Currents in Literacy

Inside Real Classrooms: Things That Work

Throughout the first year of the Hood Children's Literacy Project, teachers at the Rodney J. Hardy School in Arlington worked in partnership with Lesley University faculty to explore classroom practices that support literacy development for elementary school children. Below are brief glimpses of the everyday practices teachers engage in to guide their students in the acquisition of skills, understandings, and attitudes that underlie learning to read and write.

Kindergarten

Once the children received their journals, kindergarten teacher Dottie Galluzzo reminded them to draw the pictures in pencil, to write the words in pencil, and after the teacher provided a written response to their words, to color the pictures with crayon or marker. Ms. Galluzzo recently adopted this approach, noting that at a workshop led by Mary Ellen Giacobbe, she learned that having children use pencils first cuts down on the amount of time some children will spend creating the picture, leaving more time for them to add words. As Ms. Galluzzo circulated around the room responding to the children's writing, modeling how she "stretches" words to hear individual sounds, and answering questions, the children were encouraged to use available resources: picture dictionaries, word wall, and alphabet charts that were placed in stands on each table.

First Grade

June Roche called seven children to a reading group on the rug. She reminded the other children who were working at their desks that they needed to work independently. After establishing these expectations, Ms. Roche began the lesson by announcing to the small group, "This is one of my favorite stories." The children then spent a few minutes discussing the pictures in detail. Several inference questions were asked about the illustrations. When the children were familiar with the storyline, based on what they inferred from the illustrations, they began reading. Individual children read aloud sections of the text, and Ms. Roche asked questions to assess comprehension and to clarify ideas. Ms. Roche praised children for using appropriate strategies. Throughout the reading, the children were encouraged to make predictions, to think critically, and to support their answers.

After reviewing expectations for writer's workshop, Joan Webber distributed the children's writing folders, which contained their writing samples for the year along with separate sheets of paper containing the agreed upon "rules" for writer's workshop, lists of potential future writing topics, and a list of the titles of completed stories. As the children silently reread their current pieces and began to write, the teacher conferenced with individual children, sitting beside each child at his/her own desk. A child explained that during the first draft they "just write." During the second draft they fix it up, make it better. As one child explained, "When you do publish a book, there's no mess ups." Each child selects one story to be published during the year and at the time of publication is featured by having his/her photo placed on a bulletin board titled "Meet the Author." Often the children choose to read their classmates' published books during an independent reading time.

Second Grade

During a reading lesson for The Terrible Thing That Happened At Our House, Alice Kane urged the children to predict what the book would be about by reading the title before the books are passed out. She then asked the group to skim through the book to discover what the "terrible thing" was. During the course of the reading lessons she continued to stress the importance of prediction as a reading strategy. She also encouraged the children to connect the book situation with a similar problem in their own lives, drew attention to the meanings of difficult words in the text, and praised children when they were able to self correct a reading error. A lesson on the "sw" blend maintained children's interest and involvement by moving from whole class participation to small group work, then back to whole group discussion. Richard Sullivan gathered the class around him on the floor to outline the assignment. The class then broke into groups to develop lists of "sw" words from dictionaries and "Spell-ix" booklets. Each child had fifteen minutes to develop a personal list of words then fifteen minutes to blend individual lists into a group list, discussing the appropriateness of words as they included them. Mr. Sullivan moved around the room assisting students when needed. In the final ten minutes of class, he held a whole class discussion of "sw" words (from the Reading Teacher's Book of Lists) which he printed on newsprint, discussing with the children the various meanings of the words listed.

Third Grade

In Laura Tsoi Doherty's classroom, the children were busily engaged in creating poems for their poetry folders. The children had been contributing to these poetry folders throughout the school year. These poems ranged from free verse to form poems to rhyme. Sometimes the children wrote about topics of their own choosing. Other times, the poetry topic connected to specific work and/or themes taking place in the classroom. The children always illustrated their poems. Ms. Doherty encouraged the children to share their poems by reading them aloud to the class from the "author's chair" in order to help them appreciate the importance of the sounds of poetry.

Beth Leopold's students read various fairy tales which represented different cultures and countries. As a culmination for this project, each child chose a partner and together they wrote a fairy tale of their own. The context of these fairy tales could be of the children's own choosing; however, because the movie King Kong was just released, several fairy tales had King Kong as a central character. All of the fairy tales had to include the traditional elements of this literary genre. Each pair of students used the computer to write their final drafts. Once the draft was complete, the students illustrated the fairy tale. Later each fairy tale was bound in a book form and shared with the other children in the class during an "author's chair" time.

The students in Nancy Kearney's room were taking part in a connected math/literacy activity. Each student was asked to write a set of directions for creating a specific geometric shape. After the directions were read, each student had a turn in reading the directions to the class. As the oral directions were given, each member of the class had to draw the geometric figure. This activity provided an important review of geometric figures as well as excellent practice in writing precise and clear directions. This activity was also a specific practice in listening carefully to oral directions.

Fourth Grade

In Marilyn Sullivan's class, the students were reading Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. Leigh, the central character in this book, was upset in one chapter because he hadn't heard from his father. Ms. Sullivan had the students orally brainstorm some of the things they do when they are upset. After the brainstorming each student wrote about what he/she does when he/she is upset. This writing provided a very personal connection to the novel the students were reading. After the writing was completed, the students shared their pieces with others in the class.

The students in Janet Sullivan's class were studying about Native Americans as part of the fourth-grade social studies curriculum. The students had read various traditional tales in which Native Americans described a specific natural phenomenon. After reading several of these traditional tales, each student chose something in nature and penned a tale about how this phenomenon came to be. These tales were later illustrated and shared with all of the other students in the class. This writing/social studies connection allowed the students to write in a literary genre they had been reading about.

Fifth Grade

During a writing class, Barbara Siegel conducted mini-conferences with each child. Her comments were often brief but drew attention to ways for the children to reflect on their own processes of composition. "You're missing one crucial sentence. How did you do it? What were some of the techniques you used?" Every child in the classroom was on task, thoroughly involved with the writing he/she was working on. Children moved from desks to computers without disturbing each other, waiting patiently for an opportunity to print out their compositions. When a printer broke down in the middle of the class, Ms. Siegel defined the situation as a teaching opportunity rather than a crisis. Calling on the technical expertise of a number of students, she helped them problem solve and fix the printer for themselves.

After a whole class discussion of a section of The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, Kevin Giroux focused attention on the meeting of Karana and the girl who suddenly appears on the island, Tutok. He then asked students to write a fictional account of events in either Karana's or Tutok's day leading up to the meeting. After fifteen minutes, during which he wrote at his desk and the students wrote at theirs, Mr. Giroux asked if anyone wanted to share. Two students read their compositions aloud and Mr. Giroux shared his writing. Those not finished with their writing continued to write to the end of the period. Those who had finished exchanged papers and shared responses to each other's work.

As the students read The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn by John Bellairs they kept a journal in which each child performed three tasks: 1) summarized the chapter assigned, 2) found three unknown words and looked up their definitions, 3) responded in some way to the chapter, relating what was read to their own experience or expanding on some aspect of the writing. When the group met in a circle on the rug, Laurie Blanchette had them share their responses to one of the assigned chapters, then they discussed their different predictions for how the mystery would be solved. The students referred to specific words in the book that indicated fear and connected these to personal experiences of being afraid. They shared responses to the book from the perspective of a dog mentioned in the story and a neighbor viewing events from a window.