Paddy Eger Educating America News on Schools A Newsletter Supporting K-8 Classroom Volunteerism Winter, 2013 Volume 13:1 1 Literacy 24/7/365 lit-er-a-cy n. the quality or state of being literate (able to read and write). I’d add— to speak and listen actively. Two of the most important skills we teach students are reading and writing. Together they form the basis for the rest of our learning. We start by learning letters and sounds and progress to reading words and sentences. By the time we advance to reading stories and entire books, we’re able to share and support our thinking. It feels magical. In truth it’s years of hard work by students, teachers and families. 5 Ways to Help Students Develop Literacy As a parent, community volunteer or concerned adult, you can help students improve their literacy skills. Teachers combine reading, writ- ing, speaking, listening and critical thinking to create a total literacy package. We can support their efforts when we work in classrooms, in after school programs and at home with students. 1. Listen to students read aloud. (reading, speaking) As new standards are estab- lished, students will spend more of their reading time us- ing informational text and non fiction materials. After stu- dents read silently, encourage 1 3 INSIDE Literacy 24/7/365 Ten Easy Ways to Volunteer Resources for Literacy One Way to Look at It Literacy Game Quotes to Ponder Ideas for Educators & Families Can You Read Steig? 4 2 5 (Continued on page 5) 3 4 5
Transcript
Paddy Eger
Educating America
News on Schools
A Newsletter Supporting K-8 Classroom Volunteerism
Winter, 2013 Volume 13:1
1
Literacy 24/7/365lit-er-a-cy n. the quality or state of being literate (able to read and write). I’d add— to speak and listen actively.
Two of the most important skills we teach students are reading and writing. Together they form the basis for the rest of our learning. We start by learning letters and sounds and progress to reading words and sentences. By the time we advance to reading stories and entire books, we’re able to share and support our thinking. It feels magical. In truth it’s years of hard work by students, teachers and families.
5 Ways to Help Students Develop LiteracyAs a parent, community volunteer or concerned adult, you can help students improve their literacy skills. Teachers combine reading, writ-ing, speaking, listening and critical thinking to create a total literacy package. We can support their efforts when we work in classrooms, in after school programs and at home with students.
1. Listen to students read aloud. (reading, speaking)As new standards are estab-lished, students will spend more of their reading time us-ing informational text and non fiction materials. After stu-dents read silently, encourage
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INSIDELiteracy 24/7/365 Ten Easy Ways to Volunteer Resources for Literacy One Way to Look at It Literacy Game Quotes to Ponder Ideas for Educators & FamiliesCan You Read Steig?
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Educating America News on Schools Volume 13:1 Winter 2013
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About Me I am a retired teacher, a class-room volunteer, a blogger and a writer across several genre.
I am the author of the multiple award-winning book for volun-teers Educating America: 101 Strategies for Adult Assistants in K-8 Classrooms and it’s compan-ion Educating America Desktop Flipbook. Both books are avail-able from your local favorite bookstores, online from Amazon.com and BN.com, Tendril Press.com and from my website PaddyEger.com.
I appreciate your comments and suggestions via email to [email protected]
You are invited to share this information with other inter-ested persons. All I ask is that you credit me as your source and include my website address.
Thanks.
Ten Easy Ways to Volunteer at a School Near You.
Volunteering your time, even if it’s an hour a week or a month, can make a big difference in educating the next generation of Americans. Become part of the solution, find out what you can offer.
Teachers and administrators work tirelessly to provide students with a strong education, sense of discipline, and respect for knowledge. But schools function best when they belong to communities of interested, involved individuals and families.
1. Join the club. The PTA, home and school club, or school site council are key organizations. Being a part of any of these groups will also help connect you with other parents and community members. Call the school secretary for contact information.
2. Attend school board meetings. You will have the opportunity to provide your input as well as get an inside view on how the school board makes decisions that affect your community’s schools.
3. Give a boost to a school club. In the era of “no extras” in education, your school’s enrichment programs can probably use a little help. If your child is involved with any clubs or activities at school, call the person in charge of the group and see if you can help with transpor-tation, supplies, or planning.
4. Get technical. If you have strong computer skills, such as Web site creation or network administration, see if your school needs help setting up a computer system or maintaining or upgrading the equipment they already have.
5. Share your time and talents. Teachers often need parent volun-teers to help with small-group activities, read to children, or correct papers. Are you a fabulous chef or a craft whiz? Volunteer to give students a classroom demonstration. Love history question? Share your passion.
6. Organize a workplace tour. Do you work for a company that would be an interesting place for a field trip? Suggest a class visit.
7. Start a cleanup crew. Are crushed soda cans and scrap paper the primary decor on campus? Why not designate one Saturday in the spring “School Cleanup Day”? Include parents, students, teachers, and any community members who want to help. Participants will feel a sense of ownership and will be less likely to ignore litter in the future.
8. Nurture your green thumb. Have you noticed that the school grounds could use some work? Talk to the principal or PTA about gathering a group of parents to plant trees or flowers around the school.
9. Be in the driver’s seat. Teachers often need parents to drive or chaperone on school field trips.
10. Volunteer at the school library. Most schools, short on funds to hire librarians, rely on parent help to keep the library open for stu-dents. Offer to check out or shelve books, assist students, or donate money to buy books for the library.2
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Resources for LiteracyOrganizing for Literacy
• Educating America: 101 Strategies of Adult Assistants in K-8 Classrooms Chapter 4: Questioning Strategies
• The Cornerstone: Classroom Management That Makes Teaching More Effective,Efficient,andEnjoyable by Angela Powell (Watson)
Online Materials to Develop Literacy www.paddyeger.com (blogs) [email protected] (blogs)
Books on Literacy• TheC.A.F.E.Book:EngagingAllStudentsinDailyLiteracyAssessmentandInstruction
by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser
• Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding by Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis
I want to hear from you!
Tell me about your adult assistant achievements, successes and chal-lenges. I welcome your feedback, ideas for future newsletter content and contact information for anyone you would like to receive this free resource.
I’m available for interviews, speaking, training seminars and guest blogging.
Write me at [email protected] or call (425) 420-5161 for more information.
One Way to Look at ItI’mafirstgradeteacherwith28students.Ihaveonevolunteereachmorningduringour90minutesofreadingandwriting.Mystudentsrangefromnon-readersandwriterstoahandfulwhoworkabovegradelevel.Whatisthebestuseofmyvolunteer?
C.Y.
Dear C.Y.,
One way to look at it would be to determine where you are most ef-fective. Usually that is working with students who need to stretch upward toward goals.
I suggest you work out a plan of action that uses your assistant working with the students above grade level. They have more skills in place which makes the volunteers task easier. It also gives those students a chance to stretch their skills, to deepen their understand-ing rather than having them keep pushing upward and into the next grade curriculum. After all it’s details that develop rigor.
Paddy
Get Your Copy Today!Educating America: 101 Strategies for Adult Assistants in K-8 Classrooms and it’s com-panion Educating America Desktop Flipbook. available at your favorite bookseller; online at BN.com and Amazon; as well as quantity orders through the author at paddyEger.com or direct sales through the publisher at Ten-drilPress.com Reseller Quantity Discounts Available. call 303.696.9227 3
Educating America News on SchoolsVolume 13:1 Winter 2013
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Literacy GamesBreak out the dice and board games. Turn them into literacy games you can play with kids of all ages. Just tune up your creative thinking and enjoy. Here are a few to get you started.
Two Dice RollUse two six-sided dice. Roll them and add the numbers. Then read the directions for the number below. On subsequent turns, your answers may not be repeated by others.
If you roll a:
2: Tell 2 important facts about 2 important characters or events in the story.
3: Find and read aloud 3 strong action (active) verbs from the story.
4: Find 4 places where senses are mentioned. OR, find 4 places where sensory words might be added.
5: What interests you most about the story? Explain why.
6: Of what other story does this story remind you?
7: Describe the location of the story.
8: What is the author’s intent in writing the story?
9: How would you change a section of the story to improve it?
10: Rate the story from 1 (low) to 10 (high). Explain your choice.
Scrabble® Tile ScrambleUse the tiles from your Scrabble® game to build words from the story.
Select a type of word: location, nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. that you challenge others to spell. You may vary the expectation for each payer in each round: easier for beginning readers, more complex for stronger.
One player, “the caller”, looks through the text and calls out the word to be spelled from memory. That player also sets a time limit.
When the time expires, the caller checks the spelling and awards five points for a correctly spelled word. Then the job of the caller passes to another player.
Play until every player has had a change to be the caller. (You may add on the Lego® Builder detail if you wish.)
Lego® Builder
Instead of earning points, each player who spells a word correctly can be awarded 5 Lego® pieces. When the game ends, each player works to build a story-inspired Lego® object or person.
Literacyisnotaluxury,itisarightandaresponsibility.Ifourworldistomeetthechallengesofthetwenty-firstcenturywemustharnesstheenergyandcreativityof all our citizens.
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(Continued from page 1)
Ideas for:
Educators
Provide a daily 20-30 minutes for uninterrupted reading. Have students record their reading details:
• book,
• # pages read,
• new ideas or connections made,
• questions raised
• next steps.
FamiliesEncourage family reading time every day.
• Provide a wide variety of reading materials for family members to consider: books, magazines, newspapers.
• Set aside 30-60 minutes of quiet (no electronics, phone calls, chores, etc.).
• Spend 5-10 minutes discuss-ing what family members read.
• Ask questions, add com-ments, rank the materials read.
Inspire othersSubmit photos of your classroom and family successes to [email protected].
them reread the materials aloud. The second reading helps them reinforce what was read. It also provides a way for the assisting adult to hear how the students tackle challenging vocabulary and complex texts.
2. Discuss vocabulary found in the text. (speaking, thinking)When students read their texts closely, they begin to develop skills in analyzing words and sentence structures. Those skills lead to deeper understanding of how the text is organized, the author’s word choice and ultimately, the intent of the author. Stu-dents need to remember to read the maps, illustrations, photos and headings for added details.
3. Discuss the passages they read. (reading, speaking, thinking)Close reading works well when students read silently and aloud. Supervising adults need to stop the readers after a section of text is read, and ask pertinent, open-ended questions that the students can answer by finding references in the text.
4. Allow time for students to read from a variety of materials related to their topic. (reading, thinking)Teachers provide a plethora of materials related to topics dis-cussed. These include books as well as multimedia. We can sup-port their efforts by working with students in small groups or 1:1 to uncover meaning.
5. Encourage students to write opinions/arguments (writing, critical thinking)Writing becomes a multi-step process: outline, write, edit, reread, edit again and read aloud. The rewriting produces well-developed information through precise language and needs to be focused to-ward a specific goal or direction.
These steps help students develop literacy. Today, less becomes more. Students spend more time on fewer bits of reading. They are expected to create quality, well thought-out responses rather than reading materi-als, answering a couple of questions and moving on. It’s a twist on what we did as students.
Literacy is the glue that holds education together. The ability to read, write and to debate/stand up for your ideas and beliefs build reason. With your help in classrooms, talking about what’s right in education and sup-porting teachers as they shift gears, we make an important difference.
Can you read Steig?William Steig has written several wonderful ‘letter’ sentences books. Try reading these excerpts from CDC? published by Farrar Straus Giroux in 1984/2003.
C D C? (See the sea?)
C U N 10-S-E (See you in Tennesee)
M-N-U-L S N-C-Q-R (Emanuel is insecure).
Educating America News on Schools Volume 13:1 Winter, 2013
WelcomeYou are receiving this newsletter because of your interest in education. Each issue will focus on one aspect of what we do to educate our youth, our future leaders. It is my hope to inspire you to re-double your action and become an even more active part of the village it takes to raise a child.
This edition's topic: Literacy 24/7/365lit-er-a-cy n. the quality or state of being literate (able to read and write). I'd add—to speak and listen actively.Read more inside.
