I Cannot Believe the Level of Understanding!!

Yesterday, Open Court directed me to blend words out of context, have the children browse the first four pages of the story, and then discuss what clues they read or saw, list unknown words--again out of context, and pose wonderings about the story. Instead, I had the children look at the first four pages of the story and wrote down their clues, problems, and wonderings. Next, I read The Library written by Sarah Stewart.

Before I received my copy in the mail a couple of weeks ago I had never seen the original text. It is beautiful! It is rhyming fiction and the artwork is amazing. Each little stanza is accompanied by a wonderful illustration. I read from the original piece. The dedication stopped me cold! It was dedicated in memory of Mary Elizabeth Brown (the main character is Elizabeth Brown) who had been a reader, a friend, and a librarian. This is never mentioned in the anthology. The children loved the connect and of course asked if she is dead yet. (2nd graders are very curious about who is dead and who is not.) The book is beautiful and with the stanzas being augmented by the lovely illustrations, the children were quite enthralled.

In the past six years that I have worked with this piece in the children's anthology, the children have not clearly received the message of the story. Brown, is an avid reader who lives to read. She ends up with so many books that she donates her home and all of its contents (books) to the town. This year the children GOT it the first time I read it to them. I believe their comprehension of the story was aided by the illustration and text matching. In the anthology half of the pictures have been removed from the story. It was evident that illustrations play a large role in the comprehension of a story. It was amazing!

We read the story using the anthology today, and all of the children wanted to use my book! I have colleague changing up her methods and borrowing my original texts each week! This being the final year with this series, I'll share my used books eagerly!

I could not be happier by what I am witnessing in the classroom, I just wish I could find some more research! I'm plugging along!

Exciting Day One with My New Approach

We had a fabulous experience today with the new approach to the story. I am certain there are quite a few out there who are familiar with the Open Court process of story presentation. We mixed it up in room 11 today and it went very well.

Instead of beginning with out-of-context word knowledge we began with browsing the story in the anthology and Clues/Problems and Wonderings (a component that I will use forever even if I bid Open Court farewell). I followed up with revisiting the Jack nursery rhymes, Jack and the Beanstalk, and The House That Jack Built because they are all part of the selection Come Back, Jack! It was fun and the children were having a delightful time choral reading the nursery rhymes and discussing the two books. Finally, I read from the authentic piece that had the nursery rhymes as part of the book on the inside cover.

Students were engaged as I read the story. Yes, I used voices---the giant being the #1 favorite. The upside of the experience? The children heard the story read in its entirety fluently and they heard the new vocabulary in context. The downside? None, yet.

After the reading the story I played the PowerPoint for the new vocabulary and the connection back to the text was immediate. That was new and huge in my opinion. To experience the vocabulary in context will hopefully assist in the students' making meaning of it.

I could not have been more pleased with the classroom experience today. I will now begin developing a survey for the students to take and also interview questions for my focus group of ELL students.

Thanks for reading. ~Theresa

My Action Research Project with a New Twist

My initial focus was on how to close the academic gap that exists between my ELL students and my EO students. After taking two classes this summer with Dr. DeVoogd learning about critical literacy and research based literacy, I have tweaked my focus. I am still very much concerned about the academic gap and minimizing it.

My district uses Open Court for our English Language Arts program. The program teaches vocabulary and word knowledge out of context. The stories in the anthology have been altered by the publishing company with text movement and removal of illustrations in order to make the stories better fit into the book.

I am changing the manner in which my students will experience the stories in the hope that it will increase interest and engagement. In addition, my question is will exposure to the authentic piece of literature aid in the literacy development of my ELL students.