PROJECT
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS
PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
MASTER OF ARTS IN READING LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
TITLE: Literacy Interventions and Strategies for Distance Leaming
AUTHOR(S): Leslie Conley
DATE OF SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE: 08/05/2021
THE PROJECT HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE PROJECT COMMITTEE IN
PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS IN READING LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
Christiane Wood Aug 5, 2021 COMMITTEE CHAIR SIGNATURE DATE
Erika Daniels Aug 5, 2021 COMMITTEE MEMBER SIGNATURE DATE
COMMITTEE MEMBER SIGNATURE DATE
COMMITTEE MEMBER SIGNATURE DATE LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 1
Literacy Interventions and Strategies for Distance Learning
Leslie Conley
A Project Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Reading, Language, and Literacy
California State University San Marcos
Summer 2021
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 2
Abstract
Fifty-three percent of the nation’s fourth-grade students are reading at basic and below basic
levels. The below basic readers require specific interventions to improve their literacy. I provide
intensive reading intervention at a school of only fourth and fifth-grade students in a rural
California town, either in a small group or in a one-to-one setting. In March 2020, profound
changes took place throughout the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the stay-
at-home order was issued, schools across the state closed, and my school district transitioned to
distance learning. My struggling readers moved from the familiarity of sitting across from me at
a small table obtaining support to gazing at a screen, with or without viewing my face, to learn
from a distance. “It’s like a prison visitation window,” said a student. The rapport built with
each student was diminished due to a piece of glass. My search to meet the needs of my
struggling students in the new setting revealed minimal options. Therefore, I was forced to adapt
the synchronous reading interventions that I normally used in the traditional classroom setting to
better meet the learning challenges students face in the distance learning setting. Some teachers
at my school began requesting strategies to work with their students during distance learning. I
created a digital handbook containing evidence-based resources and my newly developed
strategies for teaching struggling readers at my school.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 3
Acknowledgments
I would like to begin by thanking all the professors within the Master of Arts Education in
Literacy program for all of their expertise. I would like to especially thank Dr. Christiane Wood
and Dr. Erika Daniels for their encouragement to complete this project. I would like to extend a
special thanks to my sister, Karen, for all her prayers, encouragement, wisdom, and support
during the writing of this project. Finally, I would like to thank my husband for his patience,
understanding, and for doing my chores.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 4
Table of Contents
Abstract ...... 2 Acknowledgments...... 3 Chapter 1: Definition of Problem ...... 6 Problem Statement ...... 8 Significance of the Issue ...... 8 Preview Literature ...... 9 Preview Methodology ...... 10 Summary ...... 10 Chapter 2: Literature Review ...... 11 Learning to read ...... 11 Fear ...... 16 Teaching Strategies ...... 16 Chapter 3: Methodology ...... 21 Introduction ...... 21 Project Design ...... 22 Intended Audience and Setting ...... 23 Instruments ...... 24 Procedures and Evaluation Process ...... 24 Summary ...... 26 Chapter 4: Product ...... 27 Forward ...... 31 Part 1 Science of Reading ...... 33 Part 2 Trauma-Informed Teaching ...... 39 Part 3 Strategies ...... 43 Part 4 Other Resources...... 61 Part 5 Frequently Asked Questions...... 67 Chapter 5: Discussion ...... 68 Introduction ...... 68 Lessons learned from the project ...... 69 Recommendations for implementation ...... 70 LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 5
Limitations ...... 70 Future Directions ...... 71 Conclusion ...... 71 References ...... 73 Appendix ...... 82
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 6
Literacy Interventions and Strategies for Distance Learning
Chapter 1: Definition of Problem
The 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress reveals that 53% of the nation’s
fourth-grade students are reading at basic and below basic levels. According to the National
Center of Intensive Interventions ([NCII], 2016-2021), the students in the below basic percentile
are readers that are either learning disabled or readers who require intensive intervention because
they did not respond well to Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions. As a reading intervention teacher, I
provide intensive intervention at a school of only fourth and fifth-grade students in a rural town
in the San Joaquin Valley, where 85% of the student population are Hispanic, and all students
receive free meals. Students meet with me in a small group or in a one-to-one setting to receive
evidence-based instruction in writing and some or all five areas of reading: phonemic awareness,
phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension as reported by the National Reading Panel
([NRP], 2000). Each student’s lesson “is a structure or series of activities based on the individual
needs of a student” (Caldwell & Leslie, 2013, p.3). As recommended by NCII, I assess my
students to monitor their progress and change my instruction as needed.
Another role recently assigned to me is to assist the classroom teachers with reading
intervention for Tier 1 and Tier 2 students. By providing suggestions and techniques to the
classroom teachers, more students will receive the remediation they need to become successful
readers.
In March 2020, profound changes took place throughout the United States due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. When the State of California Executive Department issued the stay-at-
home order, schools across the state closed. Since my school district already had one-to-one
electronic devices for each student, the transition to sending all devices home for distance LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 7
learning occurred. For my struggling readers who received intervention, the familiarity of sitting
at a small table obtaining support from me abruptly changed to gazing at a screen, with or
without viewing my face, to learn from a distance. “It’s like a prison visitation window,” said a
student. The rapport built with each student while sitting at my table was diminished due to a
piece of glass. The ability to point to a word within the book a student was reading became
obsolete. Ensuring students used correct letter formation when writing was lost. My frantic
search to meet the needs of my struggling students in the new setting revealed minimal
resources.
In June of 2020, guidelines from the California Department of Education provided
suggestions for reopening public schools. The publication also recommended districts be
prepared for future shutdowns. My district’s plan for reopening the 2020-2021 school year
changed many times until the county was informed the schools could not open. At one point, in
my district, teachers were required to report to the traditional classroom and students remained at
home in order for everyone to participate in distance learning. When re-opening of the schools
was allowed, my district opened the school doors for in-person learning with social distance
practices in place for those students who chose to attend. Distance learning was provided for the
students who chose to remain at home, though the students who participated in distance learning
were required to attend in-person meetings at the school about once per week. Reading
intervention continued in the distance setting through a computer screen and through plexiglass
in the traditional classroom. I found it challenging to provide effective reading instruction
through plexiglass and especially through computer screens because particular methods, such as
pointing to words within books, are necessary for effective reading instruction. It was becoming
clear that the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom setting was changing; the classroom setting LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 8
would now include an online environment. “No matter the instructional schedule model, please
continue to work to eliminate the barriers to student success that existed before the closure.”
(California Department of Education, 2020, p.12).
Problem Statement
Although distance learning is not new, online synchronous, face-to-face instruction for
remedial reading was not common practice until COVID-19. Resources for providing
asynchronous instruction to students in distance learning were not readily available, and
struggling readers need synchronous “intense and expert instruction” (Allington, 2012, p.169).
Some teachers at my school had been requesting strategies to work with their students during
distance learning. The problem was that minimal resources had been found for researched
effective synchronous distance learning instruction. Existing resources included a few YouTube
videos to demonstrate some online reading strategies and some teacher-created blogs discussing
the methods they used to instruct online. Therefore, it was important to provide a means for
teachers at my school to easily access resources and strategies for reading intervention of readers
scoring at basic and below.
The purpose of this project was to create a digital handbook for teachers at Mark Twain
Elementary to provide resources and strategies to help meet the needs of fourth and fifth-grade
struggling readers, especially during distance learning. The digital handbook includes techniques
and practical applications for effective online instructional strategies, resources for assessing
students, and links to other websites for additional resources.
Significance of the Issue
Post-COVID, teachers face many of the same challenges that existed pre-COVID but
with more complications. The pandemic heightened the difficulties for students dealing with LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 9
poverty, socioemotional well-being, and teachers’ preparedness (Garcia & Weiss, 2020). The
climate of education in California is unpredictable and teachers must be prepared, with short
notice, to switch between the face-to-face classroom and the online classroom. The fourth and
fifth-grade teachers at my school need more support to enable them to do so effectively. Even
though I have been teaching for more than 30 years, I gained firsthand experience concerning the
difficulties of teaching fifth-grade students online when I was required to substitute teach for
three and half months at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. This project became a way for
me to help teachers and struggling readers at the same time.
Most importantly, Mark Twain's teachers may not be familiar with the Science of
Reading and teaching children to read in the 21st century (Petscher et al., 2020). Learning what
the research says about how the brain learns to read and possible reasons why many of our fourth
and fifth-grade readers struggle will help teachers meet students’ needs. With many of our
students reading below grade levels, teachers need more support to meet their students’ needs.
Preview Literature
Many factors may interfere with a student’s ability to be literacy proficient by fourth or
fifth grade. The most obvious is a learning disability. From my perspective, there are three other
common reasons that fourth and fifth-grade students continue to struggle with literacy. The first
reason is a lack of literacy development within the home environment (Honig, 2007; Rose et al.,
2018; Walker‐Dalhouse & Risko, 2008). The second reason is a classroom learning environment
that may not be optimal. This includes teacher beliefs about teaching reading (Kilpatrick, 2020;
Roskos & Neuman, 2011; Reutzel, 2015). The third reason, quite simply put, is fear due to its
profound effects on the brain (Kindsvatter et al., 2019; Sullivan & Lasley, 2010). These factors LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 10
complicate the learning process, and it is important that teachers remain mindful of them to
effectively meet their students’ needs.
Remaining mindful of students’ difficulties provides an understanding of teachers' need
to support students throughout the learning process. Three areas stand out from research
to help struggling readers achieve 1) the process of learning to read, 2) fear, and 3) effective
teaching techniques for distance learning, which include monitoring student growth, teacher
collaboration, and strategies.
Preview Methodology
The digital handbook is designed for fourth and fifth-grade teachers at Mark Twain
school to help meet their struggling readers’ needs. Three main areas are addressed. The first
area is the Science of Reading or the process of learning to read. The next area is trauma-
informed teaching. The third area is distance learning teaching techniques, including
synchronous online learning, ways to monitor student progress, and teacher collaboration. A
fourth section of the book contains resources for teachers.
Summary
More than half of the nation’s students are reading below grade level. The COVID-19
pandemic intensified the difficulties of students, causing more students to struggle with literacy.
Schools were forced to resort to the distance learning environment during the pandemic, leaving
teachers and students struggling to adapt. Teachers needed online strategies to help students
succeed. Currently, with the unpredictable climate of education in California, teachers need to be
prepared to meet the needs of struggling readers in both face-to-face instruction and online. A
digital handbook for reading intervention will benefit both teachers and students at Mark Twain
School. LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 11
Chapter 2: Literature Review
The purpose of this project was to create a digital handbook for teachers at Mark Twain
Elementary to provide resources and strategies to help meet the needs of fourth and fifth-grade
struggling readers, especially during distance learning. This review of the literature summarizes
two reasons fourth, and fifth-grade students struggle with reading, then it provides some teaching
strategies for distance learning.
Learning to read
Children grow through stages of development before attending fourth and fifth grades.
In a perfect learning environment, each child can be expected to obtain reading proficiency by
then. However, because life is not perfect, there are barriers for the developing reader.
Early Literacy Development
Literacy development begins in the home environment with oral language. In the first
year, children listen to speech sounds (phonemes) of caring adults to begin oral language
development. Kuhl (2011) posits that the social brain is ruling when babies hear adults speak and
their brains organize the information in a specific way. Kuhl’s research showed that when a live
person speaks to babies within the babies' first year, the babies' brains are organized in a
statistical manner, resulting in significant brain growth. Conversely, the babies who watched
videos or listened to the radio experienced no brain growth. Beginning at 12-18 months,
vocabulary expression occurs in spurts (Bloom, 2000; Honig, 2007). Children's language
development increases with socializing that occur in the home between adults (Bloom, 2000;
Honig, 2007; Kuhl, 2004). Between two and three years old, children make rhyming words with
known words, further developing phonemic awareness. LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 12
Between three and four years old, writing begins to become more advanced than
scribbling. By this age, children can hold a pencil with the thumb and fingers, make more
controlled strokes, and then use invented spelling while practicing to refine their fine motor skills
(Clay, 1975; Emersen & Hall, 2018; Hayes, 1990; Levin & Bus, 2003). At the same age, while
children notice print during shared reading with adults or other text from their environment, their
brains take statistics of the print (Kessler et al., 2013) to be used later when spelling 'real' words.
Invented spelling and other such early literacy skills are best supported by a strong oral language
foundation in the home (Oulette & Senechal, 2008). Prephonological spellers do not yet match
letter writing to phonemes. Rather, as children reach school age and learn to write their names
legibly, they begin to connect letter writing to letter sounds (Both-deVries & Bus, 2010). “As
children get older, they learn that written words are not just visual patterns but that they
symbolize language” (Treimann, 2018, p.646).
Not all home environments are the same, and various conditions may hinder literacy
development. Oral language may be underdeveloped with the absence of adult conversation, lack
of attention, or an uncaring home. Writing materials may not be available in the home for
children to practice elementary writing and refine the fine motor skills needed for legible work.
The absence of books or other texts in the home may delay literacy development due to lack of
exposure to visual print.
Elementary School
Teaching Knowledge. Teaching knowledge varies among teachers in all grade levels.
Teachers develop their individual beliefs about how students learn within their own social
upbringings (Biejaard & DeVries, 1997; Buchmann, 1987; Lesley, 2011; Turner, 1995).
Whatever methods were used in teachers' early and college education tends to strongly influence LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 13
their teaching methods. Teachers prefer to teach what is known and experienced. In particular,
whatever method was used when teachers themselves were learning to read tends to be the
method they employ when teaching others to read (Moats & Foorman, 2003).
In California, to prove teachers have the knowledge to teach reading, all prospective
multiple subject teachers must pass the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA).
The problem is that many prospective teachers do not have the knowledge and do not pass the
exam the first time. In fact, only 80% of testers passed the overall exam in 2017 compared to the
95% that had passed in 2013 (California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, 2018).
Furthermore, testing does not predict the teachers’ classroom performance (Moat & Foorman,
2003). Teachers gain more knowledge through the experience of working in classrooms. “Thus,
teachers must be skillful in their instruction and be able to respond flexibly and opportunistically
to students’ needs for instructive feedback as they read” (NRP, 2000, p .4-7).
Teaching knowledge is used when teachers choose an approach to reading instruction,
and there are three commonly known approaches. They are whole-language, a phonics approach,
and balanced literacy (Castles et al., 2018; Pearson, 2004: Pressley & Allington, 2015).
Teaching whole language means focusing on deriving meaning from text, usually
literature. Students reread the same text multiple times and write in journals to help memorize
words. With this method, it is believed that having the students memorize a large number of sight
words will help with guessing unknown words (Eldredge, 2005; Moats, 2000). Phonics is not
taught systematically, which hinders reading complex informational text (Moats, 2009; Pearson.,
2004).
Approaching reading instruction by using a phonics approach means teachers focus on
letter and sound correspondence in a systematic way to decipher the alphabetic code and all its LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 14
phonemes (Eldredge, 2005; NRP, 2000). Students read controlled texts, as opposed to literature.
Teachers tend to spend very little time on comprehension of text (NRP, 2000).
Balanced literacy is a mesh of whole language and phonics. It consists of teaching
reading through the use of authentic texts in shared reading, read alouds, guided reading,
independent reading, and word study. (Bingham & Hall-Kenyon, 2013; Pressley et al., 2002).
Spoken vocabulary and comprehension are built during teacher read alouds. Students are taught
to figure out unknown words during guided reading by utilizing the pictures or figuring out a
word that would make sense instead of decoding the unknown word. Writing is done
interactively and independently.
Another approach to reading, although unfamiliar to many educators, is the Science of
Reading. Many teachers do not know about this approach because courses with the scientific
evidence of early reading instruction have not been provided during pre-service training (Brady,
2020; Greenburg et al., 2013; Moats & Foorman, 2003; Moats, 2000; Seidenberg &
Borkenhagen, 2020). This approach involves the use of scientific evidence to best teach reading
to students. It is not a program or curriculum. Many teachers who initially come in contact with
this approach find it difficult because scientists generally do not write in a style easily
understood by teachers (Moats, 2020). In other words, the scientific knowledge is not translated
for teachers to use in the classroom. Moats (2009) stated that teachers feel they need “sufficient
coursework in the structure of the English language, at the phonological, orthographic,
morphological, and syntactic levels to better inform their instruction.” Furthermore, National
Reading Panel (2000) asserts that student achievement outcomes can be improved as a direct
result of teacher development. LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 15
Classroom Environment. The classroom environment encompasses everything in the
room, which today also includes the environment within the Zoom room. It is not only the
material on the walls and the arrangement of desks or computer screens, but the classroom
environment also includes the teacher and student interactions, student-to-student interactions,
and the curriculum. In California, the adopted curriculum is based on the Common Core State
Standards (CCSS). When it comes to the reading standards of the CCSS, the kindergarten
through second grade standards are not specific enough for teachers to explicitly instruct their
students (California Department of Education, 2013). When teachers rely on the adopted
curriculum to teach all students, they are
not instructing each individual child (Allington, 2005). When students are not properly instructed
in all the needed areas in the kindergarten through third grade levels, they arrive to fourth and
fifth grade with reading difficulties.
Whether by teachers or by students, attitudes and behaviors brought into classrooms
affect learning outcomes at all grade levels. Teacher biases, which develop from their
upbringing, can change the dynamics of students staying on task. Students can differentiate
between a friendly teacher, an authoritative teacher, or a teacher of tyranny (Buchmann, 1987).
The tasks assigned by a teacher within a classroom can be motivating or not. Turner (1995)
stated that cognitive development is influenced by the reading approaches, student motivation,
and tasks in a classroom. “Perceiving classwork as authentic and experiencing forms of social
support enhance engagement for all students” (Marks, 2000, p. 171). Therefore, it is necessary
that all teachers acquire sufficient training and awareness about the value of an optimal learning
environment within the classroom, whether the classroom is traditional or online.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 16
Fear
Fear is an emotion that originates from a belief that danger is present. According to
Downey (2008), when we experience a frightful event, our brains respond with a fight, flight, or
freeze response. Fear can arise in children from just about anything, such as poverty, drug and
alcohol abuse in the home, yelling, harsh punishments, or any sort of child abuse, all of which
can create trauma. “Trauma occurs when an event is so frightening it causes a prolonged alarm
reaction, where the body is primed and pumped with chemicals and enzymes such as adrenaline
and does not calm down for a long time” (Downey, 2008, p. 34). According to Sullivan and
Lasley (2010), traumatic events can alter gene activity, due to the biochemical changes that
occur. Some children experience fear from different aspects of the classroom
environment or from failing at learning in school. “In the classroom, hyper-vigilance leads to
attention and learning problems. Instead of focusing on the learning task, students who have
experienced trauma constantly scan the environment and are easily distracted by any stimuli.”
(Fecser, 2015, p. 21). Failing at learning to read can cause trauma in some students or interferes
with a student’s ability to be literacy proficient by fourth or fifth grade.
Teaching Strategies
At Mark Twain School, more than half of the students are not proficient in literacy, and
many have likely encountered experiences which have caused some degree of trauma, increasing
their difficulties with learning. Some suggested teaching strategies to assist teachers with their
struggling readers include progress monitoring, collaboration, and implementation of
synchronous online teaching techniques.
Progress Monitoring LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 17
Progress monitoring is used with students who score below and far below grade level
standards. Progress monitoring is the collection of data to inform the teacher about a child’s
growth over time. The new information a teacher gains about a student helps to plan
individualized instruction. In order for the teacher to effectively implement individualized
instruction, time and classroom management skills are needed to implement flexible grouping for
students (Roehrig et al, 2008). The types of data collection can include anecdotal notes, running
records, computer adaptive tests, surveys, and pre-made tests.
Collaboration
Collaboration is a generally defined as individuals coming together to pool ideas and
resources in order to create something greater than that which could be created alone. It is not
often applied to the field of classroom education, where individual teachers commonly operate
within their own domains, their individual classrooms (Hobbs & Coiro, 2016). However,
Biejaard & DeVries (1997) emphasize collaborative learning by teachers to help change beliefs
about student learning. Hall (2005) emphasizes the importance of working with other teachers
and attending in-service trainings. National Reading Panel (2000) also concluded that
professional development of teachers showed greater gains in student achievement.
Collaboration is a means to help teachers learn more effective teaching strategies for struggling
readers and may likely prevent them from reverting to less effective strategies.
Techniques
Distance learning provides the benefit of additional “classrooms” and flexible learning
opportunities. It is reported that the main obstacle to distance learning is students maintaining
motivation to learn outside of the structured, traditional classroom (Jeong et al., 2019; Silva et
al., 2021; Tuckman, 2007). Ahmed et al., (2020) report that extra effort is required to keep LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 18
learners engaged and on task, while Chu (2014) reports that improperly designed online teaching
approaches may negatively impact students’ learning by increasing their cognitive load. Silva et
al., (2021) noted that student-teacher interaction is a primary coping tool to reduce the negative
psycho‐emotional changes resulting from social isolation from online learning. When teachers
consciously applied strategies to address feelings of isolation, lack of self-direction, lack of self-
management, and lack of motivation, there was a positive impact in students’ learning outcomes.
Therefore, it is important that teachers work with struggling readers synchronously and continue
to interact with students as they learn, as opposed to students working asynchronously, learning
on their own time and at their own pace. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was discovered that
there were scarce resources for synchronous online reading instruction and it was necessary to
adapt some of the traditional teaching methods to the distance learning environment. One
fundamental concept that can be taught in both learning environments is the reciprocity of
reading and writing. Anderson & Briggs (2011) state that when students are explicitly taught the
reciprocity of reading and writing, they accelerate in reading.
Other techniques that address comprehension and fluency insufficiencies and that
improve writing skills were adapted. Comprehension processes can be developed by using an
action plan provided by Clark (2010) with small groups where a change is made in the way we
talk about text. Fluency practice is another way to increase comprehension. Oral repeated
readings with or without corrective feedback increases comprehension (Sukhram & Ellen
Monda-Amaya, 2017). One way to practice fluency with corrective feed is by a student reading a
portion of text, the teacher reads the same portion after the student, then the student reads the
same portion again. This method helps students hear the teacher reading fluently, while the
student follows along in text, then the student can read the same text more fluently than the first LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 19
time. Additionally, fluency can be practiced by students asynchronistically through read along
books on YouTube or Epic, an iPad application. Addressing multi-components, such as
vocabulary and comprehension, has also shown to increase reading (Wanzek et al. 2010).
Developing handwriting skills to write fluently improves reading, too (Horowitz, 2018; Wiley &
Rapp, 2021).
Students must be attentive to instruction in order to learn but students who have
experienced trauma tend to be inattentive. Teachers can help address the issue of trauma in
students by creating a safe and secure classroom environment. According to Brunzell et al.
(2015), a safe classroom environment may be established by building strong relationships
between students as well as between student and teacher, teaching about emotional intelligence,
and incorporating play and fun into the classroom in order to help students self-regulate. Fescar
(2015) stated that strong, confident teachers with classroom routines, a sense of humor, involving
students in the lessons, and demonstrating empathy tend to be more effective. Whether online or
in a physical building, classroom environments that are inviting contribute to feelings of safety
for students and tend to increase learning.
Summary
Children begin to learn reading skills within the home environment and continue
throughout their early education. Usually, reading is taught within the traditional classroom, but
recently there has been an exponential expansion in the use of distance education and the
creation of online classrooms with few existing resources to make the transition. The home or
school environment may not provide a supportive enough atmosphere where children may
develop proficient reading skills. A poorly designed distance learning program may cause greater
difficulties for struggling learners. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers have easy access LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 20
to information about effective online teaching techniques adapted from traditional reading
intervention methods. This need was the main focus on the development of a digital handbook
containing strategies and resources for teachers of fourth and fifth grade students who are
struggling readers.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 21
Chapter 3: Methodology
Introduction
Fifty-three percent of our nation’s fourth grade students are at basic and below basic
reading levels (NAEP, 2019) and many require reading interventions. These children likely did
not receive the exposure to text and verbal language necessary to develop proficient literacy.
(Booth, 2000; Honig, 2007; Kuhl, 2004) and may also experience levels of fear that complicates
their learning (Downey 2008).
When the COVID-19 pandemic caused schools in California to close, teachers and
students were forced into online classrooms. Students who were struggling found it even more
difficult to remain engaged in learning (Fescar, 2015). I was engaged in teaching reading
intervention and found very few resources to help me teach my struggling readers online.
Teachers at my school began to request assistance in helping meet the needs of their struggling
readers online as they also struggled with teaching during distance learning.
I began a search for evidence-based strategies as I tried to adapt to the changing
environment and I discovered that many reading difficulties stem from children’s fears, which
can develop in the home and the school environments. I also discovered the Science of Reading
and how trauma affects learning. I was then able to locate a few strategies, such as progress
monitoring and collaboration, while at the same time modifying several techniques I had been
using during traditional instruction. There are 20 teachers at my school, and, as their reading
specialist, it is my responsibility to be a resource to them (Sen et al., 2009). The purpose of this
project was to create a digital handbook for teachers at Mark Twain Elementary to provide
resources and strategies to help meet the needs of fourth and fifth-grade struggling readers,
especially during distance learning. The digital handbook includes techniques and practical LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 22
applications for effective online instructional strategies, resources for assessing students, and
links to other websites for additional resources.
Project Design
Teachers at my school expressed the need for more resources to help their struggling
readers during distance instruction. Many of them expressed difficulties with finding the time to
search for effective methods and how to implement them. I had also struggled to locate resources
for effective online reading interventions and modified some of the techniques I had been using
in the traditional classroom in order to fit the online environment. As the school’s reading
specialist, it was my responsibility to provide classroom teachers with the needed resources, and
I felt the need to share what I had learned. I realized that other teachers could learn what the
research says about how the brain learns to read and possible reasons why many of our fourth
and fifth-grade readers struggle. Mark Twain teachers may not be familiar with the Science of
Reading and teaching children to read in the 21st century (Petscher et al., 2020), and I needed a
way to share all of the needed information without taking up too much of their time.
Originally the idea of a website was conceived. I thought it would be easy for teachers to
access resources on the web site and to conduct online collaboration. I began to research how to
provide instruction more effectively online and discovered that other teachers had already
created various blogs and YouTube tutorials on such topics as connecting video equipment,
different ways of using a whiteboard and using the SeeSaw application for testing. Many
teachers discussed the same difficulties I encountered with providing online instruction, such as
creating an online classroom environment and maintaining student engagement. When
discussing the idea of a website with the teachers at my school, they asked some valid questions
such as, “Who will manage the site?”, “What will happen when you retire?” and “Will the LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 23
website be hard to navigate?” I then consulted with our school technology teacher and was
advised to make it easy for the classroom teachers “because most of them don’t have the time
and they’ll forget where to find the information.” I decided a digital handbook would be more
applicable to the needs of my colleagues.
The digital handbook was created using Google Slides. I changed the page orientation to
resemble a book. The handbook was created to allow me to add pages and resources to share
with teachers as I learn more. Links were created within the book so that topics of concern may
be easily accessed. Because Hall (2005) emphasizes the importance of working with other
teachers and attending in-service trainings, I decided to add a link to a Padlet application where
teachers can post questions and answers to learn from each other. A section in the digital
handbook was dedicated to Frequently Asked Questions to add the discussions from Padlet. I
wanted teachers to be able to access the handbook in a way most comfortable to them, so the
digital version can also be easily be printed.
The digital handbook includes techniques and practical applications for effective online
instructional strategies, resources for assessing students, and links to other websites for
additional resources. The book emphasizes the need for synchronous learning in a welcoming
online environment to build rapport with students to address students’ fears and increase student
engagement (Fescar, 2015).
Intended Audience and Setting
This product was designed for fourth and fifth-grade classroom teachers at Mark Twain
Elementary School seeking to increase their knowledge about instructing online reading
interventions. However, the material may be accessed by anyone seeking to increase such
knowledge. Readers may access the digital handbook at their own pace, whenever and wherever LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 24
they choose. Interested readers have the option of accessing the Google slide presentation online,
and it can also be printed. The handbook contains a link to the Padlet application, which provides
teachers with a place for learning and support. When teachers post questions and answers in the
Padlet application, the questions and answers will be added to the Frequently Asked Questions
section in the digital handbook.
Instruments
For this product, a few existing instruments were utilized, and others were created. The
existing instruments included a computer and internet capability to access the Slides program in
Google, literature and videos, and my own knowledge as a reading interventionist. The created
tools included knowledge gained through consultation with colleagues and the organized
compilation of knowledge and information to create a new teaching tool. Particular concepts
heavily influenced the creative process. Most importantly, because Mark Twain teachers may not
be familiar with evidence-based methods of teaching children to read (Petscher et al., 2020) and
may rely on what they have learned in their subjective experiences (Kilpatrick, 2020; Roskos &
Neuman, 2011; Reutzel, 2015) with the potential to negatively impact students’ well-being
through poorly designed online instruction (Chu, 2014), the Science of Reading and trauma-
informed teaching practices provided the foundational framework for the structure of the
information.
Procedures and Evaluation Process
I am a reading intervention specialist working with fourth and fifth grade struggling
readers. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, my instruction to students involved sitting at a table
with one student or a small group of students. Building and maintaining rapport was an important
part of the instruction process (Brunzell et al., 2015). The COVID pandemic forced schools to LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 25
close, and education moved to the online classroom. I was faced with new challenges about
meeting the students’ needs and began a rather intensive search for resources. At the same time,
teachers from my school began to approach me, requesting similar information.
I began a search online for evidence-based strategies and consulted with colleagues as I
tried to adapt to the changing environment. In my queries, I discovered that many reading
difficulties stem from children’s fears (Fecser, 2015) which can develop in the home and in the
school environments. I also discovered the Science of Reading (Brady, 2020; Greenburg et al.,
2013; Moats & Foorman, 2003; Moats, 2009) and how trauma affects learning (Brunzell et al.,
2015). I was then able to locate a few strategies, such as progress monitoring and collaboration,
while at the same time modifying several techniques I had been using during traditional
instruction. There are 20 teachers at my school and, as their reading specialist, it is my
responsibility to be a resource to them (Sen et al., 2009). It was decided to create this digital
handbook as an easy-to-access resource. The handbook was designed to include techniques and
practical applications for effective online instructional strategies, resources for assessing
students, and links to other websites for additional resources. The handbook was intentionally
designed to remain open to additional material, with the intent that new material will be added as
relevant information becomes evident.
Evaluation of the digital handbook’s efficacy may be obtained in several ways. It is
suggested that teachers answer questions on Padlet before reading the handbook and after
reading the handbook, they can add to the questions using a different color of sticky.. The
surveys could be designed to evaluate both objective and subjective reports of teachers’
increased knowledge and competency of teaching struggling readers, especially online.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 26
Summary
Research shows that 53% of the nation’s fourth grade students struggle with reading
proficiency and they require reading interventions. These interventions were primarily provided
in the traditional classroom setting. When the COVID-19 pandemic mandated schools to close,
teachers and students were forced to have classes in the online environment. Students and
teachers struggled with the challenge of adapting. As a reading specialist, I encountered
difficulties teaching through a glass screen, and my students were not engaged. As I searched for
ways to modify my instructional methods, I discovered scarce resources. In my research I found
some reasons to explain why my students struggle to learn. Of particular interest was the Science
of Reading, which is evidence of how the brain learns to read. I also discovered how trauma can
affect learning. While I was conducting my research and formulating these new ideas, teachers at
my school were approaching me to request my expertise, and I could not help them. I continued
to search for evidence-based strategies and consulted with colleagues, continually synthesizing
my newly learned information to modify my teaching practices. In order to assist overwhelmed
teachers, I decided to create a resource that would be easy to access and a digital handbook
seemed to be the best method. The digital handbook was created by compiling evidence-based
information and my own adaptations of teaching methods. The book was designed to include
techniques and practical applications for effective online instructional strategies, resources for
assessing students, and links to other websites for additional resources. The handbook was
intentionally designed to remain open to additional material, with the intent that new material
will be added as relevant information becomes evident.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 27
Chapter 4: Product
The purpose of this project was to create a digital handbook for teachers at Mark Twain
Elementary to provide resources and strategies to help meet the needs of fourth and fifth-grade
struggling readers, especially during distance learning. The digital handbook includes techniques
and practical applications for effective online instructional strategies, resources for assessing
students, and links to other websites for additional resources.
Part one is about the Science of Reading. It has links to provide an accurate definition for
the Science of Reading. The section also contains bulleted points of information broken into
three different sections. The sections are babies take statistics, facts about early literacy, literacy
learning at school, and sound walls. Two of the sections, Babies Take Statistics and Sound
Walls, also contains links to websites for Mark Twain teachers to gain additional knowledge.
Part two of the handbook provides facts about trauma and strategies for the teachers to
use to reduce fear in their classrooms whether online or in-person. Another part in this section
provides links to websites for teachers to gain more knowledge.
Part three of the handbook, Strategies, is broken up into three topics. The topics are
monitoring student progress, collaboration, and specific techniques. The monitoring student
progress provides the types of assessments and links to access the assessments. The topic of
collaboration provides a purpose, the benefits, a link to Padlet, and bulleted points of two more
online collaboration places. The final topic of specific techniques for helping struggling readers
online provides information for setting up the technology with pictures for demonstration
purposes, a section about building writing skills, comprehension skills development, and links
for handwriting information. LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 28
Part four provides extensive resources for teachers. The resources are definitions, Twitter
handles to follow, podcasts to view, and annotated bibliographies of books for students, literary
works, and websites. The podcasts and Twitter handles pages contain links for easy access.
The final section of the digital handbook is the Question and Answer section. As teachers
collaborate, I will add the results of collaboration to this section.
The following link to the digital handbook can be used for easy access:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1T8gKp__FR5zhI9IkvPHoGuAMtb-
UVD68pChNd9MYG0s/edit?usp=sharing
Literacy Interventions with Distance Learning Strategies
A Handbook for 4th and 5th Grade Teachers
By Leslie Conley LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 30
“How we see children, our mindset, and how we approach teaching the most vulnerable in our society makes or breaks them.”
Lois Letchford
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 31
Forward
When schools were shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, I struggled with finding ways to meet the needs of my below grade level readers. In my research for evidence-based strategies to use online, I learned two reasons that strongly suggest why students arrive to fourth and fifth grades reading below grade level. I then learned to adapt my teaching instruction for distance learning. This book was made to inform teachers of the two reasons fourth and fifth grade students may struggle with reading and provide ways to help those readers.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 32
Table of Contents
Part 1 Science of Reading
Part 2 Trauma-informed Teaching
Part 3 Strategies Monitoring Student Progress Collaboration Specific Techniques
Part 4 Other Resources
Part 5 Frequently Asked Questions
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 33
Part 1 Science of
Reading
Science of Reading
Babies Take Statistics
Facts about Early Literacy
Literacy Learning at School
Sound walls
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 34
Science of Reading
Check out the following website. Be sure to scroll down to see all that is
presented.
What is the Science of
Reading?
Check out this article about neuroscience and struggling
readers Moats, L. (2004). Relevance of neuroscience to the effective education of students with reading and other learning disabilities.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 35
Babies Take Statistics
Literacy development begins in the home environment with oral language. In the first year, children listen to speech sounds (phonemes) of caring adults to begin oral language development. Kuhl (2011) posits that the social brain is ruling when babies hear adults speak and their brains organize the information in a specific way. Kuhl’s research showed that when a live person is speaking to babies within the babies' first year, the babies' brains are organized in a statistical manner, resulting in significant brain growth. Conversely, the babies who watched videos or listened to the radio experienced no brain growth. Check out this 10 minute TEDTalk: Patricia Kuhl: The linguistic genius of babies
Kuhl, P. K. (2011). Films for the Humanities & Sciences, Infobase, TED Conferences LLC, & Films Media Group. (2011). TEDTalks: Patricia Kuhl - The Linguistic Genius of Babies. Infobase.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 36
Facts About Early Literacy
• Early literacy begins with oral language in a caring home • Vocabulary expression occurs in spurts beginning at about 12 months • Language development increases with socializing • Between 2 & 3-years old, children make rhyming words with known words • Between 3 & 4-years, old writing begins to become more advanced than scribbling • Children take statistics of print in the environment to be used later when spelling words • Invented spelling and other literacy skills are best supported by strong oral language foundation
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 37
Literacy Learning at School
• As children learn to write their names, they begin connecting phonemes to graphemes • Children learn words are not just visual patterns, but have meaning • Teacher beliefs can hinder children’s abilities to learn to read • Science of Reading says teaching phonemic awareness and phonics is more effective in K-1 grades • Relying on adopted curriculum keeps individual children from learning • Cognitive development is influenced by reading approach, student motivation, and classroom tasks • English Learners need to develop oral language in English before learning to read
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 38
Sound Walls
Sound walls are used to help all students match sounds (phonemes) to spellings (graphemes). A sound wall is arranged by phonemes and graphemes to help students remember how to articulate phonemes. Pictures are available for students to see how the mouth is shaped during sound production.
Visit: Transitioning from Word Walls to Sound Walls
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 39
Part 2 Trauma- Informed
Teaching
Facts About Trauma
Strategies to Reduce Fear
More Information on Trauma
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 40
Facts About Trauma
• Trauma results from staying frightened for a long period of time • Trauma can happen from poverty, drug and alcohol use in the home, yelling, harsh punishments or any sort of child abuse • Failing to learn to read can cause trauma • Children can differentiate between a friendly teacher, an authoritarian teacher, and a teacher of tyranny • Traumatic events can alter gene activity from the chemical and enzyme overload within the body • Trauma victims constantly scan the environment and have a hard time staying on task • Can feel threatened if mandated to look at the iPad screen
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 41
Strategies to Reduce Fear
Students
• Practice looking at self on the screen • Should be free to invite a parent or family member to the first day online to increase comfort level Teachers
• Build rapport - very important • Use small talk and encouragement • Use a slow your rate of speech and be mindful of your tone of voice • Project a kind face to students during distance learning • Be mindful to convey welcoming expressions as opposed to expressions that may be perceived as threatening or harsh • Use easy movements of the body-nothing sudden • Set guidelines for expectations • Offer a quiet space as needed - a breakout room can be used online
As stated by Karen Schwarzenbach, LMFT
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 42
More Information on Trauma
When “Learning is Trauma”
Series
Fear in Love
Blog-Lois Letchford
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 43
Part 3
Strategies
Monitoring Student Progress
Collaboration Specific Techniques to Help Struggling
Readers Online
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 44
Monitoring
Student Progress
Purpose
Assessments
Assessing Online
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 45
Purpose
Progress monitoring is the collection of data to inform the teacher about a child’s growth over time. The new information a teacher gains about a student helps to plan individualized instruction.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 46
Assessments
Phoneme Segmentation – Does the student have phonemic awareness? Word Reading Fluency - How many sight words can the student automatically read? Paragraph Reading Fluency - How many words a minute can the student read?
Click here for assessment access:
easyCBM
Note: Choose Lite to get started or Login if you already have an account. On the dashboard, choose Measurements. Use the first grade tab to obtain the Phoneme Segmentation assessments. Choose the 3rd grade tab for Word Reading Fluency assessments. For Paragraph Reading Fluency, choose the grade level you teach. LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 47
Assessments (Continued)
Spelling Test - Use Words Their Way Elementary Spelling Inventory to find the student’s stage of spelling
• No need to practice spelling words before the test • Download the Instructions and the test from Assessments - Words their way • Students use the SeeSaw activity labeled Spelling test (previously set up) to write words.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 48
Assessing Online
• Can be done in a Zoom Room
• Students should be able to see teacher’s face
• For Spelling, student shares screen and uses SeeSaw to write Spelling words. Teacher pronounces each word and observes the student’s letter formation - make anecdotal notes as needed (See Slide 25: Setting Up)
• For Word Reading Fluency and Paragraph Reading Fluency, teacher shares screen (See Slide 25: Setting Up)
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 49
Collaboration
Purpose Padlet, Jamboard, Google Classroom
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 50
Purpose
• Build expertise • Make better decisions when viewing data together • Online collaboration can be done anytime • Everyone learns from each other • Build community • Practice Instructional Strategies • Job satisfaction and self-efficacy (Vangrieken et al., 2014)
Hobbs, R., & Coiro, J. (2016). Everyone learns from everyone: Collaborative and interdisciplinary professional development in digital literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 59(6), 623–629. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.502.
Vangrieken,K., Dochy, F., Raes, E., Kyndt, E. (2015). Teacher collaboration: A systematic review. Elsevier, Ltd. Stable Link to Article (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2015.04.002).
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 51
Padlet, Jamboard, Google Classroom
All three places are effective ways to collaborate. They all are ways to post and respond to questions online. Padlet
• Choose your color of note and post a question or respond to someone else’s • Free • Can sign in using district email address • Sign into Padlet and join: Qsz74q1d5xzzbbxt Jamboard
• Free • Google extension found in the “waffle” when logged into Google Google Classroom
• Can Stream questions or make a class assignment for each question • Every class member receives notifications when someone posts to stream
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 52
Specific Techniques to Help Struggling
Readers Online
Setting Up
Writing
Comprehension
Handwriting
Videos LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 53
Setting Up
• Open SeeSaw to create a new activity titled Spelling. For the activity, add a template for student responses by choosing “drawing” to get a blank page. • Create another activity titled “Fluency”. For the activity add the Fluency page for your grade level from the School & District folder. • OR Go to easyCBM website and download Word Reading from 3rd grade and Fluency for your grade level onto your desktop. • Connect a document camera to your computer • Log on to your Zoom room with both your computer and iPad. While Zooming with students, use one device for class management and use the other device to work with one or more student/s in a breakout room.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 54
Setting Up (Continued)
Figure 1
Teacher Work Station While on Zoom
Figure 2
Student Screensharing While on SeeSaw in a Zoom Breakout Room
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 55
Writing
• Writing is the reciprocal of reading. • “When we write, we read; when we read, we compose meaning.” (Anderson, N.L. & Briggs, C., 2011).
• Common Ground Between Reading and Writing Strategic processing Writer Reader Searching for meaning Generates ideas with an Uses print to construct meaning audience in mind Monitoring for meaning Checks that the message makes Checks that the message makes sense sense Searching for structure Anticipates the order of words Groups words together in based on how book language phrases to represent the intended and oral language sound message Monitoring for structure Checks the order of words Rereads (out loud or holding the supporting the intended message in the mind) to check message that the word order communicates the intended message Searching for graphophonic Uses knowledge of how letters, Seeks out graphophonic input information words, and print work to record from print to relation to meaning the message and structure Monitoring for graphophonic Checks and detects any Checks and detects that the print information discrepancies between the represents the message anticipated message and graphophonic input Self-correcting Detects and corrects Detects and corrects Anderson & Briggs, 2011, p. 547
• For struggling readers, strengthening writing strengthens reading • It is necessary to explicitly teach writing
Anderson, N.L. & Briggs, C. (2011). Reciprocity between reading and writing: Strategic processing as common ground. The Reading Teacher 64(7), 546-549. LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 56
Writing (Continued)
• Teaching for Reciprocal Processing in Reading and Writing Strategic process Teaching reading Teaching writing Searching for meaning (Based on genre, title, cover Encourage genuine illustration, etc.), what is this story conversations. What do you want about? Think about the story. What to say? What will the reader need would make sense? to know? Monitoring for Did that make sense? Reread and check. Is that what meaning you wanted to say? Searching for structure Reread and try something that would You said…What can you write sound right. about that? Monitoring for You said… Can we say it that way? Reread and check is that the way structure you want it to sound? Searching for What do you know about that word? Say the word slowly and think graphophonic Think about writing. What would the about what would look or sound information letters (or word) say if you were right writing? Monitoring for Try that again and make sure it looks Run your finger underneath the graphophonic right. word. Say it slowly. Does it look information right? Self-correction You thought about the story and You went back and decided the went back to make it look right. I word wasn’t quite right, and then like the way you are thinking fixed it. You were really thinking about your message. Anderson & Briggs, 2011, p. 548
• Students can use SeeSaw to respond to other students • Students can be scaffolded with sentence frames created by teachers using Google Slides or Google Docs • Students can write on paper and take a screenshot to upload to SeeSaw
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 57
Comprehension
• Talking about text is a powerful way to build comprehension especially, when the classroom environment is online • Small group peer collaboration can occur in the main Zoom room while teacher is with a small group (or individual) in Zoom breakout rooms. The rest of the students are in individual breakout rooms completing independent work.
• Teacher uses iPad to manage small group in main Zoom room and computer to manage the Zoom breakout rooms. This allows teacher to use the computer for managing breakout room while simultaneously instructing in another breakout room. • Shift instructional language when students are reading or listening to text. See next page. LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 58
Comprehension (Continued)
Shifting talk about text (Clark, K.F. (2010). Shifting talk about text: Developing struggling readers’ comprehension process during talk about text. In J.L. Collins & T.G. Gunning (Eds.). Building struggling students’ higher level literacy: Practical ideas, powerful solutions. (pp.85-101). International Reading Association.)
• Select a challenging text that requires thinking and leads to the use of comprehension strategies • Before reading text with students, read and identify places for inference, questioning, imaging, or summarizing and mark with sticky notes • Initially, instructional language should *identify (the comprehension strategy), ^explain (what the comprehension is), and ~model thinking (For example: “ An *inference ^is like a thoughtful guess we make from using clues that the author gives us and our own knowledge. ~Let me show you how I do this.”) • For students with some experience, use less support. May still need to *identify the strategy and support its uses. Ask the comprehension question and help student to use text to answer the question. • For students with more experience, teacher speaks less and states questions as: What strategy will we use to help us figure out …? What inference did you make about ….? What clues on the page make you think that? What information from your own knowledge did you use?
* indicates that text is purple, ^ indicates text is pink, ~ indicates text is blue.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 59
Handwriting
The Unexpected Connection Between Handwriting and Learning to Read
The Effects of Handwriting Experience on Literacy Learning: Handwriting beats Keyboard Hands- Down!
6 Multisensory Techniques for Teaching Handwriting
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 60
Handwriting (Continued)
• Instruction online requires teacher to use a document camera to model on a whiteboard
• Students use a whiteboard and marker to begin practicing letter formation
• Student props iPad for teacher to view whiteboard and hand movements as letters are formed
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 61
Part 4 Other
Resources
Definitions
Follow on Twitter
Podcasts
Annotated Bibliography of Books to Use with Students
Annotated Bibliography of Literary Works (Articles and Books for Teachers)
Bibliography of Websites LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 62
Definitions
Phoneme - smallest part speech Grapheme - spelling of phonemes Morphology - smallest part of word or letter combinations that has meaning: visit Word Woks (http://www.wordworkskingston.com/WordWorks/Home.html) Graphophonic – relating speech sounds to letters or letter patterns
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 63
Follow on Twitter
@reading_league The Reading League (nonprofit organization)
@nellkduke professor of literacy, language, and culture, University of Michigan
@ReadingShanahan Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Ed, Chicago University
@ILAToday International Literacy Association
@FINRAFoundation American Library Association @ABRAMSKids Book lists for graphic novels
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 64
Podcasts
Huberman Lab Podcast
Radio — Lois Letchford
Patricia Kuhl: The linguistic genius of babies
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 65
Annotated Bibliographies of Books
Multicultural Books______
Abiade, F. et al. (2013). In Daddy’s Arms I am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers. New York, NY: Lee & Low Books. This collection of poetry has a mix of poems all focused on fathers. They range from silly to serious and are written by African American men and women. I found the poems touching and inspiring. The illustrations are colorful, inviting colleges that unify the poems.
Ada, A.F.(2002) I Love Saturdays y domingos. New York City, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks. This book is about a little girl, not yet 7, who spends time with her grandparents on the weekends. As the title shows, on Saturdays, she sees her father’s European-American English speaking parents and on Sundays, she sees her mother’s Mexican-American Spanish speaking parents. Throughout the book the child compares the English grandparents’ household and the activities they do together to the Spanish speaking grandparents’ household and the activities they do together. The child speaks English on Saturdays and speaks Spanish on Sundays. On her 7th birthday, the whole family comes together to celebrate.
Barber, B.E. (1998). Allie’s Basketball Dream. New York, NY: Lee & Low Books. This is a story about a girl named Allie who gets a new basketball from her Dad. They go to the courts to play and Allie isn’t making any shots. The boys who are playing basketball there then begin to tease and make fun of her. One boy comes up to Allie and says the volleyball he has will be easier for her to shoot and score because it's softer. He proceeds to make Allie a deal that he will trade her his volleyball and some trinkets for her basketball. Allie reminds herself of her dream to play basketball one day. In the end she perseveres and makes a great shot thus winning the approval and admiration of her friends, the older boys, and best of all, her father. This book could be used to talk about perseverance and the unfortunate reality that girls do have to face in sports but how Allie overcame this. The author Barbara E Barbara gets her ideas from personal experiences, childhood memories, and things taking place in our ever changing world.
Beaty, A. (2006). Ida Twist Scientist. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams. This story follows the main character Ida on her inventing and scientific adventures. Ida often gets herself into trouble with the questions she is asking and discouragement from others about her scientific thinking. She stays the course throughout the story and doesn’t give up her passion for experiments, critical thinking, and questioning.
Boelts, M. (2016). A Bike Like Sergio’s. Somerville, MA: Candlewick. This has several diverse characters and teaches character education. It’s generically American and culturally neutral and exhibits respect, quality, and purpose.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 66
There are several pages of the Annotated Bibliography of Books. The pages are made
with the ability to continue to add more books to each area. There are several headings for the
different genre of books. The headings are multicultural books, ABC Books/Books to Begin On,
Fairy Tale Variations, Nonfiction Books/Online Links, Elements of Art and Design, Books
Related to One Historical Book, Reluctant Reader Books, Graphic Novels, and Poetry
Collection. The authors’ names are in alphabetical order under each heading. Teachers can
choose books from the list to use with their students.
The next section is an Annotated Bibliography of Literary Works. The list of works is
intended for teachers to locate articles of interest. The bibliography is broken into sections. The
headings for the sections are Oral Language Development, Emergent Reading and Writing,
Understanding Reading and Writing, Digital Literacies and 21st Century Skills, and Creating
Conditions for Engagement and Independence. Other headings such as Science of Reading and
Trauma-Informed Teaching will be added as the articles are annotated.
The final section of Resources is titled Annotated Bibliography of Websites. There are no
headings or websites listed `as of yet.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 67
Part 5 Frequently Asked
Questions
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 68
The final section of the digital handbook is an ongoing section. I will add the questions
and responses teachers provide during the online collaboration to this section of the digital
handbook. I am hoping that through collaboration, teachers will be able to learn about teaching
struggling readers to help their students succeed.
The whole handbook is considered editable. As more information on effective teaching
strategies for teaching online becomes available, the new information will be added to this
handbook.
Chapter 5: Discussion
Introduction
Education changed when schools were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers
struggled to adapt to the new classroom environment online. As a reading intervention teacher
with more than 30 years in the education field, I felt inadequate because I lacked knowledge of
how to meet my students’ needs. In my frantic search for evidenced-based effective teaching
methods to instruct online, I encountered the problem of minimal resources for effective
synchronous online instruction. I found many asynchronous resources, but my students need
engaging face-to-face instruction. Adding to my frustration were the pleads of the fourth and
fifth-grade teachers at my school who were requesting resources from me in order to help their
students.
The purpose of this project was to create a digital handbook for teachers at Mark Twain
Elementary to provide resources and strategies to help meet the needs of fourth and fifth-grade
struggling readers, especially during distance learning.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 69
Lessons learned from the project
During my intensive search for ways to meet the needs of my struggling readers during
the COVID-19 pandemic online instruction, I discovered new information about teaching
reading called the Science of Reading (Brady, 2020; Greenburg et al., 2013; Moats & Foorman,
2003; Moats, 2009). I was fascinated with the scientific proof available of how the brain learns to
read. As I continued reading articles about the brain and learning, I discovered how fear could
hinder learning and what I can do about it. Silva et al. (2021) noted that student-teacher
interaction is a primary coping tool to reduce the negative psycho‐emotional changes resulting
from social isolation from online learning. I wanted to help reduce the number of students
reading below grade level and felt compelled to share the Science of Reading and trauma-
informed teaching techniques to help make changes in my school district. I realized I needed a
way to collaborate with other teachers (Hobbs & Coiro, 2016). I originally thought to build a
website to connect the five intervention teachers in my school district, but I first needed to
connect with the teachers at my own school during distance learning. The digital handbook is an
effective way to share the information I learned with teachers because the book is easily
accessed.
After many weeks of failing to find the needed resources to help my students, I turned to
use my own resources and expertise. I worked on modifying the traditional methods of
instructing students in the online environment. Through trial and error, I was able to find ways to
provide an online environment in the Zoom room that was safe, effective, and engaging for my
struggling readers. The digital handbook includes the modified strategies I used with my
students.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 70
Recommendations for implementation
This project will be helpful to teachers of any grade level, but especially teachers at my
school. During one of our staff meetings, I will provide a questionnaire on Padlet for teachers
before presenting the digital handbook. Then a link to the digital handbook will be attached to
the teacher newsletter at my school for easy access during a staff meeting. Teachers will be
allowed to access the information at their leisure. The technology teacher will also put the link
for the digital handbook in the shared teacher drive. After teachers have read the information in
the digital handbook, they can return to Padlet to answer the questionnaire with a different color
paper. The pre-reading and post-reading questionnaire answers will serve as an evaluation tool.
I hope that school principals will also find useful information from the digital handbook,
especially about the Science of Reading and trauma-informed teaching, because it is the school
principal's leadership that sets the learning atmosphere within each school. As more principals
become aware of how the brain learns, changes may be made to reduce obstacles children face
when learning. When positive changes are made during reading instruction, the number of
children reading proficiency will increase.
Limitations
There were several limitations with this project. The first limitation was not finding
strategies for synchronous online learning for struggling readers. The most significant limitation
is the overwhelming stress I was coping with while learning to teach in a new environment and
while developing new strategies. Slides is an online presentation program in Google, so it
requires internet. Internet was not always reliable. Portable document format (pdf) files cannot
be added to Slides, so I had to convert the files into low quality images. Putting the strategies in a
written form was difficult. Pictures or videos would have been a better way to show the LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 71
strategies I used. Finding a way to collaborate and make it a learning atmosphere was
challenging. Using Padlet may not be an effective way to collaborate. There is a lot more
information about the Science of Reading that I was not able to put into the digital book. Finally,
making the information engaging and simplifying the information for easy reading took a lot of
time.
Future Directions
It is expected that this digital handbook will continue to grow and evolve as more
information about how to teach struggling readers becomes available. It is hoped that teachers
who access the handbook will connect with other educators to support and increase their
competencies. Some questions to consider for future development are: Since research says that
oral language development at home is the foundation of reading, what can be done to educate
parents about the Science of Reading? How effective are the online strategies suggested in the
handbook? Besides the obstacles discussed in the present literature review, what other obstacles
are interrupting children’s learning? How does the online environment affect students’ learning
for an extended length of time?
Conclusion
During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools were closed to traditional instruction and distance
learning became the method of delivery for instruction. As a reading intervention teacher, I
found minimal resources to help me meet the needs of my struggling readers in the online
environment. I resorted to using my expertise and available resources to develop effective
methods to work with my students. With further research, I learned about the Science of
Reading, which is evidence-based information about how the brain learns to read, and I also
learned about how fear can hinder learning. These two concepts helped me to obtain a better LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 72
understanding of why children struggle with reading by the time they enter fourth grade. I felt it
important to share the information with other teachers at my school who were asking for my help
to teach their struggling readers online. Therefore, I created a digital handbook containing
existing resources incorporated with my own teaching modifications that I had found helpful for
online use. The handbook was intended to be an easily accessed digital handbook containing
techniques and practical applications for effective online instructional strategies, resources for
assessing students, and links to other websites for additional resources.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, events began to unfold that caused me to
experience significant changes. I found myself doubting my teaching knowledge as I struggled to
transition to the online classroom environment. I thought I was an expert as a reading
intervention teacher, especially since I had been teaching reading in the regular classroom and as
an intervention teacher for over 30 years. I was compelled to search for new ways to help my
students and began seeking researched based strategies. My focus changed in an interesting way
when I stumbled upon the Science of Reading, how the brain learns to read, and I was surprised
to find how little I knew about trauma’s effect on learning. It became more important to me to
find ways to prevent reading failure. Also, even though my sister is a therapist and we have had
many discussions about children learning, I did not realize how profoundly a child’s brain can be
affected by fear. Before the pandemic, I used to doubt that every child could learn to read. Now I
truly believe every child can learn to read if they can be supported within caring environments.
LITERACY INTERVENTIONS AND DISTANCE LEARNING 73
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Appendix
Literacy Interventions with Distance Learning Strategies
A Handbook for 4th and 5th Grade Teachers
By Leslie Conley “How we see children, our mindset, and how we approach teaching the most vulnerable in our society makes or breaks them.”
Lois Letchford Forward When schools were shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, I struggled with finding ways to meet the needs of my below grade level readers. In my research for evidence- based strategies to use online, I learned two reasons that strongly suggest why students arrive to fourth and fifth grades reading below grade level. I then learned to adapt my teaching instruction for distance learning. This book was made to inform teachers of the two reasons fourth and fifth grade students may struggle with reading and provide ways to help those readers. Table of Contents
Part 1 Science of Reading
Part 2 Trauma-informed Teaching
Part 3 Strategies Monitoring Student Progress Collaboration Specific Techniques
Part 4 Other Resources
Part 5 Frequently Asked Questions Part 1 Science of Reading
Science of Reading Babies Take Statistics Facts about Early Literacy Literacy Learning at School Sound walls Science of Reading
Check out the following website. Be sure to scroll down to see all that is presented.
What is the Science of Reading?
Check out this article about neuroscience and struggling readers Moats, L. (2004). Relevance of neuroscience to effective education of students with reading and other learning disabitities. Babies Take Statistics
Literacy development begins in the home environment with oral language. In the first year, children listen to speech sounds (phonemes) of caring adults to begin oral language development. Kuhl (2011) posits that the social brain is ruling when babies hear adults speak and their brains organize the information in a specific way. Kuhl’s research showed that when a live person is speaking to babies within the babies' first year, the babies' brains organized in a statistical manner, resulting in significant brain growth. Conversely, the babies who watched videos or listened to the radio experienced no brain growth. Check out this 10 minute TEDTalk: Patricia Kuhl: The linguistic genius of babies
Kuhl, P. K. (2011). Films for the Humanities & Sciences, Infobase, TED Conferences LLC, & Films Media Group. (2011). TEDTalks: Patricia Kuhl - The Linguistic Genius of Babies. Infobase. Facts About Early Literacy
● Early literacy begins with oral language in a caring home ● Vocabulary expression occurs in spurts beginning at about 12 months ● Language development increases with socializing ● Between 2 & 3-years old, children make rhyming words with known words ● Between 3 & 4-years old, writing begins to become more advanced than scribbling ● Children take statistics of print in the environment to be used later when spelling words ● Invented spelling and other literacy skills are best supported by a strong oral language foundation Literacy Learning at School
● As children learn to write their names, they begin connecting phonemes to graphemes ● Children learn words are not just visual patterns, but have meaning ● Teacher beliefs can hinder children’s abilities to learn to read ● Science of Reading says teaching phonemic awareness and phonics is more effective in K-1 grades ● Relying on adopted curriculum keeps individual children from learning ● Cognitive development is influenced by reading approach, student motivation, and classroom tasks ● English Learners need to develop oral language in English before learning to read Sound Walls
Sound walls are used to help all students match sounds (phonemes) to spellings (graphemes). A sound wall is arranged by phonemes and graphemes to help students remember how to articulate phonemes. Pictures are available for students to see how the mouth is shaped during sound production.
Visit: Transitioning from Word Walls to Sound Walls Part 2 Trauma- Informed Teaching
Facts About Trauma Strategies to Reduce Fear More Information on Trauma Facts About Trauma
● Trauma results from staying frightened for a long period of time ● Trauma can happen from poverty, drug and alcohol use in the home, yelling, harsh punishments or any sort of child abuse ● Failing to learn to read can cause trauma ● Children can differentiate between a friendly teacher, an authoritarian teacher, and a teacher of tyranny ● Traumatic events can alter gene activity from the chemical and enzyme overload within the body ● Trauma victims constantly scan the environment and have a hard time staying on task ● Children can feel threatened if mandated to look at the iPad screen Strategies to Reduce Fear
Students ● Practice looking at self on the screen ● Should be free to invite a parent or family member to the first day online to increase comfort level Teachers ● Build rapport - very important ● Use small talk and encouragement ● Use a slow your rate of speech and be mindful of your tone of voice ● Project a kind face to students during distance learning ● Be mindful to convey welcoming expressions as opposed to expressions that may be perceived as threatening or harsh ● Use easy movements of the body-nothing sudden ● Set guidelines for expectations ● Offer a quiet space as needed - a breakout room can be used online As stated by Karen Schwarzenbach, LMFT More Information on Trauma
When “Learning is Trauma” Series
Fear in Love
Blog-Lois Letchford Part 3
Strategies
Monitoring Student Progress Collaboration Specific Techniques to Help Struggling Readers Online Monitoring Student Progress
Purpose Assessments Assessing Online Purpose
Progress monitoring is the collection of data to inform the teacher about a child’s growth over time. The new information a teacher gains about a student helps to plan individualized instruction. Assessments
Phoneme Segmentation - Does the student have phonemic awareness? Word Reading Fluency - How many sight words can the student automatically read? Paragraph Reading Fluency - How many words a minute can the student read?
Click here for assessment access: easyCBM
Note: Choose Lite to get started or Login if you already have an account. On the dashboard, choose Measurements. Use the first grade tab to obtain the Phoneme Segmentation assessments. Choose the 3rd grade tab for Word Reading Fluency assessments. For Paragraph Reading Fluency, choose the grade level you teach. Assessments (Continued)
Spelling Test - Use Words Their Way Elementary Spelling Inventory to find the student’s stage of spelling ● No need to practice spelling words before the test ● Download the Instructions and the test from Assessments - Words their way ● Students use the SeeSaw activity labeled Spelling test (previously setup) to write words. Assessing Online
● Can be done in a Zoom Room ● Student should be able to see teacher’s face ● For Spelling, student shares screen and uses SeeSaw to write Spelling words. Teacher pronounces each word and observes student’s letter formation - make anecdotal notes as needed (See Slide 25: Setting Up) ● For Word Reading Fluency and Paragraph Reading Fluency, teacher shares screen (See Slide 25: Setting Up) Collaboration
Purpose Padlet, Jamboard, Google Classroom Purpose
● Build expertise ● Make better decisions when viewing data together ● Online collaboration can be done anytime ● Everyone learns from each other ● Build community ● Practice Instructional Strategies ● Job satisfaction and self-efficacy (Vangrieken et al., 2014)
Hobbs, R., & Coiro, J. (2016). Everyone learns from everyone: Collaborative and interdisciplinary professional development in digital literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 59(6), 623–629. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.502.
Vangrieken,K., Dochy, F., Raes, E., Kyndt, E. (2015). Teacher collaboration: A systematic review. Elsevier, Ltd. Stable Link to Article (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2015.04.002) Padlet, Jamboard, Google Classroom
All three places are effective ways to collaborate. They all are ways to post and respond to questions online. Padlet ● Choose your color of note and post a question or respond to someone else’s ● Free ● Can sign in using district email address ● Sign into Padlet and join: Qsz74q1d5xzzbbxt Jamboard ● Free ● Google extension found in the “waffle” when logged into Google Google Classroom ● Can Stream questions or make a class assignment for each question ● Every class member receives notifications when someone posts to stream Specific Techniques to Help Struggling Readers Online
Setting Up Writing Comprehension Handwriting Videos Setting Up ● Open SeeSaw to create a new activity titled Spelling. For the activity, add a template for student responses by choosing “drawing” to get a blank page. ● Create another activity titled “Fluency”. For the activity add the Fluency page for your grade level from the School & District folder. ● OR Go to easyCBM website and download Word Reading from 3rd grade and Fluency for your grade level onto your desktop. ● Connect a document camera to your computer ● Log on to your Zoom room with both your computer and iPad. While Zooming with students, use one device for class management and use the other device to work with one or more student/s in a breakout room. Setting Up (Continued)
Picture shows the teacher work station while on Zoom.
Picture shows student work on SeeSaw while on Zoom. Writing
● Writing is the reciprocal of reading ● “When we write, we read; when we read, we compose meaning.” (Anderson, N.L. & Briggs, C., 2011). Common Ground Between Reading and Writing Strategic process Teaching reading Teaching writing Searching for meaning (Based on genre, title, cover illustration, Encourage genuine conversations. etc.), what is this story about? Think about What do you want to say? What will the story. What would make sense? the reader need to know? Monitoring for meaning Did that make sense? Reread and check. Is that what you wanted to say? Searching for structure Reread and try something that would You said…What can you write about sound right. that? Monitoring for structure You said… Can we say it that way? Reread and check is that the way you want it to sound? Searching for What do you know about that word? Say the word slowly and think about graphophonic information Think about writing. What would the what would look or sound right letters (or word) say if you were writing? Monitoring for Try that again and make sure it looks Run your finger underneath the word. graphophonic information right. Say it slowly. Does it look right? Self-correction You thought about the story and went You went back and decided the word back to make it look right. I like the way wasn’t quite right, and then fixed it. you are thinking You were really thinking about your message. Anderson & Briggs, 2011, p. 547 ● For struggling readers, strengthening writing strengthens reading ● It is necessary to explicitly teach writing
Anderson, N.L. & Briggs, C. (2011). Reciprocity between reading and writing: Strategic processing as common ground. The Reading Teacher 64(7), 546-549. Writing (Continued)
Teaching for Reciprocal Processing in Reading and Writing Strategic process Teaching reading Teaching writing Searching for meaning (Based on genre, title, cover illustration, Encourage genuine conversations. etc.), what is this story about? Think about What do you want to say? What will the story. What would make sense? the reader need to know? Monitoring for meaning Did that make sense? Reread and check. Is that what you wanted to say? Searching for structure Reread and try something that would You said…What can you write about sound right. that? Monitoring for structure You said… Can we say it that way? Reread and check is that the way you want it to sound? Searching for What do you know about that word? Say the word slowly and think about graphophonic information Think about writing. What would the what would look or sound right letters (or word) say if you were writing? Monitoring for Try that again and make sure it looks Run your finger underneath the word. graphophonic information right. Say it slowly. Does it look right? Self-correction You thought about the story and went You went back and decided the word back to make it look right. I like the way wasn’t quite right, and then fixed it. you are thinking You were really thinking about your message.
Anderson & Briggs, 2011, p. 548
● Students can use SeeSaw to respond to other students ● Students can be scaffolded with sentence frames created by teacher using Google Slides or Google Docs ● Students can write on paper and take a screenshot to upload to SeeSaw Comprehension
● Talking about text is a powerful way to build comprehension, especially when the classroom environment is online ● Small group peer collaboration can occur in the main Zoom room while teacher is with a small group (or individual) in Zoom breakout rooms. The rest of the students are in individual breakout rooms completing independent work. ● Teacher uses iPad to manage small group in main Zoom room and computer to manage the Zoom breakout rooms. This allows teacher to use the computer for managing breakout room while simultaneously instructing in another breakout room. ● Shift instructional language when students are reading or listening to text. See next page. Comprehension (Continued)
Shifting talk about text (Clark, K.F. (2010). Shifting talk about text: Developing struggling readers’ comprehension process during talk about text. In J.L. Collins & T.G. Gunning (Eds.). Building struggling students’ higher level literacy: Practical ideas, powerful solutions. (pp.85-101). International Reading Association.)
• Select a challenging text that requires thinking and leads to the use of comprehension strategies • Before reading text with students, read and identify places for inference, questioning, imaging, or summarizing and mark with sticky notes • Initially, instructional language should *identify (the comprehension strategy), ^explain (what the comprehension is), and ~model thinking (For example: “ An *inference ^is like a thoughtful guess we make from using clues that the author gives us and our own knowledge. ~Let me show you how I do this.”) • For students with some experience, use less support. May still need to *identify the strategy and support its uses. Ask the comprehension question and help student to use text to answer the question. • For students with more experience, teacher speaks less and states questions as: What strategy will we use to help us figure out …? What inference did you make about ….? What clues on the page make you think that? What information from your own knowledge did you use? * indicates that text is purple, ^ indicates text is pink, ~ indicates text is blue. Handwriting
The Unexpected Connection Between Handwriting and Learning to Read
The Effects of Handwriting Experience on Literacy Learning: Handwriting beats Keyboard Hands-Down!
6 Multisensory Techniques for Teaching Handwriting Handwriting (Continued)
● Instruction online requires teacher to use a document camera to model on a whiteboard ● Students use a whiteboard and marker to begin practicing letter formation ● Student props iPad for teacher to view whiteboard and hand movements as letters are formed Part 4 Other Resources
Definitions Follow on Twitter Podcasts Annotated Bibliography of Books to Use with Students Annotated Bibliography of Informational Text Bibliography of Websites Definitions
Phoneme - smallest part speech Grapheme - spelling of phonemes Morphology - smallest part of word or letter combinations that has meaning: visit Word Works (http://www.wordworkskingston.com/WordWorks/Home.html) Graphophonic – relating speech sounds to letters or letter patterns Follow on Twitter
@reading_league The Reading League (nonprofit organization)
@nellkduke professor of literacy, language, and culture, University of Michigan
@ReadingShanahan Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Ed, Chicago University
@ILAToday International Literacy Association
@FINRAFoundation American Library Association @ABRAMSKids Book lists for graphic novels Podcasts
Huberman Lab Podcast
Radio — Lois Letchford
Patricia Kuhl: The linguistic genius of babies Annotated Bibliographies of Books
Multicultural Books______
Abiade, F. et al. (2013). In Daddy’s Arms I am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers. New York, NY: Lee & Low Books. This collection of poetry has a mix of poems all focused on fathers. They range from silly to serious and are written by African American men and women. I found the poems touching and inspiring. The illustrations are colorful, inviting colleges that unify the poems.
Ada, A.F.(2002) I Love Saturdays y domingos. New York City, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks. This book is about a little girl, not yet 7, who spends time with her grandparents on the weekends. As the title shows, on Saturdays, she sees her father’s European-American English speaking parents and on Sundays, she sees her mother’s Mexican-American Spanish speaking parents. Throughou.t the book the child compares the English grandparents’ household and the activities they do together to the Spanish speaking grandparents’ household and the activities they do together. The child speaks English on Saturdays and speaks Spanish on Sundays. On her 7th birthday, the whole family comes together to celebrate.
Barber, B.E. (1998). Allie’s Basketball Dream. New York, NY: Lee & Low Books. This is a story about a girl named Allie who gets a new basketball from her Dad. They go to the courts to play and Allie isn’t making any shots. The boys who are playing basketball there then begin to tease and make fun of her. One boy comes up to Allie and says the volleyball he has will be easier for her to shoot and score because it's softer. He proceeds to make Allie a deal that he will trade her his volleyball and some trinkets for her basketball. Allie reminds herself of her dream to play basketball one day. In the end she perseveres and makes a great shot thus winning the approval and admiration of her friends, the older boys, and best of all, her father. This book could be used to talk about perseverance and the unfortunate reality that girls do have to face in sports but how Allie overcame this. The author Barbara E Barbara gets her ideas from personal experiences, childhood memories, and things taking place in our ever changing world.
Beaty, A. (2006). Ida Twist Scientist. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams. This story follows the main character Ida on her inventing and scientific adventures. Ida often gets herself into trouble with the questions she is asking and discouragement from others about her scientific thinking. She stays the course throughout the story and doesn’t give up her passion for experiments, critical thinking, and questioning.
Boelts, M. (2016). A Bike Like Sergio’s. Somerville, MA: Candlewick. This has several diverse characters and teaches character education. It’s generically American and culturally neutral and exhibits respect, quality, and purpose. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Multicultural Books (continued)______
Brown, M. (2008). Pele King of Soccer. New York, NY: HarperCollins. This is a bilingual picture book written in both English and Spanish. It’s a true story based on Pelé whose full name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento who played soccer for Brazil. The book shares how Pelé grew up playing with a newspaper ball in the streets of his town and often on an empty stomach. He was the first man in the history of the sport to score a thousand goals and become a legend that so many remember. This book shows no matter where you come from or what you have you can make your dreams a reality by following them. This is one that many students whose families speak Spanish in my class enjoy bringing home and reading together along with when we read it aloud in class they enjoy reading the parts that are in Spanish.
Bunting, E. & Diaz, D., Going Home Similar to Grandfather’s Journey
Campoy, F. I. and Howell, T. (2016). Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young Readers. All because of a little girl’s love for drawing and a muralist who encouraged her to paint, they were able to encourage the town’s people to transform their town into a beautiful mural. The gray and drabbed streets of their town was revived by people of all kinds and connected through art. Campoy and Howell exemplified the beauty of a community uniting, despite many differences
Choi, Y. (2001). The Name Jar. Decorah, IA: Dragonfly Books. A Korean girl named Unhei moves to America. When she is riding the bus to school the other kids ask her name. None of them can pronounce her name correctly. When she gets to class, she tells the class she doesn’t have a name and she will give them a name the next week. The class decides to give her a jar and each student writes a name on a slip of paper for her to choose as her name. Unhei likes her name and after a letter from her grandmother in Korea she decides to teach her class her name.
Coerr, E. (1994). Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. London, UK: Puffin Books. This is a story about a girl named Sadako who was born in Hiroshima and who is athletic and has a zest for life. Sadako becomes ill with leukemia, an aftereffect of the Hiroshima bomb when she was only two years old. She approaches Leukemia with a vibrant spirit. One of Sadako’s friends reminds her of the ancient Japanese began of a paper crane that is supposed to live for a thousand years. If a person folds 1,000 paper cranes, the gods will grant her wish and for Sadako that could mean making her healthy again. After Sadako’s death, her classmates began to fold paper cranes to continue what she started. They also raise money and create a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane in outstretched arms in Hiroshima Peace Park. Engraved on the base of the statue is their wish “This is our cry, this is our prayer; peace in the world.” Although this book is very sad and can be a bit intense the message of courage, unity, and hope for generations to come are powerful. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Multicultural Books (continued)______
Cooke, T. (2008). Full, Full, Full of Love. Somerville, MA: Candlewick. Every Sunday, Jay Jay and his family, uncles and aunties, cousins and friends all come for Sunday dinner at Grannie's. This book has a focus on the special bond between Jay Jay and his grannie.
Dayrell, E. (1990). Why The Sun And The Moon Live In The Sky. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young Readers. I judged this book for its purpose and it’s respect. Although this is a retelling of an African folklore, the author and illustrator use language and artwork that is both culturally relevant and it adds to the beauty of the history of African storytelling. I also measured the aspect of purpose. The culture adds to the story. It does not distract from the story. The art work is appropriate and used in a respectful manner. de la Peña, M. (2015). Last Stop on Market Street. NewYork, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers.Every Sunday after church, CJ and his grandma ride the bus across town. But today, CJ wonders why they don't own a car like his friend. How come they always have to get off in the dirty part of town? Each question is met with an encouraging answer from his grandma, who helps him see the beauty and fun in their routine and the world around them.
Diaz, J. (2018). Island Born. New York, NY: Dial Books. Island Born follows a girl named Lola who needs to draw a picture about the country she is originally from for a school project but she does not remember much about where she was from since she left as a baby. She proceeds to interview different people in her family and community so she can learn more about where she is from and why her family chose to leave.
Dorros, A. (1997). Abuela. London, UK: Puffin Books. Although not written by someone who is part of the Hispanic culture, this story shows the relationship between a girl and her grandmother. A day in New York turns magical as they fly over the city, highlighting experiences like when her grandmother first came to the country through Ellis Island. This book also features some Spanish text, so it’s a nice representation of what it’s like to be a bilingual child.
Dungy, T. (2008). You Can Do It! New York, NY: Little Simon Inspirations. Linden, is a third grader who is having a bad day at school. Linden is the youngest of the Dungy family and the least motivated because he hasn't found "it." In a family where everyone seems to have found their special talent, all Linden knows is that he wants to make people happy. With encouragement from his parents, and a helping hand from his older brother, Linden learns that if he dreams big and has faith, he can do anything!
Finch, M. and Finch, P. (2018). Phoenix Goes to School: A Story to Support Transgender and Gender Diverse Children. Philadelphia, PA: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. This is a picture book written by and about a seven year old transgender child entering school and working through the anxiety, worries and conflicts associated with gender identity differences in modern society. The tone and perspective allow the reader to empathise and feel some of the turmoil and discomfort surrounding the protagonist of the story, as she navigates public school. This books gives language for children and parents to use in different situations, with a positive empowering attitude about being non gender conforming. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Multicultural Books (continued)______
Flett, J. (2013). Wild Berries. Vancouver, BC: Simply Read Books. Wild Berries tells the story of a Cree boy named Clarence who goes blueberry picking with his grandma. Children interested in animals and nature will likely enjoy this story, as Clarence observes a spider, a fox, and birds. Beautifully illustrated, Wild Berries includes Cree words in the body of the story as well as a pronunciation guide at the back of the book. Finally, Flett gives a recipe for wild blueberry jam!
Fox, M. (2006). Whoever You Are. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young Readers. Every day all over the world, children are laughing and crying, playing and learning, eating and sleeping. They may not look the same. They may not speak the same language. Their lives may be quite different. But inside, they are all alike.
Fox, M. (2018). I’m an Immigrant Too. San Diego, CA: Beach Lane Books. This book has an interesting perspective of immigrants in other parts of the world. It provides insight as to why they moved to Australia and fled their various countries.
Gerlach, E. (2018). Ben's Adventures: Day at the Beach. Philadelphia, PA: CharleyHouse Press. This is a picture book based on a boy named Ben who loves being outdoors, spending time with his family and uses a wheelchair for mobility. I especially love this book because it shows a child with a disability who is a child first. The focus of the story is that Ben loves the beach, the sun, being outdoors and finding sea creatures instead of being about how he navigates the world in a wheelchair.
Greenfield, R. (2015). Round is a Tortilla. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.Thong is an example of a multicultural picture book in Bishop’s (1992) distinctive experiences within a cultural group classification because the book has beautiful illustrations and Spanish words translated into English, while incorporating geometry concepts of shapes including circles, triangles, squares and ovals within the context some Mexican-American lives. This picture book is unique because it incorporates mathematical and geometric concepts into the story of social activities.
Haack, D. (2018). Prince & Knight. New York, NY: Little Bee Books. This book challenges the traditional fairytale love story of a prince finding his bride. Instead, when a dragon threatens the prince and his royal kingdom, a brave knight arrives to slay the evil beast. As it turns out, the knight also slays some major stereotypes, and by winning over the prince’s heart, shows that sometimes princes like to find their knight in shining armor too. Recommended for: Elementary School. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Multicultural Books (continued)______
Havill, J. (1990). Jamaica Tag. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young Readers. This story is about a young African-American girl who wants to go with her brother to the park after he makes plans with his friends. He proceeds to tell her no because she is bothersome, as is the case with all siblings, but she sneaks out to her bike and goes to the park anyway. While she is there, she plays in the sandbox and becomes "annoyed" by another child that is wanting to play with her. As the story progresses she realizes she is behaving in the same way as her brother and decides to include the young child in her play. I find this book to fit the multicultural category based on what I read in the article, "Black Kids Don't Want to Read About Harriet Tubman All the Time." The writer pointed out that more books need to include characters that are non-white, but still share in the same experiences that many kids have; in this case: having a sibling that is bothersome and wanting to exclude them from their activities.
Hoffman, M. (1991). Amazing Grace. New York, NY: Dial Books. An African American girl loves stories. She pretends to be all the characters she hears about. Her school is putting on a play Peter Pan. She wants to be Peter but she’s a girl and she’s black, as her friends tell her, so she can’t. Her Ma and Nana tell her she can be anything she put her mind to.
Hoffman, S. (2014). Jacob’s New Dress. Park Ridge, IL: Albert Whitman & Company. This is a children’s picture book about a boy named Jacob who loved to play dress-up with his friend at school. Jacob decides he wants to wear a dress to school, but the other kids tease him for wearing “girl clothes.” In the end Jacob feels empowered and uses his voice to stand up for himself. I feel this book is an important one because it not only breaks traditional gender roles, but it sends a message and sparks discussions for children about celebrating and respecting individuality.
Hopkins, D. (2002). A Band of Angels. New York, NY: Aladdin. This piece of historical fiction is based on the life of Ella Sheppard, a talented pianist and singer, who was born a slave. Her father was able to purchase her freedom when she was a girl. Then at 15, she went to Fisk School for former slaves. She was part of the Jubilee Singers who traveled into the North to raise money to keep the school from closing. The Jubilee Singers from Fisk University carry on this tradition of bringing their music to audiences throughout the country. Winner of the Golden Kite Award.
Hopkinson, D. (2019). Carter Reads the Newspaper. New York, NY: Peachtree Publishing Company. Carter Reads the Newspaper is about Carter G. Woodson, an African American, who is not well known. The picture book is a sequential biography of Carter’s life from growing up with very little money to obtaining a doctorate in History. He ended up being the 2ndAfrican American to receive a doctorate from Harvard, started Black History Week, and wrote about black history. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Multicultural Books (continued)______
Howard, E. F. (1991). Aunt Flossie’s Hats (and Crab Cakes). Boston, MA, New York, NY: Clarion Books. This multicultural book is written by an African-American author who portrays the strong intergenerational relationships in families. Two girls, Sarah and Susan have a special afternoon ritual of visiting their Great-great- aunt Flossie. As the girls try on her hats, she has a story for each one. The girls even join in telling the very last best Sunday hat story.
Jordan, D. (2003). Salt in his Shoes (picture book). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Written by Michael Jordan's mother, Deloris Jordan describes her son's dreams as he grew up and his eventual successful basketball career. This book would typically appeal to young boys due to its main subject, but all children can benefit from this depiction of one of the best known basketball players as he focuses on growing up (literally; I tried to make a pun about him growing taller. I'm sorry) and the role his parents played. The message is universal as it preaches family values and the importance of hard work in this African American household.
Khan, R. (2010). Red Lollipop. Westminster, London, England: Viking Books for Young Readers. This story is about a family who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan. This story is told from Rubina’s point of view and she gets invited to a birthday party. Her Mom doesn’t know what a birthday party is but she says Rubina can go as long as she brings her little sister Sana. Rubina is upset about this because she tried to tell her Mom they don’t do that here. During the party Sana demands to win every game leaving Rubina embarrassed. This story depicts sibling rivalry, cultural differences, and encourages discussions of different birthday traditions. The author Rukhsana Khan is a Pakistani Canadian children’s writer and storyteller, her books have opened the doors for children of all cultures to connect with cultures of Easter origins.
Kamkwamba, W. and Mealer, B. (2012). The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. New York, NY: Dial Books. This is a great multicultural book to share with children of all ages. William Kamkwamba tells his story of living in Malawi with his family and the hardships they faced during the drought, not having enough money for food and having to dropout of school. William studies science books from the library and uses scraps from the junkyard to build a windmill and bring electricity and water to his home. The depiction of characters and their relationships are believable. The setting is natural in relation to the content and vividly describes what it was like living through a drought and not having enough food to eat, let alone money to buy shoes or pay to go to school. The theme is universal in showing perseverance and finding creative solutions can help us overcome even extreme hardships. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Multicultural Books (continued)______
Le. M. (2018). Drawn Together. White Plains, NY: Disney-Hyperion. Many readers will connect to Drawn Togetherespecially if they have any relatives that they are unable to communicate because of a language barrier. The main characters are forced to spend the day together in silence since they do not speak the same language that is until they discover they have a passion for drawing and begin to communicate through their drawings.
Ledyard, S. (2019). Home is a Window. New York, NY: Neal Porter Books. A family learns what home really means, as they leave one beloved residence and make a new home in another.
Lofthouse, L. (2007). Zibz Came on a Boat. San Diego, CA: Kane/Miller Book Pub. Based on true events and explains what it’s like to leave a place your from to a new place you’ve never been to. It’s culturally specific and exhibits accuracy, respect, purpose, and quality.
Look, L. (2006). Uncle Peter’s Amazing Chinese Wedding. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. Narrated by the protagonist, Jenny, Uncle Peter’s Amazing Chinese Wedding is a lively story about a girl who is struggling with feelings of sadness and jealousy during her favorite uncle’s wedding. The story moves at a quick pace, Jenny’s voice is unique and engaging, the characters are multi-dimensional, and readers are given insight into Chinese cultural traditions practiced by Jenny’s family, including how some of these traditions have changed over time.
Lyons, K. S. (2017). Jada Jones Class Act. Westminster, London, England: Penguin Workshop. Jada Jones Class Actis the second book written by Kelly Starling Jones. It’s an easy read chapter book about a 4thgrade African American girl, Jada Jones, who was afraid to run for student council class representative mainly because of past failures. Jada is challenged for the position by one of her classmates, Miles. There were clashes with Jada’s friends and Mile’s friends, especially RJ. With the help of her friends, practice, and positive thinking, Jada ended up giving a wonderful speech. She won the contest.
Nolen, J. (2007). Thunder Rose. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young Readers. An American folk tale featuring the incredible strength and courage of Thunder Rose. Thunder Rose is a resourceful child that speaks for birth, has the power to control thunder and lightning, and the strength to bend steel. This is a good example of a multicultural book because it has a female hero of African American decent when many American folk tales feature white males. Thunder Rose is not a damsel in distress and easily subdued bulls, outlaws, and tornadoes.
Martinez-Neal, J. (2018). Alma and How She Got Her Name. Somerville, Ma: Candlewick. This book dives in the traditional names that many latin American Children have. It goes through each name that Alma was given and which family members that her parents respected enough to give her their names. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Multicultural Books (continued)______
McKissack, P. (1986). Flossie & the Fox. New York, NY: Dial Books. This has an accurate representation of the time period. The main character outwits a sly fox and baits him from their first meeting. This story has been handed down for generations in the author’s family, making her an expert.
Mendez, S. (2014). Separate is Never Equal (picture book). New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams. Post- Brown v. Board of Education, this autobiographical picture book follows Mendez's fight to join a segregated school in California. Not only is this a true story that teaches students about a time in American where segregation was highly prevalent, I think it's important to show that this applied to all peoples of color. Although the previously stated court case is often discussed in conversations about the Civil Rights movement and attributed to African Americans, this places a spotlight on how Puerto Rican and Mexican people were also affected by segregationist laws. However, it also brings forth the theme of perseverance and fighting for equality and justice, a great message to incorporate into multicultural literature.
Mochizuki, K. (2010). The Passage to Freedom. Washington, D.C.:National Geographic School. The Passage to Freedom is written from the point of view of the son of a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania during WWII. The story accounts how Hiroki Sugihara wrote hundreds of visas for Jewish Lithuanians despite orders from the Japanese government. This is an example of a good multicultural book because it is written by a Japanese author with the guidance of Hiroki Sugihara himself , ensuring its accuracy(he even contributes the afterword). It also portrays Japanese individuals in a positive light when many stories set in the same time do not.
Mora, P. (2000). Tomás and the Library Lady. Decorah, IA: Dragonfly Books. This book is about a young boy and his family who are migrant workers. While working in Iowa, Tomás is given permission to visit the library so that he can satisfy his hunger for new stories. The library lady befriends him and supplies him with wonderful books that peak his imagination and grow his love for reading. In turn, Tomás teaches her Spanish. Winner of the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award. This book particularly interested me because Mr. Rivera was the Chancellor at UC Riverside when I was a student there.
Morales, Y. (2015). Nino Wrestles the World. New York, NY: Square Fish. This book could be relatable to many of the Latin American monsters. Such as La llorona and the momias de guanajuato to name a few. This book is ideal for younger readers to be able to connect with the stories their families share with them.
Morales, Y. (2018). Dreamers. Milanville, PA: Neal Porter Books. In this beautifully illustrated book, the author, Yuyi Morales, tells her own immigration story when she left her home in Mexico and came to the US with her son. She shares her experiences of moving to a new country, not knowing any English and missing her family and friends back at home. However, soon after she steps into a public library for the first time, she is mesmerized by all the books that are available to her and soon finds her “place” in a foreign land. The major themes of this book are hope, courage, and change. Students who have immigrated to this country or have experienced the challenges of making a home in a new place will most likely be able to relate to this story. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Multicultural Books (continued)______
Move, O. (2018). Thank You, Omu! New York, Ny: Little, Brown and Company. The author was inspired in life by strong female role models like her Grandma who she called Omu. Omu means "queen" in the Nigerian language of her parents. In this story, Omu makes a delicious, thick red stew that brings visitor after visitor to her door. Omu shares all of her stew throughout the day till she is left with none for herself. Yet, her generosity with her community brings her happiness and love in the end.
O’Brien, S. (2018). I’m New Here. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge. This story introduces Jin, Fatimah, and Maria, all students who have just immigrated to the United States and are beginning school. The narrator is no one in particular, but all three newcomers at the same time. They go through the story talking about the struggles they are having adjusting to a new language that includes reading, writing, and speaking. The characters shift from being scared to becoming more comfortable in their new setting over time with the help and encouragement of their teacher and classmates. The story also shows that as students are struggling to fit in with one another, they also figure out that they can learn from one another.
Penfold, A. (2018). All Are Welcome. New York, NY: Knopf Books for Young Readers. This book has inclusivity and diversity of this book. It illustrates many kinds of children, from different backgrounds from all over the world. I think this is a great book for many young children who can use this book as a mirror. Penfold takes grand concepts and does a good job at simplifying her message.
Pitman, G.E. (2017). When You Look Out the Window: How Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin Build a Community. Washington, DC: Magination Press. This book celebrates the contributions and activism of one of San Francisco’s most prominent lesbian couples, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. The book also provides valuable LGBTQ historical context and explains the importance of teaching the history of this culture.
Pollaco, P. (1992). Rechenka's Eggs. London, UK: Puffin Books. This is an example of Bishop’s (1992) culturally specific classification picture book because the story includes details about traditional Russian arts and culture. This fictional picture book provides Russian vocabulary words within the context of the story, along with beautiful illustrations of painted eggshells. A sweet friendship is forged between an elderly woman and a goose that provides eggs for her to paint.
Polacco, P. (1994). Mrs. Katz and Tush. Decorah, IA: Dragonfly Books. This is a heartwarming story of a friendship that develops between an elderly Polish immigrant woman and a young African-American boy. Noticing that Mrs. Katz is lonely after her husband has died, her neighbor, Larnel, asks her to adopt one of the kittens that he found in the basement of his building. She agrees with the condition that Larnel will help her take care of the kitten. He spends more and more time with Mrs. Katz and finds that he enjoys listening to her stories about coming to America from Poland and all the good times that she shared with her husband. Over time, Larnel grows to love Mrs. Katz and shares a special connection with her. This story is written by an author whose parents are of Ukranian and Russian descent on one side and of Irish descent on the other. The story has universal themes of friendship, compassion, and acceptance. It also incorporates various Yiddish vocabulary, and the characters are believable and show depth” as stated as a score of 3 in the multicultural literature rubric, referenced in the article by Lori G. Wilfong. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Multicultural Books (continued)______Polacco, P. (2001). Thank You, Mr. Falker. New York, NY: Philomel. This story describes the struggles she experienced firsthand as a result of her dyslexia. The story details her frustrations with reading as well as her resourceful ways of compensating for her disability. Unfortunately, her challenges with dyslexia also brought on bullying from a classmate, who constantly belittled Trisha (Patricia Polacco) for learning differently.
Polacco, P. (2001). The Keeping Quilt. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books. This shares Russian Jewish traditions and portrays characters that are proud of their heritage. It’s culturally specific and exhibits, accuracy, respect, purpose, and quality. Hula Hooping Queen by Thelma Godin. This story follows a girl living in inner city New York as she interacts with her community through Hula Hooping. She is in competition with the neighborhood girls and places this before taking care of chores related to a party for an older neighbor. Once at the party multiple generations find common ground through hula hooping. This is a close read that I do toward the end of the school year.
Queen Rania of Jordan Al Abdullah. (2010). The Sandwich Swap. White Plains, NY: Disney- Hyperion. This compares and contrasts characters that are best friends. It’s culturally specific and exhibits accuracy, author’s expertise, respect, purpose, and quality.
Quintero, I. (2019). My Papi Has a Motorcycle. New York, NY: Kokila. The story is based on the author’s childhood memory of her daily ritual of riding on the back of her father’s motorcycle. She recalls all of the smells, sounds and sights of her immigrant neighborhood in Corona, California as they zoom by the Tortilleria la Estrella, her abuelita’s church, Joy’s Market, the disappearing lemon trees that once grew in abundance in her town and the people of her community, like Mr.Garcia, the librarian, and her classmate, Mercedes Lopez. She realizes that as her neighborhood is slowly changing, her love for her father will always remain the same. The major themes of this book are a girl’s love for her father and her neighborhood, family, and change. This is a great mentor text for descriptive writing as it includes some figurative language such as onomatopoeia, personification, metaphors and some great “spicy” verbs. The illustrations remind me of those you might find in a comic book with speech bubbles peppered throughout the pages. I believe this book is culturally relevant to many of my Spanish speaking students as there are many Spanish phrases in the book, the book is written by an author from the culture being depicted, the setting is realistic and natural, and the themes portrayed in the book are universal.
Rawles, C. (2010) Same Difference. Los Angeles, CA: Artist Calida. Two cousins named Lida and Lisa love to play with each other. They wear the same pink dress and everyone says they look like twins. When they look in the mirror, they notice that they don’t have the same skin color or hair. They ask their grandmother about the differences and she explains that everyone has different skin, but no one is better or worse. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Multicultural Books (continued)______
Ringgold, F. (1996). Tar Beach. Decorah, IA: Dragonfly Books. This rich book is a magical story that tells of a girl from Harlem who goes to the rooftop of her building, Tar Beach, with her family to eat and enjoy the summer evenings. While there, Cassie takes flight over the city and claims the bridge and neighboring buildings for herself. She says that her flight makes her, “free to go wherever I want for the rest of my life.” This book is a Caldecott Honor book.
Robinson, C. 2019). Another. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. This picture book displays children of color and children with disabilities. It also allows for different interpretations of reality, and each student can view it through different lenses.
Saeed, A. (2019). Bilal Cooks Daal. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. This story written by a Pakistani-American author is about a six year old boy from a South Asian (most likely Pakistani) family who introduces his friends to his favorite dish called “daal.” His friends have never tried it and it takes a very long time to make. As the day moves on, more and more of his friends are waiting to try this new dish. Bilal is excited but he is also worried that his friends may not like the dish. The themes of this book include the value of trying something new, sharing, community and teamwork. I think many students and not only those who may come from a South Asian country will relate to this story as I’m sure many of them have experienced sharing a part of their culture and traditions with others. I, for one, who grew up in Japan, loved to introduce the traditional Japanese delicacies to my American friends, but also remembered feeling a little nervous and hesitant about doing so as I was often worried that they might not like it or think that it was “gross.”
Say, A. (2008). Grandfather’s Journey. San Anselmo, CA: Sandpiper Grandfather’s Journey is written from a grandson’s point of view describing the adventures of his grandfather when he left Japan. This is an example of good multicultural book because it is written by a Japanese author, Allen Say, who is writing about his actual grandfather. His grandfather has traveled the world and met interesting people, but loves both Japan and California.
Shetterly, M. L. (2018). Hidden Figures (picture book). New York, NY: HarperCollins. While also a complete novel and film, there is a picture book version that appeals to a younger audience, lower level readers, and second language learners. The story follows 4 African American women and their journey as "computers" for NASA in the 1960s. This book doubles as both multicultural literature and a true story that promotes gender equality and the fight to overcome adversity. It depicts the struggles that African American women fought through prior and during the Civil Rights movement but also gives hope to those with the grit to push forward and succeed no matter your race or gender.
Soto, G. (1993). Too Many Tamales London, UK: Puffin Books. Maria and her family are making tamales. Maria put on her mother’s ring while making tamales and the ring is lost. She and her cousins eat all the tamales to find the ring, with no luck. She goes to talk to her mom and her mom is wearing the ring. The family has to make more tamales.
Soto, G. (1998). Big Bushy Mustache. New York, NY: Knopf Books for Young Readers. Big Bushy Mustacheis about a young boy, Ricky, who didn’t like the way neighborhood adults made comments about him looking like his mother. When his teacher showed the props they were using in the Cinco de Mayo play, Ricky chose the mustache to look more like his father. Instead of leaving the mustache, Ricky took it home to show his parents. Ricky lost the mustache on the way home and tried to solve his problem by making another one. In the end, Ricky’s father looked like him, since he shaved his mustache for Ricky to take to his teacher. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Multicultural Books (continued)______
Smith, M. G. (2017). You Hold Me Up. British Columbia, Canada: Orca Book Publishers Dedicated to the children, families, and staff of Aboriginal Head Start programs, You Hold Me Up is a concise, warm picture book that gives examples of ways children and their adult caretakers can support one another. The book is written and illustrated by women of Native Canadian heritage, features Native characters, and could be used to help build community in classrooms. In an author’s note, Smith provides brief historical context for her book and her goals in writing it.
Steptoe, J. (2016). Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean- Micheal Basquiat. New York, NY: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. "This award-winning picture book biography for the elementary grades is a remarkable introduction to the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the concept of self-expression in art." This book is about the childhood and life of Puerto Rican-Haitian American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Written for young children, it celebrates Basquiat's art and traces the early steps of his artistic formation, as he makes his way to being a famous artist.
Tarpley, N.A. (2001). I Love My Hair! New York, Ny: Little, Brown and Company. This is an example of Bishop’s (1992) distinctive experiences of being within a cultural group classification because the narrative hi-lights a young African-American girl’s experiences with her daily hair care regime. The narrative story describes and depicts her experiences with brushing, combing, braiding and styling her hair, which is often arduous and painful for the girl. The overall tone is acceptance and celebration of African-American hair and conveys authentic cultural experiences with a positive attitude. This picture book values the experience of what girls with naturally curly hair experience and create an uplifting story.
Winter, J. (2008). Wangari’s Trees of Peace. San Diego, California: Harcourt Children's Books. This is a true story about a young girl from a village in Kenya who becomes concerned about the growing deforestation of her homeland. She sees the negative effects of this and decides to start planting seedlings, first in her backyard, and then later enlists local women to help her plant more trees in her village. The first woman to earn a Ph.D. in East Africa, she also started the Green Belt Movement Kenya in 1977 where she helped to plant thirty million trees by the year 2004. A Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai, is an inspiration and a role model for all those young girls out there . She instills the value of perseverance, strength, and the belief that one small act can bring about great change.
Woodson, J. (2018). The Day You Begin. New York, NY: Nancy Paulsen Books. This is such a beautiful book to read aloud at the beginning of the school year. This book eloquently illustrates the worries of being different and finding the courage to connect, despite the fear you feel from within. I love how Woodson does not focus from one culture’s point of view. There was a boy named Rigoberto from Venezuela who feared the way his words curl from his mouth. A little girl who worries about her strange lunch that she loves. A little girl who could not relate to her peers who traveled in the summer. In the end, she connected these characters as they connect with something so simple.
Woodson, J. (2001). The Other Side. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers. In a rural small town there is a fence that segregates the African-American side of town where Clover lives from the white side of town where Anna lives. The girls become friends, sitting on top of the fence together despite their parents warnings that the other side is not safe. Woodson states that she wrote this book because she wanted to show how flkid b Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Multicultural Books (continued)______
Varadarajan, G and Weeks, S. (2016). Save Me a Seat. New York, NY: Scholastic Press. This is an excellent example of a multicultural book. I have shared it with fourth and fifth graders in book clubs, and it always results in engaging discussions. Save Me a Seat is a story told from the point of view of two very different characters, Ravi (who has just moved from India) and Joe (who has lived in the same town his whole life) Just like the main characters, the authors also have different backgrounds. Varadarajan has only recently moved to the United States from India, and Weeks has lived her entire life here. In reading this book, students (and teachers) learn about the Indian culture and the many challenges children from other countries face in today's world when coming to the U.S. Ravi and Joe come together in the end to fight their common enemy.
Verde, S. (2018). I am Human. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams. This book shows that it’s okay to make mistakes while also emphasizing the power of good choices by offering a kind word or smile or by saying “I’m sorry.”
ABC Books/Books to Begin On______
Bass, J.V. (2015). Edible Numbers. New York, NY: Roaring Book Press. Photographs to depict the number on each page. The number one is used on each left hand page with a new picture to show one of that fruit or vegetable. Each right hand page shows pictures of the same kind of fruit or vegetable but in the next number succession. Example: One apple on the left hand page and 3 different apples, of different varieties, on the right hand page, or 1 pear on the right hand page and 6 – one of each variety of pears on the right hand page. Twelve is the largest number.
Bridwell, N. (1984). Clifford’s ABC. New York, NY: Cartwheel. I think the book is good because it has a page dedicated to each letter (except a few) with multiple items on the page that begin with the letter. The words are next to the pictures. This would be a better text for children who have already been introduced to the alphabet because there are multiple items on the page, not just one or two, which represent the letter. I like how a few pictures for the letter Kk are with the silent k spelling to give the kids that introduction. Teachers can have this book as a writing resource for students.
Carle, E. (1999). Eric Carle’s ABC. NewYork, NY: Grosset & Dunlap. I like this book for toddlers. There are capital and lowercase letters on one side of the page and pictures with a word to match on the other side. This is great for those beginning readers and writers. Kids would be able to use the book to write common words in stories like monkey and lion. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
ABC Books/Books to Begin On (Continued)______Carle, E. (1969). The Very Hungry Caterpillar. London, UK: Puffin Books. The illustrations are excellent. There is repetitive text. I love how the page gets bigger as he eats more and more food. Kids like how the caterpillar eats 'normal' people food. Most of Eric Carle's books are beautifully illustrated, have information or a message, and are great for early readers. Ginsburg, M. (1972). The Chick and the Duckling. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks. by Mirra Ginsburg :-) This book has clear pictures. There are just a few words on each page. There is repetition of some words throughout the book. There are two pages side by side with no words where children can say their own words. My own kids loved this book when they were young.
Litwin, E. (2010). Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes. New York, NY: HarperCollins. This book is repetitive for beginning readers. The illustrations are great. The song is catchy. My students sing the song even when not reading the book. All the Pete the cat books I have read are great for early readers because they teach a message and have the songs.
Martin, B. and Archambault, J. (1989). Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. San Diego, CA: Beach Lane Books. I like this book because it can be read in a singing voice and it is repetitive. I like the illustrations. This book is a story not just a picture book with letters and pictures. This is better read as a read aloud. However, kids can have fun looking at the pictures and pointing to the letters.
Mayer, M. (1995). Little Critter ABC. New York, NY: Random House Books for Young Readers. I think this book is good for the younger audience. There are a letter, word, and picture on each page. The illustrations are helpful to find the image to match the word.
Powell, S. (2013). ABC. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press. It has cute little fingerprint animals. Each animal is clearly pictured on one page. After the introduction of the animal, there are short sentences under each picture to describe the animal or describe what it does. Suitable for ages 0+
Sobel, J. (2003). B is for Bulldozer. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company. This alphabet book is not recommended for a very young child because there is more to the pictures. Objects on the page can be identified, but harder for very young. There are words that rhyme on each page. The author shows the construction of an amusement park. It kind of tells a story. The alphabet letter featured on each page is in color compared to the rest of the letters in black print.
Seuss, Dr. (1963). Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!. New York, NY: Random House Books for Young Readers. I think this book is good because it has a page or two dedicated to each letter. The pictures go in order with the words and are not next to the picture it represents. This is better for children who are already reading and sounding out words.
Willem, M. (2009). Pigs Make Me Sneeze. New York, NY: Disney Book Group. This is just one of many books by Mo Willem. There are speech bubbles to help kids understand the talking in the book. The pictures are very simple. There is a layout where there are no words, so emergent readers can add their own words. It’s about friendship, too.
Willem, M. (2007). My Friend is Sad. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children. This book teaches we read as we speak. We can use different voices to make the characters come alive. Plus this book shows feelings and how to cheer up a friend. I like the Piggy and Elephant books by Mo Willems. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Fairy Tale Variations______
Cinderella
Coburn, J.R. (2000). Domitila. Auburn, CA. Shen’s Books. This story also has beautiful pictures. These pictures depict Mexico and the culture. The story is young girl who cooks in the governor’s mansion. Timoteo, the governor’s son who was selfish and arrogant fell in love with Domitila. Domitila left the mansion when her mother got sick. She ends up living with her new stepmother and stepsister. Timoteo searched for her without knowing how to find her. He only had a piece of leather from her shoe that she had made. He learned about himself on the journey. By the time he found Domitila, he had become a kind man. They got married and lived in the mansion.
Climo, S. (1996). The Korean Cinderella. New York: Harper Collins. In The Korean Cinderella, our main character is named Pear Blossom. The paintings of Korean culture will help children who are not familiar with Korea to learn about the culture and visualize the details of the story. When Pear Blossom’s stepmother doles out impossible tasks, Pear Blossom cries out, “Will none in this world help me?” In response, a tokgabi appears to aide her. A tokgabi is a goblin that sends a frog, sparrows, and a black ox to help Pear Blossom. On her way to the village’s festival, Pear Blossom is spied by the magistrate who is taken by her beauty and retrieves the sandal she leaves as she flees the roadside.
Cole, B. (1987). Prince Cinders. New York: Putnam Group This version reverses all the gender roles. It’s a humorous version that would appeal to primary elementary school students. Prince Cinders is the one who needs to defeat his 3 hairy brothers, instead of Cinderella wishing for being saved from her 2 mean stepsisters. Prince Cinders is trying to win the heart of a princess, instead of Cinderella wishing to win the heart of a prince. In place of a glass slipper, there are a pair of trousers that the princess uses to find the man who fits them.
Grimm, J., Grimm, W. (1945). Grimms’ Fairy Tales. (Lucas, E.V., Crane, L., & Edwardes, M., Trans.). New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap. (Original work published 1812). Cinderella. This is the first Cinderella story I read and/or heard read to me. There are no illustrations. In this 1945 translation, a bird that lives in the tree planted at her mother’s grave grants Cinderells’s wishes. For each day of the festival, she was given a beautiful robe and shoes (not glass, but gold for the 3rd day). When the first stepsister tried on the shoe, she cut off her toe to make it fit. The second stepsister cut off her heel. It ends with birds picking the eyes out of the stepsisters. I think it’s gory for kids. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Fairy Tale Variations( Continued)______
The Three Little Pigs (continued)
Lowell, S. (1992). The Three Little Javelinas. Flagstaff, AZ: Rising Moon Books. The setting for this version is in the desert. The javelinas made their houses out of tumbleweed, cactus sticks, and adobe bricks. The Big Bad Wolf is a coyote. The coyote went down the stove and burnt his tail and was never heard from again.
Matsuoka, M. (2012). The Three Little Pigs. Bath, England, UK: Parragon. This version has pull-out pages and flip ups. In this story, the pigs build their house of straw, sticks, and bricks. After the wolf tried to blow down the brick house, he gave up, and the three pigs lived happily ever after.
Schwartz, C.R. (2012). The Three Ninja Pigs. NewYork, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers. A shift on the classic fairy tale and has boy versus a girl pig characters as well as martial arts action. The book is written in a rhyming prose and introduces each pig as practicing a specific type of martial arts. The first boy pig learns aikido, the second learns jiu jitsu and the third pig, who is female, practices karate. The story details the first and second pig not committing to practicing their martial arts, and not achieving mastery. Meanwhile, the third pig, who is their sister, practices for months and becomes a master of karate. When the big bad wolf comes, the first and second pig’s homes are destroyed and they run to their sister’s house. She defends all of them against the wolf by scaring him away with her powerful karate forms. The three pigs decide that Ninja’s rule and open a karate dojo together. The clothing of the characters in this variation are quite different than the classic, as they are all wearing martial arts uniforms. The author is relaying messages about working hard, exercising discipline, the power of girls to defend themselves and others, as well as family standing together in hard times. Goodness is equated to working hard and staying focused. This is a fun adaptation of the classic fairy tale.
Scieszka, J. (1989). The TRUE story of the 3 little pigs by A.Wolf. London, UK: Puffin Books. In this version, the Big Bad Wolf is showing his side of the story. It has humor that might go over the younger children’s head. In this story, the wolf had a cold and the sneezes. He just wanted to borrow a cup of sugar for a cake he was making, but every time he sneezed another house would fall and land on the pig inside. It is a shame to waste freshly squashed pig, so the wolf had no choice but to eat them. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Fairy Tale Variations( Continued)______
The Three Little Pigs (continued)
Teague, M. (2013). The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf. Londan, UK: Orchard Books. This is a fun and silly variation on the classic fairy tale because the wolf is depicted as a sympathetic character. The three pigs are portrayed as selfish, buying their housing materials, potato chips and sody (soda) pop. The wolf’s illustration makes him appear benign as he comes to town looking for dinner. He innocently tries the donut shop, hot dog stand, and pizza parlor, only to be rudely turned away by all three restaurants. The wolf was left with little choice but to try to eat the three pigs. After he blew down the first and second pig’s houses, the pigs scooter and bike to the third pig’s house. The somewhat bad, but not all that bad, wolf is even hungrier and exhausts himself trying to blow down the brick house. The pigs show empathy toward the wolf and offer him potato chips. The wolf decides to stay for dinner and a swim. There are no clear cut good or bad characters in this version. Instead, goodness shifts based on each character’s actions. The smartest pig in this tale is a girl pig, while the first and second greedier pigs are boy pigs. The setting of the brick house looks like a vacation home and the ending is happy for the pigs and the wolf showing kindness towards each other.
Trivizas, E. and Oxnbury, H. (1993). The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. New York, NY: Margaret K. McElderry Books. This version is the reverse story of the Three Little Pigs where the Pig in this story is the bad guy. This story is a little longer than the others, but it gives another view of the story. The wolves lived together in a brick house, concrete house, and finally a home with barbed wire, iron bars, armored plates, and padlocks. The pig broke into every one of those houses. So the wolves built a house of sweet smelling flowers. As the pig huffed and puffed, he also smelled the flower and decided to be a good pig. The wolves and the pig became friends and played together. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Nonfiction Books/Online Links______
Baid, A. (2019). How to Draw: Easy Techniques and Step-by-Step Drawings for Kids. Rockridge Press: Rockridge Press. This book is an example of a good sequence-based informational text. The book teaches readers how to draw a variety of objects and concepts using specific and easy to follow step-by- step written directions. Readers are further supported by guided illustrations. In addition, the book introduces field related vocabulary such as mass, shape, and detail, while defining the terms in relation to drawing. The book also utilizes a wide range of examples to support readers in grasping and applying the skill that is being taught. In this book, the illustrations may even become the primary source of information for many readers, making this book a unique and very meaningful example of what an effective expository text can be.
Berger, M. Life in the Rain Forest. (A Ranger Rick Spectacular Book). Massachusetts: Newbridge Educational Publishing. Berger researched for the information in this book. Berger gives a brief description of tropical rainforests. This children’s book is full of photographs depicting some animals, insects, and plants of tropical rainforests. There are inset pictures with either a red or yellow border. The inset pictures give a name or a few facts about the animal/s featured on the page. There is an index at the end with a world map at the top showing the locations of tropical rainforests.
Bryant, J. (2016). Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille. New York, NY: Knopf Books for Young Readers. This is a wonderful example of a literary nonfiction book. It is a picture book biography taking us through the fascinating and inspiring life of Louis Braille, a blind French boy who created a system of reading and writing for the visually impaired. This book is written in a narrative format, and the illustrations help tell the story and engage the reader. The author includes facts about Braille as well as expressing his thoughts and feelings in a way that will keep readers interested. This book has an excellent message about overcoming obstacles, and also the power of determination and perseverance.
Chin, J. (2017). Grand canyon. New York, New York: Roaring Brook Press. This informational text describes the plant and animal life that lived past and present in the Grand Canyon. As a father and daughter journey from the bottom of the canyon to the top, the author describes the ecological communities at each elevation and how the layers of rock were formed. Chin acknowledges the experts that he interviewed in researching for the book. The organization of this book supports children in understanding big concepts about how the canyon was created over billions of years. The illustrations draw the reader in and complement the text. The diagrams are visible representations of the geology of the canyon. This book is designed for elementary children who would like to learn about the Grand Canyon. It was a 2018 winner of the Orbis Pictus Award. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Nonfiction Books/Online Links (Continued)______Ehlert, L. (2014). The Scraps Book: Notes from a Colorful Life. San Diego, CA: Beach Lane Books. An autobiography of children’s book author and illustrator Lois Ehlert. She describes her childhood love of art and books. The book details her path to becoming the author and illustrator she is today and includes her process for creating children’s books: from gathering ideas, writing the text, to illustrating. She tells the reader about collage-making and how she creates the illustrations with this technique. We are treated to photographs and Ms. Ehlert’s art throughout the book. This book is well organized and includes a narrative that runs throughout the book along with labels that provide additional information associated with each of the photos/collages. The style is bright and inviting and the text and illustrations complement one another. This is an Orbis Pictus recommended book.
Gibbons, G. Weather Forecasting. New York: Aladdin. Gibbons researched and obtained information from the National Weather Service to write this book. This children’s book structure is a sequential cycle - seasons of the year. Much of the vocabulary is in a sentence as a caption supported by a drawing/s. The main text describes the weather and the jobs of weather forecasters.
Jenkins, S. (1997). Biggest, Strongest, Fastest. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young Readers. A book about world record holding animals. It is a picture book with simple text and striking illustrations created with layered, textured paper. The clever layout encourages turning of the page by extending the biggest and longest animals beyond the two-page spread to a third page. In addition to the text that indicates which record the animal holds, there is a smaller more detailed description of the animal in the corner with a small illustration that offers a comparison to help the reader grasp the size, weight, speed, etc. This book is sure to delight young children. The back of the book contains a table that summarizes each animal, the record it holds and basic information about the animal. The book’s attractive style, clear organization, and fascinating facts make it an appealing book.
Gray,K. (2016). Nadia: The Girl Who Couldn't Sit Still. Boston, MA: HMH Books for Young Readers. This is an informational text about the gymnast Nadia Comaneci. She grew up in a small town in Romania and often had a difficult time with self control. She was enrolled in gymnastics and that was an outlet for her movement. She competed in the 1976 olympics.
Kalman, B. (2007). Wetland Food Chains. New York, NY: Crabtree Publishing Company. The author describes the plants and animals that live in the marsh and make up the different levels of the food chain. Towards the end it also explains problems that are threatening life in the marsh and how readers can help protect them. The organization is from general to specific. First, describing the wetland habitat and food chains and then focusing on the freshwater marsh and the plants and animals in that food chain. This text also highlights many text features like table of contents, headings, subheadings, diagrams, glossary and index. There is a combination of photographs and drawings that are engaging and complement the text. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Nonfiction Books/Online Links (Continued)______
Kelly, S. (2017). My Journey to the Stars. New York, NY Crown Books for Young Reader. An amazing autobiography of his early life and work as an astronaut. The book includes colorful illustrations as well as real photographs. The language and style is interesting and captured my attention immediately. This is a very good informational book and would be a strong contender for the Orbis Pictus award for it’s authentic first-person voice, creative style of using illustrations and photographs, historical and scientific content.
Markle, S. Can You Believe? Hurricanes. New York: Scholastic Inc. Markle researched and obtained information from meteorologists and other specialists. She describes hurricanes and things about them for children. There are photographs and pictures to support the text. There are “Try it Yourself” experiments for kids to do. The text is written in different fonts, colors, and sizes. Some pages have a border. Some pages have an inset multiple choice quiz. The answer to the quiz is the topic of the next page. There are also “Did You Know” insets of facts. There is a glossary mixed with the index at the back.
Markle, S. (2012). The Vanishing Golden Frogs A Scientific Mystery. Minneapolis, MN: Millbrook Press. This informational text is a scientific mystery. It presents the mystery of the vanishing Golden frogs in Panama. It then takes the reader through the process of eliminating possible causes that might be killing the frogs. Next, it describes the preservation work and research that is being done to solve the problem and protect the frogs. The author acknowledged interviewing scientists that did the research and the photographs are from National Geographic and not only complement the text, but also document the process. Another great feature of this book is a glossary and lists of books and websites at the back of the book that readers might use to continue reading about the topic.
Marsh, L. (2012). Caterpillar to Butterfly. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society. Laura Marsh has written over 30 non-fiction books for National Geographic’s Readers Series. One of her books, Tigers is featured in Lucy Calkins’ Unit of Study, which is a reading and writing program. The book has beautiful pictures of caterpillars, butterflies, and all the parts in between. The text is accurate and matches the picture shown.
Selsam, M.E. (1982) Cotton. New York: William Morrow & Co. The author has authority with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in botany. The book was checked for accuracy by the United States Department of Agriculture research botanist. Selsam begins by giving some history about cotton. Photographs support the author’s text. Then the author tells about the developing cotton plant from seedling to harvesting to the factory. Photographs support the different stages of growth, picking, ginning, and the textile factory. The text structure is a sequential pattern with easy to read sentences for about 4th/5th grade students. Students that live in the Central San Joaquin Valley of California see a lot of cotton fields. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Nonfiction Books/Online Links (Continued)______
Silverstein, A., Silverstein, V., & Silverstein Nunn, L. Allergies. New York: Franklin Watts. The main author has authority with his title and job as a biology professor in New York. This children’s book has who, what, when, and how type questions the authors answer. The text is written in different fonts and color for new vocabulary, captions, and inserted notes. There is a glossary, index, and a listing of online sites and books to learn more. Photographs and drawings support the text.
Spilsbury, L. (2010). Jellyfish (A Day in the Life: Sea Animals). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. This is an informational text about plants and jellyfish It has all the elements of an informational book. It teaches all the basic components of informational texts such as table of contents, glossary, diagrams, maps, and labels.
Thompson, L.(2015). Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah. New York, NY: Schwartz & Wade. This is a biographical story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah. He was born with a disability with one of his legs. He was determined to support his family and attend school despite the difficulties his disability caused him. He persevered in his studies and helping his family. He then became a cyclist and cycled across Ghana to bring awareness and support for those with disabilities.
Twist, C. Rains to Dams. This is a “Hands on Science” book with projects to do with water. Mr. Twist researched for the information in this book. He tells about water from raindrops to properties of water to density and surface tension to the water stored by dams. It has pictures and drawings to support the text descriptions and directions. The headings and subheadings each have a background color for text organization. The main headings have a teal background, subheadings in a light blue background, experiment headings have a yellow background, and the quiz headings are red. There is a glossary at the end Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Elements of Art and Design______
Bang, M. (2018). When Sophie Thinks She Can’t… New York: Blue Sky Press The illustrations in this story are dominated by color and line. The gouache art style of bright colors enhances the tone of the story. The color blue is used for math shapes. The people in the illustrations are outlined with curved lines of color depending on the tone depicted by the text. At the beginning Sophie has a solid red outline to show she’s having problems in her inability to make a square with the blue tangram pieces. The red and yellow surrounding the words “I can’t” and the red line of small waves over her bent back show her frustration and crying. When she goes to school, she has a green outline like all the other students to show she’s open to learning. The teacher has a yellow outline to show her brilliance. The teacher has the students do some work, so the illustrations show all the students with an orange outline. The teacher drew blue shapes on the board for a math problem. Sophie is outlined in blue to show her feelings of sadness, lack of confidence with doing Math. When Sophie is with her math partners, they are all outlined in red to show the frustration they have. As they work through the problem they are outlined in orange. Then all the students in the class are outlined in orange to show they worked it out and learned something new. Sophie has a yellow outline when she walks home from school to show her happiness. In the end, her dad is outlined in yellow with Sophie to show the happiness in being able to solve problems. The endnotes at the beginning show separate blue tangram pieces and a blue tangram square. The endnotes at the back show a blue tangram square and other blue tangram shapes that look like different animals using the tangram pieces.
Dealey, E. (2002). Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox. New York: Aladdin. The illustrations in this story help support the text as well as tell the story. The text is imperfect regular with illustrations done in oil paint. The retro artistic style was done using primary colors with a white background throughout the majority of the book. Straight lines as stripes and/or dots are used on every page of the book including the end pages. Dots on clothing and decorations emphasize the chicken pox in the house. The color red is dominantly used to draw attention to the red chicken pox. Intense red and white tile with a broken red chair is used in the Three Bear’s kitchen. Less intense red is used for Little Bo Peep when she’s looking for her sheep in the bedroom. Little Red Riding Hood has her intense read hood when she stopped by. The illustrator contrasted intense primary colors with less intense primary colors to keep the reader’s attention. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Elements of Art and Design (Continued)______
Fleischman, P. (1999). Weslandia. Massachusetts: Candlewick Press. The art and design of this book make the story come alive. The type set of Tempus San ITC suggests fun and imagination. The acrylic colors and shapes are used for underlying meaning. At the beginning of the story, school just got out. The vibrant color used for Wesley’s clothes depict his brilliant mind in contrast to the neighborhood kids who wear darker shades of blue and red and live in one of two styles of white houses. The neighborhood kids pick on Wesley, but his confidence is shown by his brilliance. After Wesley’s mother said, “He sticks out.” His father said, “Like a nose.” The picture on the page shows the long oblong shape of his father’s nose. Wesley grew a “garden” of very tall plants with very different bright red flowers and fruit. As Wesley became more comfortable in “his” land, he began wearing neutral colored clothing. In Contrast, the neighborhood kids are now depicted in bright clothing to show their curiosity of Wesley’s garden. The neighborhood kids visit Wesley a lot and played his games with him in Weslandia. The colorful Weslandia contrasts with the neighborhood of white houses with grey roofs. A contrast is made with the neighborhood kids becoming “civilized” in the new civilization of Weslandia compared to the beginning when they were tormentors. In the end as they go back to school, Wesley has a lot of friends depicted by everyone wearing the neutral clothing they had made in Weslandia. The endnotes show shapes for symbols of a “new” alphabet. The illustrator gave a clue in the endnotes by showing a shape of a triangle with stick-like arms and a head like a crown on one side of the endnote page. The other side of the endnote page shows the same picture, but it has a circle around it. The king of Weslandia went from being alone to being whole with all his friends.
Foster, J. & Paul, K. (1995). Monster Poems. England: Oxford University Press. The cartoon style illustrations in this book support the poetry with humor and a underlying story is shown. The story starts on the title page by showing a scaly green monster with spikes on its back and head. The artist and illustrator are in the monster’s mouth trying to hold it open, so they don’t get eaten. The next two pages are the copyright page and the table of contents. The same monster is shown much larger and its mouth wide open (A whole page is used for the head and mouth.) with the author and illustrator’s hands sticking up out of its red throat. Yellow words of the table of contents are on the black background of the monster’s mouth. The big white uneven teeth border the table of contents. The monster has a watch on its wrist as do at least one monster for each poem. The watch symbolizes the illustrator’s humor of not having enough time or keeping the time as he draws. The last page shows a small drawing of the illustrator at the top wearing a watch and holding the quill pen he uses to make his lines. He’s tired and worn out from so many monsters as shown by the texture of his face with overgrown whiskers and his round eyes with sweat dripping down. He’s looking down at the last monster of the book.
The illustrator shows different texture made with different line designs throughout the book. Curved lines make scales on monsters. A lot of small squiggly lines make a hairy monster. Long lines together and strayed give hair its wild texture on monsters and people. The soft texture of the bunched up blanket on the bed is showed with many long curved lines. The texture on a bathroom wall is showed with the horizontal lines of squares and rectangles. The many circular lines show the chaotic texture of the monsters of junk. Small curved lines are used to show feathers growing on a person’s face. Each page has a white border. The monsters are emphasized on the pages. Some pages are symmetrical, but most are asymmetrical. Panels are used on some pages to help move the reader through the pages. To add some scariness, white typeset on a black background is used. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Elements of Art and Design (Continued)______
Hemingway, E. (2012). Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship. New York, NY: Puffin Books. Art Elements: Oil and Canvas. This tale is about an apple named Mac whose best friend is a bookworm names Will who lives inside of him. Will teaches Mac new things and finishes his sentences. Other apples say Mac is rotten because of Will, so Will leaves. But Mac just doesn’t feel right without his best friend Will. Mac knows he would rather be a “Bad Apple” with will than a sad apple without him.
Jeffers, O. (3013). The Day the Crayons Quit. New York, NY: Philomel Books. The book is mainly epistolary in nature in which the reader reads a letter from each different color crayon explaining why they quit. The letters are written in the handwriting typically seen from a child and is written in that specific color. Accompanying the letter is a picture that features that particular colored crayon such as a red fire truck with Santa Claus, or a purple wizard with a purple dragon. The lines are coarse and jagged, scribbled to emulate the same coloring style of a young child. Additionally, the complaint of each crayon can be seen in each picture such as the red crayon complaining about being used too much (the picture is scoured with red) or the purple crayon not staying inside the lines. The written letter complaints are complemented by the pictures shown, so the reader is able to both read and visualize the thoughts of each crayon.
Keller, H. (2007). Help! A Story of Friendship. New York, NY: Harper Collins Children’s Books. Art Elements: Collograph and watercolor. This story follows Mouse, who heard from a friend of a friend that Snake isn’t really Mouse’s friend. Mouse is so busy fearing Snake that he falls into a hole. All Mouse’s other friends are too big to get Mouse out. But not Snake. Snake helps Mouse, and then Mouse feels silly for listening to the gossip.
Miller, P. (2018). Be Kind. New York, NY: Roaring Brook Press. Art Elements: Watercolor. This story is about what being kind means. In the beginning, Tanisha spills purple juice on herself. All the other children laughed but one. That one doesn’t know what to do, just that her mom told her to be kind. So she says, “Purple is my favorite color,” which didn’t help. The girl thinks about what she could have done to help Tanisha. She thinks of what it means to be kind. Is it making cookies? Is it letting others have shoes that are too small for her? Is it helping, cleaning, or paying attention? Maybe it’s listening? Or making a picture for someone who is sad? Maybe it's the small things that add up to something bigger.
Silverstein, S. (1964). The Giving Tree. New York, NY: Harper & Row. This book is drawn with simple, colorless pen drawing and black and white text on each page. As the book goes on, the little boy is drawn older and older until he is an old man sitting on the stump. The tree, too, changes throughout the book, giving away her apples, branches, and trunk to the boy. The pictures relate to the text on each page, demonstrating the boy's needs and the tree's giving nature as time moves on. The black and white design scheme match the simplicity of the story and is likely done to not draw away from the book's message. The text is spaced out and limited on each page, ranging from a few phrases of dialogue to a single phrase, often the latter proceeding the first to demonstrate time passing and the tree slowly digressing into a deep, longing sadness.
Timbaland. and Myers, C. (2019). Nighttime Symphony. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. The pictures in this book begin with dark blues and blacks to match the stormy atmosphere. This is heavily contrasted by the lighter colors (especially yellows) that are detailed either inside the home or outside via the bright street lamps. This is likely to match the narrative where the father tells his son that he is safe from the wild storm. The brightness from various objects provides a sense of safety and suggests a "light at the end of the tunnel" idea. This is especially apparent when the boy imagines angels in the sky in bright white and yellows and blues making music. There are few words on each page as if the storm was swallowing up the text. The book has endpapers with a robin-blue sky versus the dark night in the beginning. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Elements of Art and Design (Continued)______
Timbaland. and Myers, C. (2019). Nighttime Symphony. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. The pictures in this book begin with dark blues and blacks to match the stormy atmosphere. This is heavily contrasted by the lighter colors (especially yellows) that are detailed either inside the home or outside via the bright street lamps. This is likely to match the narrative where the father tells his son that he is safe from the wild storm. The brightness from various objects provides a sense of safety and suggests a "light at the end of the tunnel" idea. This is especially apparent when the boy imagines angels in the sky in bright white and yellows and blues making music. There are few words on each page as if the storm was swallowing up the text. The book has endpapers with a robin-blue sky versus the dark night in the beginning.
Tang, G. (2003). Math-terpieces: The Art of Problem Solving. New York, NY. Scholastic Press. The illustrations in this book support the math challenge written as a rhyming poem. Balance and proportion are shown on every page. Each left hand page has a photo of a famous painting bordered in white on the top half of the page. The bottom portion of the left hand page has a large illustrator’s created display type set heading for the poem. The same display type set, but smaller font, is also used for two key words in the poem. The right hand page is balanced by the arrangement of the groups of objects and space between them. The objects are related to something in the famous painting on the left hand page. For example, Claude Monet’s painting of White Water Lilies is shown on the left hand page. The right hand page shows different sized groups of water lilies. Some lilies are smaller and some are larger to keep balance on the page. Different art styles are shown in the book – impressionism, post-impressionism, pointillism, fauvism, cubism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, and pop art.
Uchida, Y. (1993). The Bracelet. London: Puffin Books. The watercolor illustrations in this story enhance the text by creating mood. The contrast of straight lines behind Emi and the curved lines on Emi’s face soften her and make her more life-like. The straight vertical lines on Emi’s dress and in her home at the beginning of the story, and on the bridge in the middle of the story show stability. The buildings and chain-link fencing where Emi and her mother are forced to live show no stability with the horizontal lines. The blue color of Emi’s coat, shown on the front cover and in the middle of the story, produce a somber mood in the reader. The yellow backgrounds used near the beginning of the story when Emi’s friend gives her a bracelet and near the end when she realizes she doesn’t need the bracelet build the happy moments. The complimentary colors of the red and green clothes on Emi with a yellow background on the last page suggest with serene warmth that she still has her memories of her loved ones to make her happy in the camp.
Wright-Frierson, V. (1999). A North American Rain Forest Scrapbook. New York, NY: Walker and Company. This book is about Virginia, the author, who takes a trip to visit a rainforest in Washington. She uses watercolor in the illustrations to show her point of view of the forest trees, plants, and creatures. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Books Related to One Historical Book______
Civil Rights
Coles, R. (2010). The Story Of Ruby Bridges. New York, NY: Scholastic. Young Ruby Bridges moves to New Orleans and is forced to go to an all white school. Parents don’t want their kid to go to that school anymore because of her. This is the story of what she went through.
Levinson, C. (2017). The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. Audrey Faye Hendricks was the youngest child arrested during a civil rights protest in Birmingham Alabama in 1963. She grew up and told her story.
Meltzer, B. (2014). I Am Rosa Parks. New York, NY: Dial Books. The story of Rosa Parks’s life in a child’s perspective. Rosa Parks was a strong willed African American. She fought for what she wanted and for what is fair. She started the bus boycotts in 1955.
Meltzer, B. (2014). I Am Martin Luther King Jr. New York, NY: Dial Books. The story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a child’s perspective. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader during the civil rights movement. He lead peaceful marches and had many speeches, including “I Have a Dream”
Parks, R and Haskins, J. (1999). Rosa Parks : My Story. London, UK: Puffin Books. Another Rose Parks book written by Rosa Parks herself. This tells the story of her life in her own words. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Books Related to One Historical Book______Civil Rights
Coles, R. (2010). The Story Of Ruby Bridges. New York, NY: Scholastic. Young Ruby Bridges moves to New Orleans and is forced to go to an all white school. Parents don’t want their kid to go to that school anymore because of her. This is the story of what she went through.
Levinson, C. (2017). The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. Audrey Faye Hendricks was the youngest child arrested during a civil rights protest in Birmingham Alabama in 1963. She grew up and told her story.
Meltzer, B. (2014). I Am Rosa Parks. New York, NY: Dial Books. The story of Rosa Parks’s life in a child’s perspective. Rosa Parks was a strong willed African American. She fought for what she wanted and for what is fair. She started the bus boycotts in 1955.
Meltzer, B. (2014). I Am Martin Luther King Jr. New York, NY: Dial Books. The story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a child’s perspective. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader during the civil rights movement. He lead peaceful marches and had many speeches, including “I Have a Dream”
Parks, R and Haskins, J. (1999). Rosa Parks : My Story. London, UK: Puffin Books. Another Rose Parks book written by Rosa Parks herself. This tells the story of her life in her own words.
Reluctant Reader Books______
Arnold, T. (2005). Hi! Fly Guy. New York, NY: Scholastic. Arnold, T. (2006).Shoo Fly Guy. New York, NY: Scholastic. Arnold, T. (2009). Super Fly Guy. New York, NY: Scholastic. Arnold, T. (2016). Fly Guy Presents: Snakes. New York, NY: Scholastic. Fly Guy books are popular among the boys. The books are about a boy and his pet fly. Colandro, L. (2008). There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell!. New York: Cartwheel Books. Colandro, L. (2012). There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose!. New York: Scholastic Inc. Colandro, L. (2014). There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Frog!. New York: Cartwheel Books. Colandro, L. (2019). There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Birthday Cake!. New York: Cartwheel Books. These books and many others rhyme and are humorous. Each of these is about an old lady that eats. Kids get hooked!
Shannon, D. (1998). No David!. New York, NY: Blue Sky Press. Shannon, D. (1999). David Goes to School. New York, NY: Blue Sky Press. Shannon, D. (2002). David Gets in Trouble. New York, NY: Blue Sky Press. Shannon, D. (2005). Oh David. New York, NY: Blue Sky Press. Shannon, D. (2005). David Smells. New York, NY: Blue Sky Press. Each story talks about a little boy named David who is usually making a bad choice. No matter the bad choices he makes, his mom still loves him. Annotated Bibliographies of Books (Continued)
Graphic Novels______
Bliss, H. (2009). Luke on the Loose. New York: Raw Junior, LLC. This book is about a young boy chasing pigeons in New York’s Central Park.
Gownley, J. (2008). Amelia Rules! The Whole World’s Crazy. Harrisburg, PA: Renaissance Press. This book is about a nine year old girl named Amelia who moved from New York. She’s living with her Rock Star aunt and her mom, because her parents divoreces. In this book, she’s dealing with life as the new kid in town.
Gownley, J. (2010). Amelia Rules! Superheroes. Harrisburg, PA: Renaissance Press. This is the fourth book about Amelia where she found a box of photos and learns from them.
Gownley, J. (2008). Amelia Rules! When the Past is a Present. Harrisburg, PA: Renaissance Press. This is the fourth book about Amelia where she found a box of photos and learns from them.
Lewis, J. (2013). March Book One. Georgia: Top Shelf Productions. This book is a historical fiction about John Lewis growing up and getting involved with the Civil Rights movement.
Poetry Collections______
Multiple Authors
Kennedy, X.J., Kennedy, D.M. (1982). Knock at a Star: A Children’s Introduction to Poetry. Boston, MA. Little, Brown & Co. This poetry book is a collection of short poems by various artists as well as anonymous ones. The book was specifically made to use with children.
Bruchac, J. & London, J. (1992). Thirteen Moons on Turtle’s Back: A Native American Year of Moons. New York, NY. Philomel Books. A picuture book of poetry form of Native American legends. It’s illustrated by Thomas Locker.
Single Author
Dahl, R. (2003). Revolting Rhymes. London, UK: Puffin Books. The poems in this book have to do with various fairy tales. Each one tells what happened after the happily ever after.
Prelutsky, J. (1984). The New Kid on the Block. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books. There are over 100 poems in this book about random things, such as having an alligator as a pet, eating a dinosaur, a bouncing mouse and more. Annotated Bibliographies of Literary Works
Oral Language Development______
Honig, A.S. (2007). Oral language development. Early Child Development and Care, 177(6&7), 581-613. Honig specifically breaks down oral language into five domains: phonemes, syntax, semantics, morphemes, and pragmatics. She mentions the importance of socializing as an infant, beginning from the listening to speech sounds of caring adults. Vocabulary occurs in spurts in the young child. Receptive vocabulary occurs before expressive vocabulary. Rhymes are important at a young age for reading success later.
Kuhl, P.K. (2004). Early language acquisition: Cracking the speech code. Neuroscience, 5, 831-843. This article mentions the use of technology to observe brain images Kuhl mentions social interaction between adult and child is necessary. She mentions that it is important during the 0-8 month age for babies to hear the speech sounds of language. Children can develop a second language at this time, too.
Emergent Reading and Writing______
Ouellette, G., & Senechal, M. (2008). A window into early literacy: Exploring the cognitive and linguistic underpinnings of invented spelling. Scientific Studies of Reading, 12(2), 195-219. This study was done to show how other parts of language development along with invented spelling can help understand the progression children make with early literacy skills. The authors explained there are components involved with invented spelling, not just letter-sound knowledge. They described each of the following components: phoneme awareness, phonological working memory, awareness of orthographic rules, and vocabulary and knowledge of morphology. They used 115 English speaking children in Canada and used several different kinds of tests and measures, including questioning educational level of parents, before giving a list of words to spell. The components of phoneme awareness and letter-sound knowledge were found to be the most related to invented spelling, but phonology and morphology also play a role.
Reutzel, D.R. (2015). Early literacy research: Findings primary grades teachers will want to know. The Reading Teacher, 69(1), 14-24. The author made points about teaching specific topics and supported those points with research. The topics in the discussion are handwriting, rhyme and reason, alphabet letter names, concept about print (CAP), writing workshop, and text structure. Handwriting instruction helps kids develop legible writing and speed, so they can focus on higher cognitive learning and write about what they learned. Blending, segmenting, and manipulating phonemes with students develop phonemic awareness, better than using rhyme and alliteration. Before teaching the alphabet, it’s better to teach the “drawing” of straight lines, curved lines, diagonal lines, intersection of lines, and when/where to stop a line. Twelve minutes a day is all that is needed to teach a new alphabet Annotated Bibliographies of Literary Works
Understanding Reading and Writing______
Minnery, A., & Smith, A. (2018). Close sentence reading to foster decoding & comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 71(6), 743-748. The article suggests using close sentence reading (CSR) to help students decode and comprehend complex text. It suggests taking up to 5 sentences of a complex text and rereading them several times for a desired purpose. To help CSR take only 5-10 minutes, the article suggests using the Decode, Reread, Ask questions, What do you know? (DRAW) procedure. In the Decode step the teacher writes the excerpt from the complex text onto a chart paper. As she writes, she reads giving direct instruction for decoding as necessary. The Rereading step is just that. The teacher uses her finger under the words as everyone reads. Asking questions is the 3rd step. The teacher uses 2 different colored markers to mark words, one color for hard words to decode and the other for hard words to understand.
Lin, S., Monroe, B., & Troia, G. (2007). Development of writing instruction in grades 2-8: A comparison of typically developing writers and their struggling peers. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 207-230. This article discusses the study done showing the differences in Typical Writers and Struggling Writers in 2-8 grade students. Middle school Typical Writers have the cognitive growth compared to 2nd grade Typical Writers. The gap between Typical Writers and Struggling Writers gets larger as students get older. There is a definite pattern of growth from self to global.
Williams, C. (2017). Learning to write with interactive writing instruction. The Reading Teacher, 71(5), 523-532. Williams discusses the observations of a teacher’s use of interactive writing in one classroom. The observations and data collected support previous research – interactive writing can be a balanced way to teach young writers encoding and writing process. Williams went into detail about 6 themes that occur during interactive writing – resources for writing topics, characteristics of genre, monitoring meaning and sustaining composing, understanding orthography, word solving, linking instruction to independent writing
Regan, K. and Berkeley, S. (2012). Effective reading and writing instruction: a focus On modeling. Intervention in School & Clinic. 47(5), p.276-282. This article focuses on giving explicit modeling for effective reading and writing instruction to learning disabled or at-risk students. It mentions that cognitive strategies can be modeled as procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, or declarative knowledge to help students understand the why, how, and what strategy to use. Strategies to model mentioned in the article are think-alouds, summarizing after reading, using the Self-Regulated Strategy Development Model (SRSD) when writing. The authors made a point that teachers should reflect after a modeling using the following questions: Did I specifically model when to use the strategy and why? Did I explicitly model how to use the all the strategy steps? Did I model how to be flexible with strategy selection and application? Fictional vignettes were given to help teachers understand different situations when modeling. Annotated Bibliographies of Literary Works (Continued)
Duke, N., Purcell-Gates, V., Hall, L., & Tower, C. (2006). Authentic literacy activities. The Reading Teacher, 60(4), 344-355. This article was about a 2-year study with 2nd and 3rd grade students using authentic reading and writing to help develop literacy. An authenticity rubric was made to grading the purpose of an activity and the texts used for the teaching science and procedures. Examples of different types of activities were given with rubric scores to show the differences in authenticity.
Kuhn, M., & Stahl, S. (2013). Fluency: Developmental & Remedial Practices—Revisited. In Alvermann, D., Unrau, N., & Ruddell, R. (Eds.). Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading, 6th edition (pp. 385-411). Baltimore, MD: International Reading Association. The article was somewhat interesting and almost confusing. (The part about infants using prosodic language was new for me.) The authors reviewed a lot of research to find that reading fluency can be improved for students at the end of 1st-3rdgrade fluency stage for increased comprehension by reading with assistance (model reader). Reading instructional level texts or frustration level with assistance with practice and support works best. Slow but accurate readers improve with segmented text, segmented by phrases.
Martell, C., & Watson, P. (2016). Project-based learning: Investigating resilience as the connection between history, community, and self. Voices From The Middle, 23(3),10-16. This article of project-based learning helped me to view someone else’s way. Martelli and Watson were very thorough on explaining the process. They suggested school support and collaboration with teachers as ways to make problem-based learning successful. They also said it takes time, so those implementing should start small. In order to make it an authentic experience, teachers need to use real- life problems to motivate the students. The authentic experience will promote deep thinking as they are challenged, too.
Digital Literacies and 21st Century Skills______
Bergeson, K., & Rosheim, K. (2018). Literacy, equity, and the employment of iPads in the classroom: A comparison of secure and development readers. International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science, & Technology, 62(2), 173-181. This study compared six 6th grade readers and insecure readers in using iPads to read adopted science content materials. The data collected came from meeting with individual students in a quiet room for 30 minutes on 3 separate days, and 2 hours of classroom observations. The students responded to “What are you thinking about your reading?” verbally at anytime during their reading. The secure reading provided 38 responses during reading compared to the insecure reading of providing 3 responses. The secure readers also provided 19 responses after reading while insecure readers only provided 11. The authors give suggestions for teachers to support the struggling readers by using differentiated texts on the iPad, bundling texts (text sets?) to spend more time in a content area and increase knowledge across texts, teach the use of hyperlinks, and using the highlighting and note taking tools on the iPad. Teachers need to plan to scaffold these students. Annotated Bibliographies of Literary Works (Continued)
Beschorner, B., & Hall, A. (2017). Taking a closer look at your information writing instruction. The Reading Teacher, 71(5), 597-600. This article begins with a kindergarten teacher teaching informational writing. It suggests looking at what approaches and tools we use to teach. The author gives suggestions of enhancing a classroom environment. Some suggestions are a providing a variety of texts, reading aloud, teaching text structures, and helping students to write in other content areas. The final area of discussion is using digital tools when writing. The authors provide a table of Digital Tools for informational Writing. The various tools listed can be used during the different stages of the writing process. Sharing writing in an authentic way can be done digitally, too.
Creating Conditions for Engagement and Independence______
Baskin, N. (2017). Helen Keller, Annie Sullivan, Mr. Thomsen, and Me, Nora Raleigh. Voices From the Middle, 24(4), 28-29. This article is Nora Raleigh Baskin’s short story about how she came to love reading and writing. She is the author of What Every Girl (except me) Knows. When Nora was in middle school, she found the book The Story of My Life by Helen Keller in her school’s library and read it. She became connected to Helen and motivated. She then began collecting more books, stolen from the school library, to add to her home collection. Bibliography of Websites Part 5 Frequently Asked Questions Frequently Asked Questions