Small Group Activity

1
Small Group Activity

• Spend 12 min discussing the Gately article, using
  the discussion group role you have prepared.
• The Discussion Director will facilitate the
  group work, making sure that no one person takes
  more than 2-3 min to fulfill their role.
• Turn in your sheets at the break this will be
  QuickWrite 3.

2

• Process of learning to read and write is a
  continuum and begins at birth and perhaps before.
• Reading, writing speaking, and listening
  abilities develop concurrently and
  interrelatedly, rather than sequentially.
• The functions of literacy are as integral to
  literacy learning as the forms.
• Children learn written language through active
  engagement with their world.
• Koppenhaver, Coleman, Kalman, Yoder, 1991

3
Literacy development is best fostered when
reading and writing are functional, purposeful,
and goal-directed (p. 40, Koppenhaver et al.,
1991).
4
Early Literacy Language Behaviors and
Concepts (OConnor, Notari-Syverson, Vadasy,
2001)
Print Awareness Phonological Awareness Oral Language
Print Book conventions Awareness of graphic symbols Letter identification Writing   Letter-sound correspondence Single sounds/ letters Words   Perception memory for sounds Environmental sounds Words Phrases Phonemes Word awareness Words Phonological skills Rhyming Alliteration Blending Segmentation Vocabulary Words sentences Narrative skills Narrations of real events Books Narrations of fictional story Literate discourse Conversations Categorical organization Decontextualization Interpretive/analytic discourse
5
Guided Story Telling(Adapted from Katims, 2000)

• Purpose
• Develop background knowledge
• Facilitate listening and oral language skills
• Develop vocabulary
• Teach use of pictures cues
• Enhance creativity and have fun!

6
Guided Story Telling

• Select a wordless picture book
• Encourage students to develop a narrative about
  the pictures start by modeling this for the
  first few pictures. . .
• Use prompts such as and then. . . when
  suddenly. . ., finally. . .
• Look for teachable moments to stop and discuss
  new concepts and vocabulary

7
Follow-up Activities

• Let children read their favorite wordless books
  to a partner or to younger children.
• Plan an activity in which small groups of
  children use a camera to take pictures and create
  their own picture books. Publish these and put
  them in the classroom library for children to
  read during SSR.
• After students have practiced, let them dictate
  or write down the narratives they have
  constructed for the picture books.
• Work with the SL/P to develop topics for books
  and to develop other related activities.

8
Support Strategies for Students (from lower to
higher levels of support)

• Open-ended Questions
• Providing feedback
• Cognitive structuring
• Holding in memory
• Holding in memory
• Instructing

9
A Framework to Develop Early Literacy

• Create a literacy/oral language rich environment
• Read aloud
• Shared reading (re-readings)
• Guided reading
• Opportunities for independent reading
• Shared writing
• Interactive writing
• Guided writing and Writers Workshop
• Independent writing
• Letter, Words, and How they work

10
Small Group Work

• Each group will create a wordless picture book OR
  a predictable book. Every group member must have
  an active role in doing this.
• Brainstorm ideas for content select one
• Decide what illustrations/words you will use
• Have group members create the book using chart
  paper, markers, etc.
• Present to rest of class Why, What, and How