SPECIAL SECTION- DIFFERENTIATION
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"The common theme that seems to have emerged from a number of literacy leaders such as Burkes & Yaris, Fountas and Pinnell and Calkins is that a child is not a level."
A PICTURE Really is Worth a Thousand Words
by
Julie Bryant and Tamara Samek
Perfect, K.A. (1999, April). Rhyme and reason: poetry for the heart and head. The Reading Teacher. V. 52, N. 7, P. 728. Newark, DE. International Reading Association. Available at
Rasinski, T.V. (2003). The fluent reader, oral reading strategies for building word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. NYC, NY. Scholastic.
Rasinski, T. (2014, November). Tapping the power of poetry. Educational Leadership, V. 72, N. 3, pp. 30-34. Available at http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational
Rasinski, T.V. and Harrison, D.L. (2016). Rhymes for the times, literacy strategies through social studies. Huntington Beach, CA. Shell Education.
Routman, R. (2002). Kids’ poems, teaching kindergartners to love writing poetry. NYC,
Sloan, G. (2003). Give them poetry, a guide for sharing poetry with children K-8. NYC, NY. Teachers College Press.
Vardell, S. (2014). Poetry aloud here, sharing poetry with children. Chicago, IL. Ala editions
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Literature Cited or Recommended
Archer, P. (2010). Liberty from Name that dog! Puppy poems from A to Z. Dial books for Young Readers.
Harrison, D.L. (2018). A place to start a family, poems about creatures that build.
Harrison, D.L. (2018). Crawly school for bugs, poems to drive you buggy. Honesdale, PA. Boyds Mills Press.
Levy, C. (1999) A crack in the clouds. NYC, NY. Margaret K. McElderry Books.
Nesbitt, K. (2016). One minute till bedtime. NYC, NY. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
Sklansky, A.E. (2010). Out of this world, poems and facts about space. NYC, NY. Knopf.
Wayland, A. H. (2012). How to read a poem aloud, page ix. From Poetry aloud here, sharing poetry with children. Sylvia Vardell (2014). Chicago, IL. ala editions.
Bios
David L. Harrison’s 95 books for children and teachers have received dozens of honors, including The Society of Midland Authors award for best children’s nonfiction book of 2016, Missouri Pioneer in Education Award, and Missouri Library
Association’s Literacy Award. His work has been widely translated, anthologized more than 185 times, set to music, inspired plays, and sandblasted into a library sidewalk. David holds two science degrees and two honorary doctorates of letters. He’s Drury University’s poet laureate. David Harrison Elementary School is named for him. His most recent books for children are A PLACE TO START A FAMILY: POEMS ABOUT CREATURES THAT BUILD (Charlesbridge, 2018) and CRAWLY SCHOOL FOR BUGS (Boyds Mills Press, 2018). More at http://davidlharrison.com, http://davidlharrison.wordpress.com.
Peggy Archer writes picture books including poetry, fiction, and non-fiction for children. Her latest poetry collection for
fchildren is NAME THAT DOG! Puppy Poems from A to Z, Dial books or Young Readers 2010. A retired registered nurse and native Hoosier from Indiana, she now lives with her husband in O'Fallon, Missouri where she writes full time. She and her husband have six grown children and fourteen grandchildren. Read more about Peggy and her books on her website at www.PeggyArcher.com. Contact her at [email protected].
Children’s poet, Constance Levy, has been writing poetry since first grade. As a great-grandmother, she continues to explore fresh ways to bring her observations to life in the words, images and music
of her poems. She has been an elementary classroom teacher, adjunct college instructor, guest speaker, Missouri Arts Council Writer in the Schools, and has taught children’s poetry workshops for teachers. Her honors include: Lee Bennett Hopkins Award, Boston Globe Horn Book Honor Award, American Booksellers Pick of the Lists, NCTE Notable Books in the Language Arts, Bank Street College Children’s Books of the Year, and many more. THE STORY OF RED RUBBER BALL (Harcourt, 2004) a poem that grew into a picture book, was named a Junior Library Guild Selection. Levy lives in St. Louis, Missouri and holds AB and MA degrees from Washington University where she was named 2004 Distinguished Alumni in Arts and Sciences. More at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/constance-levy.
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T is for Types of Publications.
When we ask kids to write, we don’t want them to stuff their finished pieces in a folder...or worse, their desk dungeon! Instead, we want them to publish it! We want them to know that true writing involves having a real audience with which to share their pieces. It is giving authenticity to their voice by allowing those voices to be heard and appreciated. Daniels et al. (2007) said, “In public writing assignments, we explicitly require workmanlike, prideful products” (p. 113). Publishing is the end goal of writing. It gives students an authentic purpose for sharing what they’ve written. It motivates them to get to share their VOICE! Of course, this can be done offline or online.
There are so many ways to publish student writing. You can be as simple and “old school” as you’d like from using folded stapled pieces of paper to making and binding class books within your classroom. We’ve included two blogs to give you over 50 ways for students to publish their writing and for their writing to be celebrated! The first blog offers fantastic ideas both offline and online for publishing including book tasting parties, writing contests with cash prizes, and “waiting room magazines” to entertain those waiting in the hallway prior to their schedule parent/teacher conference. The second link gives step by step directions for hosting a publishing party or a bookstore event. If you scroll on down, there are also suggestions for companies that offer ways to publish students’ writing contributions in the form of hardbound books such as Student Treasures or School Mate Publishing.
There are also so many ways to showcase your students’ finished products by allowing them to have a virtual platform for their writing and voice. Flipgrid s a video application. You set it up, then the students get 90 seconds to record their thoughts. Students get equal access to your time, get to see each other’s, and can even leave feedback for one another! This serves as a great, quick means of assessment and student self-evaluation!
With Flipgrid, although the time may be limited, students can still share written book reviews, original poems, book talks, their reactions to something they’ve read and written in response to their textbook, etc. Personally, the author incorporates Flipgrid into her Children’s Literature class by having her students share book reviews with each other. They do this on their phones, but you can also record on Chromebooks, iPads, or PCs.
Piktochart is another online application that encourages the use of pictures. Students present ideas in the form of infographic representations. This is such a great way to present visual literacy and for students to write in a creative and visual manner. We found this example of a class project on “My Life as a Reader”. Scholastic has a publication forum called Write it where writers can contribute published pieces and offer feedback to one another offering an authentic audience and writing platform if the students just need a place to give audience to their voice.
E is for Every Child Every Day.
Every child is capable, regardless of their reading/writing level, to be able to write. Hattie and Yates (2014) noted, “When students can say, with evidence, I am a learner, it is more likely they will invest in learning, and get pleasure from learning. It is indeed a virtuous cycle” ( p. 219). Remember, it isn’t about the quantity they write! It is about the quality...and pictures can serve as beautiful representations of their written thoughts!
It is imperative that we differentiate to meet the needs of all our writers and that we give them ample writing opportunities each and every day! Each day students should be engaged in writing (big or small)-- be it writing down problems to solve from the board, to capturing the assignments for the day in their take-home folder, to writing in their reading response journals their reactions to something they’ve read, to writing a quick note to a friend.
Ruth Culham (2016) has an excellent book, called The Writing Thief that offers suggestions at all age levels for using mentor texts to scaffold students in their writing by writing like other authors and copying their craft. This support helps all of your learners across the ability spectrum. Ms. Culham offers mentor text suggestions to help students write narrative, informational, and argumentative pieces across all levels and genres. .
We believe that every child is capable of writing, but it is up to us to help them find writing success. This linked blog offers great ideas for tiered assignments, compacting, interest centers, flexible grouping, and learning contracts. We also recommend having writing folders for every child to keep track of their progression of writing. Allow them to have VOICE and CHOICE in what they write including genre, format, etc. based on their preferences and interests. Writing folders willthen serve as a visual reference to their growth as writers and offer moments of reflection and self-evaluation. In addition, we advocate for taking time to have Individual writing conferences to truly get to know your students as writers and to encourage
them in their writing journey. This one on one time
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