Engaging Readers with Graffiti Walls

Our literacy team took a new direction this year with our school-wide reading incentive program. We wanted to establish a literacy-rich environment where all students were given the opportunity to participate in literacy celebrations.

We did away with required nightly reading minutes, signed reading logs, and rewards given only to students who completed the reading challenge. Instead, we focused on creating opportunities for students to enjoy authentic reading, writing, and discussions.

We planned several school-wide activities throughout the year to promote literacy: Flashlight Fridays, book swaps, mystery readers, and graffiti walls.

For today's post, let's take a look at our school-wide graffiti walls. We chose this activity based on an idea presented in Donalyn Miller's book, Reading in the Wild.

Here are the steps we took to implement our graffiti walls:

Step One: Prepare the Canvas 

Provide a space for students to write about their reading.  Simply hang a sheet of butcher paper on an open wall.

A snapshot of a blank graffiti wall.

We hung paper throughout the building so that every grade level had a space for writing. We chose black paper and students used colored chalk and chalk markers to write. I would recommend the chalk markers, since they won't smear.

Step Two: Invite Participation

Encourage students to choose lines from a book that have special meaning to them. Students may want to quote something funny, highlight the big idea, or share an important lesson from their reading.  

This graffiti wall is hanging in our fourth and fifth grade wing.

We wrote one quote on each wall as an example. In the upper grades, classroom teachers explained to students that they could share words or lines from books that were meaningful to them. In the younger grades teachers suggested that students write about a favorite character or part of the story.

Step Three: Revisit the Wall

Provide time to discuss the quotes and writing on the wall. 

This student chose a quote that spoke to her about perseverance.

As quotes started to appear on the walls, we took time to recognize the contributions that were made. Students engaged in meaningful conversations and started choosing new books to read based on the graffiti wall discussions. 

Have you tried using graffiti walls? We would love to hear from you! Please share your comments below or post a picture of your graffiti wall on our Facebook page.  

Thanks for reading!

Graphic Novels

I first stumbled across Marcia Williams about 8 years ago when I was asked to teach myths and legends to my year 3 class (7-8 year olds). I had such a range of abilities in my class that I was at a loss for ways to help them all access this unit of work at a level appropriate for them. Then someone pointed me in the direction of the Greek Myths retold and illustrated by Marcia Williams.

This was just what I needed and now her collection of books retelling many great and classic stories in a child (and adult!) friendly way are a firm favourite in my classroom. I'm here today to tell you why and how I love using comic strips and graphic novels with my little learners.

 1. My favourite first activity to carry out with my class is to cover the captions and read the text using the pictures only. It is great to have pairs or small groups working on this activity and then share versions, comparing and contrasting – did we all tell the same story? Why did we have different versions? How did you interpret this picture? There is so much inference to be taught and using pictures to teach this is always a great way to make this tricky skill a little easier. We get to practise some super speaking and listening skills at the same time!

2.  They are such a brilliant first introduction to some tricker and more classic texts for children! Wherever possible, I like to pre-teach texts with those who are struggling a bit more in my class. Using graphic novels and highly illustrated texts like these means I can familiarise my less confident learners with the text before introducing it to the rest of the class.    These are more accessible versions of the story and build confidence so that when we come to whole class teaching, often with a different version of the story, the ones who usually struggle can be the text experts for a while! 

3. While we're thinking about differentiation for less able readers, these texts can also be used to challenge your more able. This style of writing means every word has to be chosen carefully and you will often find more adventurous word choices in the text. If you're delving into author choice of language, graphic novels can be a good starting point. They are also perfect for those with English as an additional language because of the images in place to support language development.

4. Motivation! If you have a class of reluctant readers then graphic novels and comic strips are highly visual, often funny and therefore very engaging for boys and girls alike. These could be that way you have been looking for to hook those few reluctant readers you have into reading and you never know - they may want to go on to read even more Shakespeare or Dickens in the future!

5. Alongside all the great reading skills you can teach you class with these books - inference, comparing and contrasting different versions of a story, author choice, language and layout and opinion to name a few, you can also have children produce some brilliant writing! I have had children work collaboratively to plan and create their own versions of stories we have read in class in the style of Marcia Williams. Stripping a story down and choosing words very carefully can be a great challenge for some children who usually write pages - this style of writing is definitely more about quality over quantity and this is something some of my learners definitely still need to work on!

If you aren't familiar with these books by Marcia Williams, I would definitely encourage you to check them out.

Do you have a favourite comic or graphic novel you use in class? What success have you had using them? I'd love to hear from you so do leave a comment below.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Making writing stick!

Writing in Kindergarten can be such a daunting task at times.  So many kids have never been exposed to writing before.  Sometimes they don't even know how to hold a pencil!

In order to teach Kinders how to write a complete sentence, they also need to understand what a complete sentence is.  So often, students at this age speak in single words or phrases.  In my writing center, I combine these two skills and embed my sight word lessons into it at the same time!

While planning the order in which I teach sight words, I always try to make sure that we can use them to build sentences.  For example, the first sight words that I teach are "I" and "see."  This way we can use our new sight words to write a sentence, "I see ___."

Here is my list of the sight words that I use and the sentences that we create with them!

So on Monday, I introduce our new sight words.  We even practice reading a few sentences with these sight words in them.

On Wednesday, we do a shared writing. I give each student a word card to help them with building our sentences.  I have several word cards with different themes that are stuck in a folder with Velcro.  This way students can manipulate them when we get to center time.  Once each student gets a card, I have them take turns using the word in a complete sentence using our new sight words.  I write them down as they tell me.  We discuss spacing, capital letters, periods, etc, all while writing the sentences.  Once every student has a had a turn, we practice reading everything that we have written.

On Friday, each student writes their own sentence using our sight words and a word card that they have chosen.  They illustrate their picture and then we put them together into a class book.  Our book goes in our library so that our kids can read their own writing during library time!

The following week, during writing center, our students will practice building their sentences with word cards, writing them, and illustrating them!  They have gotten so good at sight words and writing with this center!

How to Use Top 20 Book Lists to Motivate and Excite Readers

What do you think qualifies a book for a 

"Top 20" list? 

Trendy Topic?

Eye catching cover?

Vivid Vocabulary?

A Plot like No Other?

Amazing facts?

Probably all of the above.

For today's post, we're going to explore those Top 20 lists a bit, see whether they are must haves, and how they can add to the learning in your classroom.

Have you wondered where you find Top 20 Lists and who makes them? Does that make a difference? You betcha! After all, if the reader is a child, it might be wise to get a child's point of view I'd think. If you think about Trip Advisor or other sites that do rankings, they typically have some criteria for their decisions and expertise in the field. Some top 20 lists may be done by sales while others may be judged by librarians or site managers.  Regardless of how the lists are formed, they do highlight new titles for us. They are great ways to learn about what's new in children's literature and if you purchase them, it gives you a chance to do a little "market research" for yourself to see if they really measure up. Not willing to let loose of the cash? Maybe pull them from the library first to see for yourself.

Before I move on with this post, I feel like I should share that the idea for this post came when I visited Amazon this last weekend. I discovered the Top 20 lists in the children's book section on the site. Well, I am a book hound, so I had to check the lists out. You know there might be a title that I DON'T have (gasp!), so I went to take a peak, and here's what I found. This is the book list for ages 6-8. At first, I thought it was a list from the New York Times, but then I found it was the Amazon Editor's list. It does not say what the selection criteria was, so I'm not sure if it's based on sales, choices the editors liked, or if there was an evaluation process. Even though I'm not sure how the books were selected, I did notice common themes..animals, adventure, and make-believe. I also noticed a few favorite authors and book series including Pete the Cat, Amelia Bedelia,and Francine Poulet. Mo Willems also made the list, but there are also lots of unique looking books too. I am very curious about Nerdy Birdy, The Whisperer, and Escape from Baxter's Barn. Out of this 20 book list, only five or six were familiar to me, and I love that because now I have new options to look for in the coming months.

So, how can the enthusiasm we get when we see or hear about new titles translate into classroom enthusiasm?  Ultimately, that is the reason for the book lists. The goal is to build excitement about the books and more importantly, getting the books into the hands of kids.

TOP 20 IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM

Looking through Amazon's Top 20 list got my teaching wheels going. I had flashbacks to Lettermen's Top 10 Lists. Remember those??  We found them interesting and funny. I hope as you scan through these ideas, your teaching wheels get going too.

Create Room __'s  Top 20 Best Books for 2015

Take your class into the library for a Top 20 analysis session. Prior to the visit, develop a selection criteria with the group. You might set a page range, publishing year (of course), characteristics the students agree upon, and time limit prior to going, and once in the library, you'd want to have forms available for the students complete in order to keep them accountable. You might pair your students to allow for deeper discussion and comparison. You could have each pair of students come up with two books they'd put on the list which would ideally end up being around 20 books total. You could gather up the books and allow the students to "visit them" throughout the following week and then rank them in the order they feel is best.
Develop Top 20 Book Lists by Genre

After you've developed overall winner lists as a group, you might move on to genre lists. Kids have reading preferences, so tapping into those can lead to better book selection later on. In fact, I'd divide into groups based on the books that the kids prefer. Again, you'd want to establish the selection criteria and how the researching will be done. (Do you allow kids to search the internet? In the library? or do it by polls?) Once the time limit is up, then it's time to narrow by analyzing those in the first "selection round". You might even compare this experience to the NBA draft. :-) Secretly though, you're developing a reader's eye for book selection and providing kids with a mental list of what they want to read next.

Real Readers Need Personal Lists

After experiencing these first two options, you can then focus on reader plans. Real readers need ongoing lists of what to read next. If you remember, we've had a few posts about Donalyn Miller's 50 Book Challenge, and I think Top 20 Lists feed right into it. Your kids can keep and revise their Top 20 list all year long. Imagine how fun it'd be to compare the list at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year. My guess is that it will change as the year goes, don't you think?

I read recently as I was researching and thinking about a blog post I wrote about deep thinking that classifying and categorizing information is one great way to work on deep thinking. Throughout the list making process, your kids will be using the following skills:

• comparing across texts specific features you've agreed upon.
• analyzing the text features of the books including plot and character development, vocabulary usage, and creativity.
• observing through the writer's eye which may lead to improved writing skill.
• learning about new titles and authors
• using library tools to look for their books

What skills would you add to this list?  How would you change up the idea or use Top 20 lists?  (please share in the comments). 

To get you started, I created a quick freebie to share with you using some of the ideas shared above. I hope it works well for you and that you see lots of excitement from your students after you give it a try, and better yet, I hope it gets them headed to the library with new book list ideas.

Non-Fiction Text Structures with Gail Gibbons

Learning and understanding the five text structures for non-fiction can be hard for 8 and 9 year old students.  In fact, it can be hard on a teacher to teach the five text structures to 8 and 9 year old students.  But luckily, Gail Gibbons has made it a little easier on all of us!

Non-fiction texts are not my students first choice of genre to read.  Plus, informational text is a huge part of the state reading assessment in Ohio.  Exposing my students to all kinds of non-fiction is crucial when it comes to third grade.  So, I know that I need to spend quite a bit of time each year discussing "structure" and how it can help students understand the way in which an author builds a text.  Text structure refers to the way  an author organizes information in a text.  Teaching our students to recognize the structure of content-area texts, can help students focus attention on concepts, relationships, and help them monitor their comprehension as they read.