Well,,Ive finally been able to sub for a bit, and have a job interview for an elementary school within the district Ive been subbing in.(But have not subbed at this school) My interview is next tuesday, and they are hiring a 3rd grade, 5th and 6th grade teacher. I have student teaching experience with 7th and 9th grade,,,but am also certified for elementary. One of the questions that I think I will be asked is how would I set up the reading? I know that primary grades tend to use reading groups or can have reading/literacy centers and all, but what do you do for 5th and 6th? I think if asked this question of how I would set up the reading portion of the class,,should I answer it like this: First I would assess the students and see what their reading needs are and what they lack ,,I like the idea of grouping students by their interests. Maybe have 3 or 4 groups. 1 group reads a certain book, the 2nd a different book, and so on. Or do 5th and 6th grade teachers just integrate english/language arts/and reading into one? Im not sure how I would set up a 5th or 6th grade class subject wise. I am used to having one subject like geography or history to teach to 4 different classes in one day. I really need help, lol. I will be a first year teacher once I land a job.Thanks for ANY advice!!!!

[Upsadaisy]

5th grade in our school is self-contained, 6th is not. The 5th grade teacher teaches language arts, math, and social studies. They go out for science. There is a basal textbook and workbook available for reading, but I don't use it. I simply don't have the time - language arts includes spelling, grammar, punctuation, reading, writing - so comprehension gets practiced in social studies assignments. They read books from different genres for monthly book reports. I read aloud daily and we have excellent discussions and occasional writing assignments about the novels. Some of the novels tie in with the era in American history we are studying. This is their favorite time of the day. When they come in from lunch I always hear several of them chanting, reading! reading! reading! I find it very easy to gauge their reading comprehension skills from the discussions and it is a better indicator of their levels than workbook questions on short stories. It is my favorite time of the day, also.

[camcdade]

I taught 5th grade with 2 other teachers and we each taught certain subjects to three classes. I taught the Reading/Writing/Language block. Each class lasted one hour and 50 minutes. I spent about 30-45 minutes on the language block (spelling, grammar, etc.). The rest of the time was spent in Reading/Writing instruction which I tried to integrate as much as possible. I loved doing novel studies and book clubs but also did some whole group reading lessons as well. I can give you more specific information about types of lessons if you need that.

[sunfl3815]

We do guided reading where I am. The literacy block is 2 hours. 15 minutes of word study, 45 minute of writing and the last hour is for reading groups. We use an anthology book with different stories, magazine articles, any stories you want. There are also leveled books, but they aren't used as much for the 5th grade. Novels are not done as often in guided reading though.