Composing Literacy Photo Journal Entries Using Language You’ve Learned in EDC424

Materials **and** Activities in Literacy Rich Environments MATERIALS (to passively view) Alphabet and phonics reminders Posters with directions, schedules, and tips Labels (words/pictures/symbols) Books in bins for leveled guided reading and independent reading (fiction and non-fiction) Author of the month book bins Comprehension strategy charts and reminders Student Work Display Guided reading table Writing journals Literacy center task organizer Job charts Computer center ACTIVITIES *** (to actively use) Meeting center with weather, calendar, numbers to manipulate Listening Center Interactive writing activities (students hold the markers) Easel with poems/laminated big books to write on, circle, etc. Poetry corner with sentence strips to assemble poems Word study centers and pocket charts with cards to move around Writing/editing center with range of writing tools, paper, purposes Reading/spelling/phonics games to play Comfy space to lounge & read Puppets with books to act out the dialogue Using humor, Socializing/Sharing

How are these more engaging than a static word wall or a phonics poster? What interactive materials might be substituted for more “static” materials?

How are these more motivating than a motivational poster? How do these materials leave space for and encourage reading and spelling development over the year?

An engaging writing center – compared to a poster of prompts…

Why is this appropriate for Kindergartners? What does the teacher know about Kindergarten learners?

Purpose vs. Why this activity? Purpose: What is the literacy objective here? What is this activity or structure designed to foster or develop? (use key terms) – Which of the 5 key literacy components are addressed with this activity? (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension) – is there balance across these? Why this activity???? (use 424 language to show what you’ve learned) – How did the teacher organize/display/explain it to make accessible, interactive, and engaging for this particular age group? (pictures, letters, words, labels/stickers, easy access to students, manipulatives, inviting, choice) – What stage of reading (emergent, beginning, transitional, intermediate, advanced) or spelling/writing (emergent, letter-name alphabetic, within word, syllables & affixes, derivational) does this activity address and how do you know? – Why is this appropriate for this grade level? What skills are most readers and writers developing at this age? Use language you’ve learned in 424 (high frequency words, directionality, word sorts, fluency, onset-rime, reading strategies, short and long vowels, etc.)

Alphabet Center (Kindergarten) Why? (before 424) The teacher can use this activity to engage students in recognizing letters. It is a fun way for students to learn. Why? (424 language) Recognizing letters is an important process for beginning readers in the letter-name alphabetic stage of spelling. This activity lets them be actively involved in developing an understanding of letter/sound relationships, initial consonant sounds, and spelling one-syllable words. Purpose: This activity builds phonemic awareness & phonics skills by asking children to sort pictures by their initial sounds and then link to letters that form the word. Different activities could be designed, depending on level of child and skill being taught.

Interest Boards on “Columns” in Kindergarten Purpose: This board displays students’ emerging progress as writers of nonfiction while building vocabulary and background knowledge. Each student wrote their own name, drew their column, and dictated a fact about their column that was written down by the teacher.

Blake’s Photo & Writing About Columns Why? (before 424) This activity encourages students’ interest in a new topic and helps them create sentences about their pictures to interpret the meaning behind it. Why (424 language & noticing the message portrayed) This activity celebrates learning and encourages emergent readers and writers by focusing on their interests and the things they can do (draw pictures, write their name, use invented spelling to write single words, explain their picture in words) and then connects these skills to later developmental skills like writing complete sentences to tell a story.

Themed letter word wall (K) Purpose: The poster introduces and exposes students to new vocabulary that they came up with themselves. Why? (before 424) This word wall helps readers organize new words by the first letter and gives them a place to look to know how to spell the word. (Remember to spell correctly as a teacher!) Why? (424 language) Students learn beginning letter/sound correspondence, the concepts of upper/lowercase letters, and each word is illustrated by a picture to help with word recognition – all which are appropriate for emergent level readers and writers.

Now it’s your turn. Open your assigned file. Work with your partners to revise each purpose statement. Underline 423/424 Language. Then, draft a response to “Why this Activity?”

Weather Chart (Kindergarten) Why? (before 424) Instead of telling the teacher what day it is, students can read the words and move the arrows. They can use the pictures to learn the weather words. Why? (with 424 language) This activity is appropriate for emergent readers, who can use the picture cues to help connect the pictures to the printed weather word. The moveable arrows also enable kindergartners who like to be active to manipulate the poster and assume control of lining up the arrow with the appropriate weather symbol. Then, they can practice “reading” the corresponding weather word to build vocabulary, even if they can not yet decode the word.

Onset-rime Chart (all, me, see) Kindergarten Why? (before 424) Students can refer to this chart and use these words for future writing and reading. It also reminds students about onset and rime. Why? (with 424 language) Onset- rime activities help beginning readers see patterns across many words and helps them understand how to build new words using similar rimes (or word families). The words also use initial consonants, initial consonant blends, and different ways to spell the same sound (“e” and “ee”) to help beginning readers with early within-word spelling and beginning reading skills.

Leveled Book Baskets Why? (before 424) Leveled readers are beneficial because students can read easier books to build confidence and fluency, or challenge themselves with more advanced books. Why (424 language & noticing how organized) The teacher not only uses the baskets to separate the book levels, but because this is a kindergarten class with many students in the emergent stage of reading, she labels the baskets with tags that include both the level in words/phrases and colored stickers. This helps students who can not read whole words to find their books, see the increasing difficulty by color, and connect the sticker symbols to the actual spelled out phrase of “Reading level B” rather than just the letter. In this way, the teacher provides an age-appropriate way to challenge emergent readers while also organizing books to read.

Morning Message Kindergarten

Morning Message Why? (before 424) Morning message is an important daily routine that teaches many important literacy concepts and skills. Why? (424 language) The predictable routines in these sentences helps develop emergent literacy skills because the structure of the message does not change, only the smaller pieces. This activity is an example of “interactive writing support” for kindergarteners because students have a real role in filling in blanks, hearing individual sounds, and picking out familiar words. After the pieces are filled in, the whole class readers the message while the teacher points to the individual words. This promotes left-to-right directionality, tracking, and one-to-one correspondence. Students can also experiment with new vocabulary by adding different adjectives to describe the kind of day they hope to have or see how reading can be connected to math.

Last part of Photo Journal – Your Vision and Ideas for Improvement… Are all five literacy components represented equally? What about authentic writing, motivation, comfort level, and fun? Are the materials static reminders or do they actively invite and engage students in real reading and writing purposes?

HOMEWORK Work on Literacy Photo Journal Assignment Bring questions you have about WTW Chapter 6 and Within-Word Patterns – we’ll review key concepts next class