Literacy Alive

Literacy Alive “Student of the Day” The procedures you use for your classroom will need to be taught to the children. As with any program, children need to learn the predictable pattern to what is coming next to feel safe and secure in their environment. By providing a routine for the children to follow, they will learn much more. The following procedures are how to start the “Student of the Day” interactive writing time. The teacher begins each day by drawing a stick out of a can to see who will be the “Student of the Day.” Write the children’s names individually on Popsicle sticks and place them in a can labeled “Name of the Day.” Also, have a can that is labeled “I had a turn” so you can keep track of who has had a turn. Tell the children they are name detectives, and it is their job to listen to the clues and discover who is our “Student of the Day.” After drawing a student’s name, refer to the class Name Chart to draw attention to the specific features of each student’s name and use an elimination process to figure whose name has been drawn. After the students are detectives and guess whose name has been chosen, that child will take his/her place at the interactive writing chart. Place a square piece of wood or a chair beside the chart stand, and call it the stage. This gives the child a boundary and lets him be interactive and still stay out of the rest of the students’ line of vision. It really helps those students who have the wiggles to have a concrete place to stand. Begin by putting a happy face on the left side of the paper to show the children that is where we start reading and writing. Write the word left while stretching out the sounds. Put three circles vertically on the left side to represent the paper. You are now ready to start your morning meeting interactive writing time. Younger Students: Teacher models writing the name. Older Students: Child writes his/her name on the chart. Clap the students’ name. Ask the children how many syllables are in the student’s name. Record the number above the student’s name on the chart tablet. Remind that student to share with his parents how many syllables are in his name. Younger Students: Look at your name chart to see if anyone else in the class has a name that begins with the same letter. Next, count the letters in the student’s name. Have the children count the number of letters in the student’s name and then hold up that many fingers behind their back. This helps work in those math sills of one to one correspondence and gives every child a chance to be successful. Count to three and then have all of the children show their fingers that correspond with the number of letters. With the class watching, cut the Literacy Alive by Kathy Griffin © Copyright 2004 sentence strip apart and place the letters on the floor. Pointing to the chart paper, have the special student look for the letters that match. Chant, “Find a K, find a K, find a K, K, K. Have the special student find that match and tape the letters one at a time back on the chart. Older Students: Look for word chunks and phonics’ patterns within their names. The Interview Begin the interview portion of the “Student of the Day.” This time teaches the children to ask and answer questions in a complete sentence. It also helps those children in your classroom with speech and language delays learn how to use correct language. The interview questions remain the same every day until every student has had a turn with Interview Round #1. When you have finished a round, put the name sticks back in the can and start over. The next time, use Round #2 questions. This process will continue all year. Call on different children every day to ask the interview questions. The important concept to remember is to involve as many children as possible to keep their attention and motivation. Through the interview process, the students’ oral language skills really improve over the course of the year. You can post the questions on sentence strips or poster board and place them within view to help connect the questions to print. After the interview, it is time for “Happy Talk.” This is a big self-esteem booster for students, and teaches others how to give and receive compliments. Younger Students: When your class finishes writing, have them look for similarities in print (find the match) by letter or word. If the child has trouble locating the letter or word, try writing it on a Popsicle stick so they have an easier time scanning the page. Focus the “find the match” on the level of the student. Older Students: First grade needs to be multi-leveled because some students are working on letter/sounds and some are working on phonics and word patterns. If the child does not know any letters in his/her name, begin focusing on those letters first in questioning the child. When he/she masters them, move on. Remember there is a difference between learning and testing. Frequent repetition will help ensure that the children will learn the letters, and they will remember them. Keep it up beat and always act like you are going to catch them or trick them. You can also look for phonics rules/word families or word chunks, and sight words. When you are finished finding the matches, read the chart. Use rebus pictures when possible above the word, and give them a purpose for reading each sentence. Say, “Let’s find out how old Kali is.” Then read the sentence “Kali is 6.” Once again, it makes young children successful and teaches them to read for meaning. After reading the chart, it is time for the cheer. The student holds a shaker or pompom and shakes it as the class cheers. Teacher: “Give me a K!” Literacy Alive by Kathy Griffin © Copyright 2004 Children: “K”. Teacher: “Give me an a!” Children: “a.” We continue until we finish the letters. Teacher: “What does that spell?” Students: “Kali!” Teacher: “One more time!” Students: “Kali!” Teacher: “Clap for Kali!” Younger Students: The students clap for the student, and the special student gets to choose a celebration (fire cracker, Coca Cola, birthday cake, sprinkler, snowball, train, cowboy, cowgirl). Dr. Jean (www.drjean.org) has celebration cheers to download onto 3x5 cards. Older Students: The students make up patterned motions for the cheers and help create the celebrations. Round One Questions 1st Interviewer: How old are you? Student: I am 6. 2nd Interviewer: What is your favorite color? Student: I like red. Happy Talk (Younger Students) Character Compliments (Older Students) Call on three different students to say something nice about their friend. Each student will choose the color of marker that they will use. Write each statement down in the marker color of their choice. Spend a couple of minutes each day talking about compliments and nice things they can say about your name of the day person. It varies from year to year and from child to child. As the year progresses, the students learn a lot of information about their peers and incorporate them into the “Happy Talk” portion of our “Student of the Day” time. The words in bold become part of their sight word collection to illustrate how frequently these common words are repeated on a daily basis. The children really learn to internalize these words. The following are some of the suggestions and comments that my students have created. She is nice. He is cool. (We place our hands up by are face to spell cool together.) I like him. She is my friend. I like to play with him. He rocks. He is a good leader. He is a good reader. She is a good writer. He has a good heart. She is awesome. He is fun. She helps me. He is smart. She is building stamina in reading. He stays on task during Reader’s Workshop. He is my best friend. She always listens in group time. Literacy Alive by Kathy Griffin © Copyright 2004 If you have a character education program, you can correlate “Happy Talk” into the character traits of study. One of our traits is to be respectful. We brainstorm how we can be respectful at school. This list becomes a valuable resource for writing more “Happy Talk.” Ex: Respect She walks in line. He listens to the teacher. He looks at the person speaking. She uses strategies for listening. She says, “Yes Mam.” He says, “Yes sir.” He takes turns. She cleans up the centers. She takes care of the toys. After charting the Happy Talk thoughts, end the first round by stating: If you agree with all of the nice things that our friends have said about Kali, then sign your name on the bottom of the chart paper. Younger Students: Model writing your name first. Your students will be very motivated to come up and sign their name using the scented marker of their choice. Call on two or three students to write their names and then dismiss the rest of the class to centers/reader’s workshop. Remind them to sign the chart during center time and spend the first few minutes calling children over to help them write their names on the chart paper during the first round.

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