Starting Up the Literacy Classroom

At the beginning of this year, consider introducing strategies that will allow you to build concepts in reading and writing throughout the year. Many of you have participated in our Launching the Writer's Workshop series and know about introducing the traits. Here are some ideas for how to "launch" your reading year as well.

Reading

Hundreds of you have attended the Dynamic Mini-Lessons in Reading workshop and learned how to "launch" the year with your readers, too. (The Dynamic Mini-Lessons for Teaching Reading workshop will be offered again for spring 2012.)

Reading is an invisible skill. One way to make it more visual and concrete is to use icons and triggers to help students "get it." Just like icons and toys make the 6 Traits come alive, there are icons and triggers for the different reading comprehension strategies. Click here for the rationale behind each icon. You can download the graphic icons in 8.5 x 11 mini-poster form (PDF file) or in a Microsoft Word document.

Individually introduce each comprehension strategy with a text that lends itself to that type of thinking. Here is my current list of favorite picture book titles:

Question & Predict

Prove that your students are curious by collecting questions for a day. Then read:

• Primary--The Monster at the End of This Book, Jon Stone
• Intermediate--The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, Chris Van Allsburg
• Secondary--Night Running, Elisa Carbone
  

Make Connections

Define the relevant terms (self, text, and world) when introducing the idea of making connections. "Self" means yourself and something you actually did, felt, or experienced. "Text" refers to another book, magazine, etc. "World" includes ideas previously learned or heard. Then read:

• Primary--When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry, Molly Bang
• Intermediate--The Perfect Pet, Margie Palatini
• Secondary--The Blue House Dog, Deborah Blumenthal

Create Visualizations

Show an appropriate music video. Compare the song lyrics to the "text" and the video to the "visualization." Then read:

• Primary--Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown
• Intermediate--Come on, Rain! Karen Hesse
• Secondary--Dogteam, Gary Paulsen

Retell & Summarize

Point out examples of summaries in the students' everyday lives: a recent book order that includes simple summaries, the back cover of a book, movie trailers, ESPN sports highlights. Then read:

• Primary--The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
• Intermediate--Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, Mem Fox
• Secondary--The Kid Who Invented the Popsicle (select any passage), Don L. Wulffson

Compare main idea to listing. The category or title of the list is the main idea. The items on the list are the specific and supporting details. Then read:

• Primary--Trevor's Wiggly-Wobbly Tooth, Lester Laminack
• Intermediate--Blackout, John Rocco
• Secondary--The Relatives Came, Cynthia Rylant

NOTE: Each title above is the main idea.

Brainstorm words and phrases associated with a big discovery. Aha! Oh! That changed my life! A synthesis is about what the reader now knows, believes, or understands after having read and reflected on the text. Then read:

• Primary--Diary of a Worm, Doreen Cronin
• Intermediate--Be Good to Eddie Lee, Virginia Fleming
• Secondary--The Harmonica, Tony Johnston