Environmental Survey

© Linda Hoyt

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Leveled
Books
Database

Readers
Theatre
Resource

Readers Theatre, a performance of literature read aloud expressively, motivates students to read by engaging them in purposeful reading. Print or copy a script from one of the following resources and “let the play begin.”

Aaron Shepard Lois Walker Storycart Press Institute for Readers Theatre Inez Ramsey

Apple Learning Interchange
(ALI)

ALI is an online resource for teaching, learning, research, and collaboration. This is the place for educators interested in professional development, creating and sharing curriculum resources, and building a worldwide community of people committed to finding even better ways to teach with technology.

ALI offers a standards correlation engine that lets you find curriculum units that are aligned with major state and national standards. After searching by subject/grade, topic, and state, the engine returns a list of benchmark standards that are addressed by specific Units of Practice. Go to <http://ali.apple.com/ali/uops.shtml>

The site also includes a database with more than 30,000 educator-contributed and validated best-of-the-web URLs—catalogued and searchable for easy access at <http://ali.apple.com/ali/resources.shtml>

Poster:
Good Reader
Strategies

© Linda Hoyt
adapted from the work of
Pearson, Duke (1999)

Click on the page to download a printable, complete version (PDF) of the poster.

Working With
Parents

Keep an eye on this
site’s newsletter section,
“The Parents Corner.”
New parent ideas
appear there first.

Parent Involvement is largely about comfort level. There has to be a tone set that says, “We want you here!”

We have passed the time when educators posed themselves as the experts and set out to “teach parents” how to support their children. We have entered, instead, an era when we need to ask parents to teach us about their learners. By opening our ears as well as our hearts, we will find the keys to success.

When planning for one-to-one meetings with parents:

1. Be an active listener. Invite the parents to help you learn about their child. What does their child most like to do? What are some special memories? What seems to most excite your child about school? What seems to make the child most happy and relaxed?
2. Try to learn about the parents. What are their strengths? What might they be able to share with others? Are they willing to share about their hobbies, profession, or about their native culture and food?
   
3. Try to make the parent(s) feel needed and attempt to identify something you can do together with a focus on their child.

When planning parent involvement activities for large groups:

1. Use the Adverstising Rule of Three
Advertise through three media sources. Have students write letters, develop a telephone tree, make home visits, create a student written newsletter, or ?

2. Make It Fun and Involve the Children!
Parents like to have fun WITH their children. Plan events that have a sense of entertainment such as children performing their favorite readers’ theater scripts, reading from student authored books, or following directions
together to make milkshakes.

3. Provide Childcare for Preschoolers
Families are more likely to participate if they don’t have to arrange for child care (You might consider calling a high school to involve the Key Club or National Honor Society as a service project.)

4. Feed Them!
Life is busy for everyone. If food is provided, there is one less excuse for non-participation. (Check with McDonalds, local pizza parlors, Red Robin, Applebees, etc. Many of these businesses are glad to donate food in return for a public thank you!)

Reciprocal Teaching

Two printable examples are included at right. Here are additional links to other Reciprocal Teaching resources:

Patti's Teacher Corner

Project Websight

Dade-Monroe Teacher Education Center

 

Click on the pages to download a printable, complete version (PDF) of the lesson.

Have a Book Party

Book parties can occur within a classroom, as an activity between two classrooms, or as a parent involvement activity. Several ideas for variations are included.

From Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Reading Comprehension, p. 32, Heinemann, 1999

Click on the page to download a printable, complete version (PDF) of the lesson.

Newscast

For this retelling activity, make a videotape of a local news broadcast and invite students to analyze it. Students discuss the pacing, the strategy of telling main ideas, the use of video clips, and so forth.

From Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Reading Comprehension, p. 52, Heinemann, 1999

Click on the page to download a printable, complete version (PDF) of the lesson.

Interactive Journals

This lesson for emergent writers moves from an individual drawing and writing activity to partner interaction and group sharing time. This lesson works well when focusing on one story.

From Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Reading Comprehension, p. 86, Heinemann, 1999

Click on the page to download a printable, complete version (PDF) of the lesson.

Book Review: Nonfiction

Use this assessment guide to help students critically evaluate nonfiction books. The guide can be used for either personal writing time or for class or small group discussions.

From Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Reading Comprehension, p. 154, Heinemann, 1999

Click on the page to download a printable, complete version (PDF) of the lesson.

Parent Page:
Plan a Story, Write a
Story, Make a Book

There are so many ways parents can support their child’s learning environment. This lesson combines writing, drawing and bookmaking in a celebration of the family community.

From Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Reading Comprehension, p. 190, Heinemann, 1999

Click on the page to download a printable, complete version (PDF) of the lesson.

Fast and Slow Reading

This minilesson is a focus on pacing and rate, an opportunity to demonstrate how rate does change according to the demands of the text. You could use a big book, a read aloud, or guided reading books.

From Snapshots: Literacy Minilessons Up Close, p. 72, Heinemann, 2000

Click on the page to download a printable, complete version (PDF) of the lesson.

Little Words in Big Words

I explain to students that when readers are stuck on a word, they sometimes look for little words inside of bigger words....

From Snapshots: Literacy Minilessons Up Close, p. 120, Heinemann, 2000

Click on the page to download a printable, complete version (PDF) of the lesson.

Discussion Starters
and Stoppers

Students need to understand that some questions and statements stimulate conversation, others bring it to a halt. To stimulate a conversation about discussion, I like to read a thought-provoking selection and then ask a question with a right/wrong answer. The students then decide: Is that question a starter or a stopper? and Could it stimulate a conversation? We continue the process as the students generate questions about the text and in every case decide if the question is a “starter” or a “stopper.”

From Snapshots: Literacy Minilessons Up Close, p. 138, Heinemann, 2000

Click on the page to download a printable, complete version (PDF) of the lesson.

Parents as Partners
in Reflection

Once a month, I have children select a “best piece of work” to celebrate. The chosen piece of writing does not have to be published, just something the student has reason to take pride in.

Following through the steps of this lesson will help keep the family regularly involved in their child’s interests and progress.

From Snapshots: Literacy Minilessons Up Close, p. 233, Heinemann, 2000

Click on the page to download a printable, complete version (PDF) of the lesson.

How to Make a
Jigsaw Book

Drawings by Judy Hjelseth
© Linda Hoyt

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