Invite Authors into Your Classrooms & Lives!

Read aloud and surround the readings with talk about…

• The people who make books
• Refer to authors and illustrators by name
• Show children pictures of authors and illustrators
• Read author blurbs and dedications
• Reread books over time
• Read multiple books by the same author
• What makes a picture book, a picture book
• It has both words and illustrations.
• The words and illustrations change from page to page while still about the same topic
• It is about something, and the writer decides what this will be
• They have crafted language in them
• Different kinds of books
• Some tell stories
• Some tell about something (list books)
• Different purposes for books
• Some books are fun
• Some books teach you things
• Some books do both
• The decision writers and illustrators make in books

(From: Already Ready Workshop by Katie Ray & Matt Glover)

Already Ready: Teaching Practices That Support Our Very Youngest Writers

Last Friday Amy Finnen, Linda Dutton and I went to Portland for a great workshop about writing and beginning writers.

The following is a brief profile of the main presenter, Katie Wood Ray:

“Between her passion for elementary writing instruction and a love of children’s literature, Katie Wood Ray found herself asking, “What if children were introduced to key qualities of good writing in the context of illustrations?” This question led to the research behind In Pictures and In Words. The answer was simple yet powerful: “The thinking students do while reading picture books can help them see the connection between what words and illustrations do to make meaning.” As an author of bestselling Heinemann books such as Already Ready, Study Driven, About the Authors, and What You Know By Heart and as a member of Heinemann Professional Development Services, Katie has always given teachers resources and PD that transform writing instruction and help children discover a lifelong love of writing.” www.heinemann.com/authors/1636.

Workshop Focus:

• Kids are Already Ready to write even when they don’t know all their letters and sounds.
• Understanding beginning development – Pre-K to 1^st Grade

The BIG ideas I took away that day…

1. Look at writing instruction through the lens of composition development and not conventions
1. Composition is defined: “Act of putting ideas together to make meaning”
2. Honor approximations on the page and have students “read” their illustrations to you
3. Build stamina through illustrations
4. Honor student ownership & refrain from transcribing words on the pages of the book
2. Beginning writers should be “making books.” (4-5 pieces of 8 ½ by 11 paper that is staple together like a book)
3. Study authors and their texts (mentor texts) to “nudge” writers to make decisions about craft
1. Read mentor texts and notice what the author is doing intentionally. What crafting decisions have been made in the text and illustrations or layout?

I will dig deeper into these topics in later posts so stay tuned...

Just Right Books!

Why a Just Right Book?

Teachers are working intensely on matching books with students during the first months of school. Lessons have focused on choosing Just Right books, shopping in classroom libraries for Just Right books, and building stamina while reading Just Right books. Why?

The easiest answer is that a Just Right book builds reading muscles and helps readers grow to read long and strong. But there is more to it…

Marie Clay says, “I define reading as a message-getting, problem-solving activity which increases in power and flexibility the more it is practiced. My definition states that within the directional constraints of the printer’s cue, language and visual perception responses are purposefully directed by the reader in some integrated way to the problem of extracting meaning from cues in a text, in sequence, so that the reader brings a maximum of understanding to the author’s message.” (Clay, 1991, p. 6)

So…what does that mean? It means that readers use 3 sources of information while reading. We integrate the meaning, language structures and visual/print cues of the text in order to process and understand the message of the text we are reading. Beginning or struggling readers are often unbalanced and over-rely on one source or ignore one altogether.

Reading requires practice in just-right books so that the reader can develop the process involved in integrating the 3 sources of information. This process can be observed when a reader reads smoothly and with expression. The voice is not robotic but combines words into phrases that sound like a talking voice. The reader should laugh at the funny parts and react when the story reveals a surprise. The reader may also quickly correct errors or reread to make it sound better.

Reading books that are too hard will force the student to stutter and stumble on unknown words, lose the meaning, and over-rely on sounding out the words, letter by letter. This interferes with the developing reading process and may actually break it down by creating bad habits that are difficult to correct.

Books that are not too easy and not too hard are Just Right. These books build strong reading habits that will lead to a life-long love of reading.