Handy4class Presents:

Why Reading & Writing Activity Types

for ALL Classrooms?

Figg, Candace

Reading & Writing Activity Types 1

Why Reading & Writing Activity Types for ALL Classrooms?

Fluent readers and writers are essential to the success of Project-Based Learning. Most projects require the learner to communicate with an audience what they have learned, and reading and writing skills are necessary for communicating that new knowledge effectively. Project-Based Learning provides learners with opportunities to develop and refine those reading and writing skills, with guidance and support – a truly authentic learning environment! In fact, providing students with opportunities to use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating, strengthens both skills at the same time! Learning in all subject areas is enhanced by students with abilities to inquire, think, learn, and communicate ideas! Thus, we all become teachers of reading, writing, and communication—with special instruction in these skills for our own content specializations.

_____________________________________________________________________________________ NOTES From the Professor

Have you heard the phrase, “Reading and Writing across the curriculum?” In the late 1970s, an educational reform movement swept through Northern America with a focus of teaching reading and writing in every content area. All content areas were required to have reading and writing components or assignments, and we saw the emergence of Math

journals for keeping a record of thought processes during mathematical problem solving, the use of written prediction and reflection statements for students following scientific inquiry in Science classes, and even Physical Education classes included written assignments tied to analyses of skill performance in class! Not a bad idea—even today!

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Reading

So, what do you need to understand about teaching reading, while teaching your own content specialization? As reported by the National Reading Panel (NRP) in 2000, there were five key skills integral to literacy development: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000). Although phonemic awareness and phonics instruction occurs more naturally in the primary grades, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension are essential for ALL grade levels/content areas. These three skills are defined as:

Fluency Rapid accurate reading with expression (allows children to think about meaning) Vocabulary The words that children need to know to communicate—includes both speaking and reading vocabulary Text Comprehension Understanding what you are reading—figuring out the main ideas and specific details and getting meaning from print (Learning Point Associates, 2004)

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Targeting these skills requires teachers to think about incorporating fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension exercises as a part of instruction. Manning (1999) suggests that using a cloze activity prior to instruction to determine if students can actually read the print materials being used in the lesson. Edhelper.com [2] provides an excellent, easy-to-use online tool for building Cloze activities.

After determining if students can indeed read the materials (or adjustments have been made so that all students receive materials appropriate for their reading abilities), activities should be selected that support the development of comprehension skills.

The Prince George’s County Public School district (n.d.) provides the following list of activities that teachers can use to help readers. The complete listing and other resources are available at their web site [3]:

• Reading Instruction - Design lessons using a before, during, and after format in which reading is a significant component.

• Respond to Reading - Have students respond to stance questions in writing, providing support from the text.

• Develop Vocabulary - Aid understanding of content terms through context clues, word structure, and semantic features.

• Questions-Answers-Relationships (QAR) - Help students to understand how to develop responses to questions and provide textual support.

• Use a Reader's Checklist - Articulate strategies for reading that students can refer to before, during, and after reading.

• Think Aloud - Model mental processes that expert readers use as they read.

• Anticipation Guide - Give students a series of questions to generate interest in the topic.

• SQ3R - Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review.

• Reciprocal Teaching - Summarize, question, clarify, and predict content and meaning.

• K-W-L - Explore what students know before and what they want to know before and during reading; review what they learned after reading.

• Expository Text Structure - Teach the fundamental differences between expository and narrative materials.

• Develop Prior Knowledge - Develop unfamiliar concepts, experiences, and vocabulary prior to reading.

• Remember - Provide many reading opportunities related to the content!

Promoting reading literacy in your own classes—regardless of your content specialization—will include the strategies listed above, as well as the suggested activities below. All of these activities can be ‘technologically-enhanced’ to motivate and increase student participation! (Remember, students who have not experienced success in reading will need motivating to DO the reading.)

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1) Teaching vocabulary is critical to understanding instruction. Including activities designed to teach vocabulary, such as bingo games, PowerPoint games, or MADLibs, is an appropriate strategy to promote literacy, because these activities engage students in the learning, while “finding generalizations, categories, antonyms, and examples of the new word, in other words, acquiring real and personal understanding of vocabulary” (Rosenbaum, WordsAlive!, n.d.).

2) Digital images that supplement instruction can also be used to strengthen textual comprehension. Comprehension is enhanced when information is presented using more than one medium (Paivio, 1986; Clark & Paivio, 1991), so including digital images in speaking or reading is simply a proven effective method for teaching. Comprehension skills, as well as developing fluency, can be developed by putting students together in pairs to “partner-read” Internet resources from Linklists, Treasure Hunts, and Scavenger Hunts. The National Institute of Literacy’s (CIERA, 2001) publication, Putting Reading First [24], describes fluency instruction as the process of providing students with many, many opportunities to read out loud repeatedly, through activities such as “student-adult reading, choral (or unison) reading, tape-assisted reading, partner reading, and readers' theatre” (n.p.).

3) Imagine how easily students can access podcasts and audio clips through the computer! Why not provide these same clips (burned to a CD or posted to the Internet for access at home) to your students? Partners can read into the computer’s sound recorders and then play the recording back for re-reading purposes. Reader’s Theatre provides many opportunities for script creation, and reading orally multiple times. Specialized software, such as Clicker6 [5] and Kidspiration [6], “reads” what students have written as they write, so they have an opportunity to hear and read with texts they have written! Web 2.0 sites, such as Smories [7], allow students to videotape themselves reading a story.

Anytime we have students read to acquire information (gather data, build vocabulary, or develop contextual relationships), read to discern fact and opinion, read to compare and contrast, or read to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate, technology tools are appropriate! Using checklists, guides, predictions, and concept-mapping can assist students of all reading abilities in making sense of text.

Writing

In the late 1970s, two researchers, John Hayes and Linda Flower (1980), began investigating the process used by expert writers to create a written, publishable piece of writing. This “writing process” identified several stages through which experts worked during the creation process (see Figure 1).

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The process, although set up in the stages below, is a recursive process—writers often move back and forth between prewriting, drafting, and revising—even though the chart presents the stages in a linear fashion.

• Prewriting: An author usually begins the process of writing by collecting data for the piece—this is a precursor to the actual writing endeavors that we call a “prewriting” stage. In this stage, the writer engages in actions that will generate topics and allow them to rehearse ideas! This might include the items listed here including brainstorming, listing, note taking, research, observation, journals, talking/sharing/rehearsing ideas, participating in word play, reading aloud, drawing and doodling, creating word web or event maps—all with the purpose of jotting down thoughts. Lucy McCormick Calkins (1994), a noted expert in the field of teaching writing, explained that real writers engage in these types of activities all the

Figure 1: The Writing Process (Hayes & Flower, 1980)

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time and suggests that writing students carry a journal with them at all times to record these thoughts, jot down storylines, draw pictures or doodles as they occur. Keeping these thoughts is an important ingredient in the inspiration process for many writing pieces!

• Drafting: At some point, the writer will begin drafting a writing piece. During this procedure, the author may participate in organization activities, such as compiling ideas and thoughts into an introduction or thesis. The author may draft facts, examples, conclusions, and may even compile several of these into an initial draft of writing.

• Sharing: Once an initial draft is constructed, a form of sharing is usually sought, either by reading the piece orally out loud, sharing with small groups of peers, or conferencing with a colleague/teacher. The purpose of this sharing is to collect feedback on the ideas being drafted together.

• Revision: With a bit of feedback, the writer enters a stage where revision of the draft takes place. The author looks at the audience for whom the piece is to be written, as well as the voice of the piece, and makes adjustments. Language choices are closely reviewed, as are the tone, vocabulary, descriptive choices, and figurative language choices. The author may draft new material or incorporate new ideas, or may return to ideas collected through prewriting efforts. The author may also seek additional feedback from peers and colleagues.

• Editing: When the author is satisfied with the revised draft, editing takes place. In the classroom, you will often hear teachers suggest an editing cycle: edit the written piece yourself, then have a classmate review and edit for you, and finally, the teacher will help you edit the work. Real authors usually have an editor who reviews the written piece and makes edits or suggestions for changes. Here again, the writer may go back to any of the previous stages. At this point, it would be appropriate to teach students how to evaluate writing, so that constructive feedback is given and becomes more meaningful. NWREL describes a 6+1 Traits model for reviewing writing pieces that helps students and teachers “pinpoint areas of strength and weakness as they continue to focus on improved writing [8].” 6 + 1 Writing Traits identify the key qualities that define strong writing as:

• Ideas and Content

• Organization

• Voice

• Word Choice

• Sentence Fluency

• Conventions

• Publishing: When the writing piece is deemed ‘complete,’ the writer enters the publication stage. For classroom purposes, this often involves formatting the written piece, or more simply explained, just applying all of those design techniques to make the piece suitable for printing, or presentation (sometimes in a PowerPoint presentation).

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Writing involves the stages of taking a recorded idea or two, expanding them into a drafted written piece, which after incorporating feedback from others and any other language revisions deemed appropriate, is edited for the mechanics of grammar and punctuation, and then published! All writers work through these various stages to complete publishable pieces, so to help students develop publishable pieces, they need opportunities to engage in these same types of activities. (See the diagram of the Writing Process on the previous page.) For the first time, teachers of writing realized that writing was a process that was recursive—not linear. By helping students understand the process and using the 6+1 Traits to discuss strengths/weaknesses of a written piece, students become more skilled communicators with the written word.

Of course, computers can support all types of writing activities—brainstorming with concept maps and other graphic organizers, drafting with cut/copy/paste capabilities, editing with spell check, grammar check, and thesaurus, and publishing those pieces in fancy newsletters or brochures with desktop publishing capabilities!

Writing activities show up in all content areas; therefore, teachers of all subject areas ultimately end up doing some form of writing instruction! For an interesting, informative, and entertaining article on writing across the curriculum, read the article by Steve Peha, called Writing Across the Curriculum, in the Reference section of this chapter. Peha points out many reasons why you should teach writing in your class and presents useful tips for how to do this!

Activity Types for Reading and Writing

You may hear reading and writing referred to as “flip sides of the same coin,” because these two skills are so closely intertwined that improving reading skills improves writing skills, with the reverse being true as well! Therefore, while reading through the following types of activities, envision how each type could be used to teach reading AND writing skills!

The Activity Types listed in this section are appropriate examples of products that students can create to demonstrate their understanding. In addition to the use of journals, blogs, and wikis, which are discussed in other tasks, the following activities are just a sample of the various products that could be created by students, either individually or as groups. Familiarize yourself with these various activities to build your TPCK knowledge about a variety of activities useful in tech-enhanced teaching.

The use of word processing and publishing tools is necessary to create the text needed for these products—but there are many more than those included here:

Formal papers: The formal writing types of papers are usually based on the purpose for which the paper was written. We write to inform (expository writing), persuade (persuasive writing), describe (descriptive writing), tell a story (narrative writing), and explain how to do a task (technical or “how-to” writing). The creation of poetry is also part of formal writing tasks. Quality sites that support teachers with instructing students in creating formal papers include: 6 +1 Trait Writing [8] and The Writing Site [9]. In addition, there are sites where students can publish their written pieces, such as Writing with Writers [10], KidsBookShelf [11], and Kids on the Net [12].

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MADLibs: A MADlib is a special word game where the reader is asked to provide a list of words that meet certain criteria (such as provide an adjective, the name of a fruit). These words are then inserted into a story or situation paragraph where the author, or "madlibber" has removed every fifth word or so! Once the reader has provided the "madlibber" with a list of words, the "madlibber" uses words from the list to replace the missing words in the paragraph—often with surprising results! This type of activity provides excellent practice for identifying parts of speech and reading comprehension practice, but is a very short activity. Online MADLib sites include Paul’s Madlibs [13], MadLibs [14], and the Official MadLibs Web Site [15].

The Professor and the USB drive

- Hans Christian Anderson

ONCE upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a Professor; but she would have to be a real Professor. He worked all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There were Professors enough, but it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones. There was always something about them that was not as it should be. So he came home again and was sad, for he would have liked very much to have a real Professor.

One evening a terrible storm came on; there was thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly a knocking was heard at the city gate, and the old king went to open it. It was a Professor standing out there in front of the gate. But, good gracious! what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look. The water ran down from her hair and clothes; it ran down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. And yet she said that she was a real Professor.

"Well, we'll soon find that out," thought the old queen. But she said nothing, went into the bed-room, took all the bedding off the bedstead, and laid a USB drive on the bottom; then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on the USB drive, and then twenty eider-down beds on top of the mattresses. On this the Professor had to lie all night. In the morning she was asked how she had slept.

"Oh, very badly!" said she. "I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It's horrible!"

Now they knew that she was a real Professor because she had felt the USB drive right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds. Nobody but a real Professor could be as sensitive as that.

So the prince took her for his Techie, for now he knew that he had a real Professor; and the USB drive was put in the museum, where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it.

There, that is a true story.

Figure 2 Sample MADLib created using the MadLibs [14] site

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Literature Logs: A literature log collects information regarding books or literature read by the author, and may include comments or critiques of the materials. Procedures for using a literature log are clearly Purnelli’s teacher web site[16]. Samples of literature logs can be found in many places online – just Google literature logs and look at the images! Examples of two different types can be found at Education World [17] and Tooter4Kids (an online tool for creating a Literature Log) 180].

Character Map or Web: In general, a "web" is a visual map that shows how different categories of information relate to each other (See Figure 3). A character map or "web" identifies the traits of a central character, helping the reader to understand a character's actions and motivation. When reading a complex story, a character map can show how the character develops as the story proceeds. Maps (or Webs) provide a structure for ideas and facts that help students learn to organize and prioritize information. Character Maps can be created using a word processing document or concept mapping tools, such as Inspiration [19] and SMART Ideas [20]. (There are a variety of samples of character maps created with Inspiration and SMART Ideas at their sites). ReadWriteThink provides a lesson plan [21] for incorporating a literary map into instruction, using their online Literary Elements Map tool [22].

Vocabulary Bingo or GeoBingo: Using the table feature of Microsoft Word, a bingo card is constructed (See Figure 4). The content for the game can range from vocabulary words, to spelling words, to graphics that represent landmarks! Learners are asked to identify the word, term, or graphic based on information called out by the Bingo Master. Although the Bingo games are limited to 15 -20 words or concepts at a time and are fairly short activities, the use of Bingo provides excellent recognition practice, can be used in small groups, and can be tailored to meet the learning needs of the students. In addition, bingo

Figure 3 Sample Character Web Map

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games can be used to evaluate vocabulary acquisition if definitions are called out rather than the word. Students can also create their own bingo games, using vocabulary and topics related to class. Kaboose [23]offers several printable bingo games online, and Teacher’s Pet [24] offers a downloadable macro that can be added into MS Word or OpenOffice Word, in order to help you create bingo games. Examples of teacher-created bingo cards include Vocabulary Bingo [25] and GeoBingo Louisiana-Style [26].

KeyPals: Keypals are penpals via email. Students usually pair with a student in another class, location, or country, and communicate via email, usually on topics the students have chosen. Students learn netiquette through email, as well as excellent letter-writing skills through a real world application. Many online KeyPal projects are listed at the Texas TIPD web site [27].

Figure 4 Sample Vocabulary Bingo Card

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Ask an Expert: The question & answer activity involves students asking questions of subject matter experts via email, usually to answer specific questions. The activity is useful because students are required to form questions appropriate for sending to experts, and students receive accurate information to their own specific questions. There are many excellent Ask an Expert projects that are ongoing. Examples of this type of project include “Ask an Expert” at JustAnswer [28]. Other projects are listed at the Texas TIPD Activity Types web site under Questions & Answers [29].

Impersonations: Impersonations occur when students converse a fictional character from a book or with someone no longer living. This is usually done using email. These character impersonations (role-playing) are often carried out by experts in the field, teachers, or administrators. Students may work individually or in small groups for this activity. Students use their literary or historical knowledge about the character in order to form questions appropriate to send to the character, and in return, receive accurate information to their own specific questions. For example, Grade 4 and 5 classes, reading historical fiction such as The Sign of the Beaver, What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?, Indian Captive, the Story of Mary Lenski, and others, would email the main characters in the book and ask them questions about what was happening to them in the book, often asking how the characters felt about what was happening, or asking questions about living in that day and age. The emails would be sent to an English professor or teacher knowledgeable about the books, who would answer the question as the character. There are many ongoing impersonation projects available online at the Texas TIPD Activity Types web site [30].

Iconic Writing: There are many types of iconic writing, or the use of icons or graphics to represent words in the paragraph or written piece. Iconic writing includes rebus writing, pictograms, pictographs, cuneiform, and hieroglyphs. A pictogram or pictograph is a symbol or graph representing a concept, object, activity, place or event by illustration. Pictography is a form of writing, in which ideas are drawn in order to convey their meaning, such as cuneiform (early Sumerian form of pictograph writing) and hieroglyphs (pictograph writing found in early civilizations such as Egyptian or Mayan). A rebus is a kind of word puzzle which uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. Iconic writing is often used to help students express thoughts before they can spell or write words, to encourage the use of words for imagery and vocabulary development, and as a substitute for harder words young students cannot yet identify or decode. Mother Goose Rebus Rhymes from Enchanted Learning [31] and Reggie the Rhyming Rhino from Scholastic [32] are two online sites that allow students (and teachers) to create Rebus word puzzles. The IMOK.UROK site from The Exploratorium [33] is an online tool for making sentences without words, which is a twist on the texting language we use in our text and chat tools.

Some of the more exciting online picture-writing tools to consider for iconic writing have come from Google. Woogle [34] searches the Images database in Google to depict words iconically in any phrase or sentence (See Figure 5). Wordle [35] is an exciting tool that makes a word cloud out of the words in a writing selection. Word clouds highlight words that are used more often by more prominently displaying them in the list of words. An example of the word cloud is presented here! Can you tell what the important ideas of this writing piece were?

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Picture Prompt Writing: Picture prompt writing activities provide the student with a picture that is used as a prompt for writing a story. Usually the student is also given instructions as to the type of writing they should develop. For example, students are given a picture of a fire and asked to describe what is happening in the picture, or make up a story that could be depicted by the picture. The advantage to using picture prompt writing in the classroom is that it can be used for practice with multiple types of writing, and is an excellent activity for group or collaborative work. Of course, student interest and choice normally associated with the development of great writers is not incorporated, and the act of finding appropriate picture prompts can be time consuming for the teacher. Bright Ideas for Writing [36] from Houghton

Figure 5 Sample of a Word Cloud created with the Web 2.0 tool called Wordle [58]

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Mifflin provides ready-made picture prompts. Janet James provides picture resources, templates, and tips for constructing picture prompts, with a few sample prompts, plus an excellent list of links to prompt-writing tools and resources can be found at Picture Prompt Writing Links [37].

BioPoems: A BioPoem is a poem that describes an object, person, or place, and usually these poems have 11 lines that are structured to describe the various components of the object, person, or place. Figure 6 was created online with Write an Instant BioPoem [38].

I wish I was a teacher

Like all my mentor teachers!

And I dream

that my students will be successful.

I am dedicated. I used to think

teaching was an easy job,

But now I know

what hard work it is!

I seem to take it all in stride, But I'm really absorbing as much and as quickly as I can!

Some online examples of biopoems and BioPoem templates can be found at Writing a BioPoem [39], ThinkQuest’s BioPoem Poetry Page [40], or Heidi Lynn Cahoon’s BioPoem [41]. Education World [42] provides a lesson plan for using literature (Tomie Depaolo’s Adelita) as the basis of a biopoem.

Brochures: According to Dictionary.com [43], a brochure is “A small booklet or pamphlet, often containing promotional material or product information.” Brochures are also formatted and published using MS Word, but a brochure is normally a persuasive piece of writing. When developing a brochure, more than

Figure 6 Sample of a BioPoem created with the Web 2.0 tool at Write an Instant BioPoem [38]

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any other type of literature, the medium is the message. That does not mean the words do not count, but it does mean that the size and shape of the piece, the way it folds, the paper stock, and the overall use of graphics make a strong impression. If this impression is ‘off the mark,’ it is difficult for the words to improve it!

Folding publications provide a convenient format for students to promote concepts, research, or events (See Figure 7). The folded piece can be mailed (either in a standard envelope or as a self-mailer). This format also works well as an introduction to a unit or series of lessons. Once the format is created, it can be turned into a template in MS Word, so you can reuse it over and over again.

Brochures are an excellent method for organizing material around a theme or useful for publishing student research, while presenting students with a unique conceptual and design opportunity. As well, brochures can be constructed individually or in small groups for the purpose of promoting concise and persuasive writing projects—text should be concise with integrated graphics to promote message. Student-created examples are available from Handy4class.com (Homeless Youth in America from Carrie Barrett [44], Mummification and You by Amy Swartz [45], and Plants: An Informative Brochure by Jennifer Morales [46]).

Newsletters: According to Dictionary.com [70], a newsletter is “a printed report giving news or information of interest to a special group.” Newsletters typically include informational pieces that include who, what, when, where, and why (the Five Ws of journalistic or informational writing!). MS Word is used to format these informational pieces into a publishable document. Newsletters also provide students with

Figure 7 Sample of a Brochure template available in MS Word

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opportunities to organize materials around a theme or format student research. In addition, newsletters can be teacher-created to provide specific supplemental information at varying levels of reading difficulties for differentiation purposes.

MS Word and MS Publisher provide excellent templates for newsletters, so creating a newsletter is essentially inputting text written by students (See Figure 8). Samples of content newsletters can be viewed at Handy4class.com (World War II [48], French Club News [49], and Texas Twist [50].)

DBQ: Creating a DBQ, or Document Based Questions document, is a structured form of writing. Students read, analyze, and summarize documents (usually historical but not always) by answering questions about provided documents. Students then write an essay based upon information a specific task. Peter Pappas (2009), in his Web article entitled Teaching with Documents: Document based question [52], describes the completed DBQ this way:

The DBQ will consist of two parts. In the first part, students will be required to answer a key question on each document. This generally involves interpreting the main idea or point of view expressed in the document. This section will be "scaffolded" to the second part in which the student will write an essay using the documents to respond to a specific question. In this second part, students are asked to utilize all the sources, plus their understanding of history to respond to a question. This second part will require them to move beyond simply quoting all the documents. They will need to use the documents as evidence in support of a thesis that responds to the assigned (part two) question. The student will be required to use all documents and incorporate outside information. The student will have no choice on the DBQ.

Figure 8 Sample of a Newsletter template created using MS Word

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The use of DBQ in the classroom provides students with opportunities to work with primary source documents, which in turn, tends to bring the subject matter alive. The activity also guides students through exploration of documents and using documents to construct a written essay, while promoting higher-order thinking skills and multiple perspectives. The CI&IT web site [53], the Document Based Questions page [54], and the Document-Based Question (DBQ) Project Page [55], provide many resources and tips for using DBQ in the classroom.

Book Reports: A book report is generally defined as a written account describing a book that one has read; however, there are many ways to have students create reports—which promote quality learning when the final product requires them to summarize information and present it to others. Book reports are useful as a practical method of displaying and grouping graphical information collected by students. 3D Book Reports require students to make decisions about prioritizing information and “chunking” information in graphical ways. Three examples of electronic and 3D book reports are presented below.

1) PowerPoint eBooks: Book reports may be created with MS PowerPoint (See Figure 9). The purpose is to help students analyze stories or novels, so that they more fully understand the literary elements at play, as well as the composition of the story. PowerPoint’s outline feature gives a structure for ideas and facts so that students learn to organize and prioritize information. The outline can be exported to a word processing document for a written project if desired (use File>Send for the transfer). A sample template is available at Handy4class [56].

Figure 9 Sample of a Book Report created using MS PowerPoint

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Of course, online tools make it simple to create eBooks without the need for downloaded software, such as PowerPoint. PhotoPeach [57], Fotobabble [58], Animoto [59], and Zoho Presentation [60] are just a few of the tools that can be adapted for creating eBooks.

2) A 3D Book Report is called “3D” because an object is drawn using a draw too, such as those available in PowerPoint, then cut out and the final product assembled as a cube (See Figure 10). Although the purpose of this type of book report is usually to display graphical information, it can be used to depict major events in a story line, timeline events, etc. A sample of a completed 3D Book Report is available at Handy4class [61]. Other examples of 3D and creative uses of book reports can be found at TeachNet’s Not Your Same Old Book Report site [62]. Samantha McCracken [63] provided detailed instructions online for lessons and tutorials she used with her Grade 3 students, in creating PowerPoint book reports.

3) PREZI: You may also wish to view the PREZI [64] with instructions and a sample eBook on how to create a book report using PowerPoint.

Figure 10 Sample of a 3D Book Report created using MS PowerPoint

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BookGuides: A BookGuide is a collection of meaningful activities and information related to a picture book. (See the example BookGuide of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs [65] in Figure 11).

Figure 11 BookGuide for The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

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Regie Routman (1994) describes bookguides as "a flexible framework for using a book holistically" (pg. 84). Routman (1994, p. 88) further recommends that the BookGuide include questions and activities that do the following:

• enhance readers' enjoyment of the book and bring them back to the text for reexamination

• actively involve the reader

• promote critical thinking

• allow readers to examine their own feelings

For more information, the article, "A guide for the teacher guides: Doing it yourself" (by Susan Hepler, in the References section of this chapter), further describes the reasons for using BookGuides. Although this is a superb activity to build a teaching resource for young teachers, the act of gathering information and activities that appropriately relate to one book is also an excellent way for K-12 students to build cross-curricular connections. The BookGuide is constructed using MS Word or other draw/page layout tools like Adobe InDesign or Photoshop Elements and includes many of the following items:

1) Book Summary—list author/illustrator, a brief summary (2-3 sentences) of the storyline or content, and plot, characters, artwork, theme, as appropriate.

2) Thinking Critically (Creation of three sets of questions that can be used to guide discussion before, during, and after reading):

• Pre-reading or Initiating Activities—such as book introduction and making predictions using the book cover/jacket, chapter titles, opening pictures, dedication

• Reading Discussion Activities—include phrase questions that invite responses and ask for evidence

• Post-reading Activities—used as comprehension checks (such as folding a piece of paper in three parts and have students write events that happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story)

3) Writing activity—diary, journal entry, newspaper article, explanation, description, poem, etc. Write the directions that you, the teacher, will use to get the students to write the diary, journal entry, article, explanation, etc.

4) Discussion activity—critical thinking questions or creation of a concept map that extends discussion, by reacting to the book as a whole.

5) Art activity—write up an activity that could be created that relates to the story or book content. Directions must include all steps.

6) An Internet activity—linklist, scavenger hunt, treasure hunt, virtual field trip, keypals, impersonation activity, photo journal, etc.

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7) Author Information—include biography material about the author or Internet links to author web site.

Podcasts: Podcasts are digital recordings of audio or video data, similar to “Books On Tape,” delivered directly to your computer or MP3 player via download from the Internet. iTunes is the tool of choice to help download and listen to Podcasts, but creating them requires an audio recorder. Both MAC and PC computers come with free tools for this. The free software, Audacity, may also help with editing and converting sound files for this purpose. Information on the use of podcasting in the classroom, complete with tutorials for how to create a podcast, can be found at K-12 Handhelds Podcasting [66] and Learning in Hand Podcasting [67]. Moving at the Speed of Creativity’s Great K-12 Podcasts [68] provides access to great samples of student-created podcasts.

Links to Web Sites Referenced in the Chapter

Information located on the Internet changes rapidly. Please advise Dr. Figg if you find a link that is not working properly!

[1] Project-Based Learning Checklist Builder: http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/checklist.shtml

[2] EdHelper.com Build a Cloze Activity: http://edhelper.com/cloze.htm

[3] Prince George’s County Public School Electronic Learning Community site: http://www.pgcps.org/~elc/readingacross.html

[4] Putting Reading First Report: http://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/PRFbooklet.pdf

[5] Clicker6: http://www.cricksoft.com/us/products/tools/clicker/home.aspx

[6] Kidspiration: http://www.inspiration.com/Kidspiration

[7] Smories: http://www.smories.com/

[8] 6+1 Writing Traits: http://www.thetraits.org/index.php

[9] The Writing Site: http://www.thewritingsite.org/

[10] Scholastic’s Writing with Writers: http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/

[11] KidsBookShelf: http://www.kidsbookshelf.com/

Reading & Writing Activity Types 20

[12] Kids on the Net: http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/

[13] Paul’s MadLibs: http://www.paulyc.com/games/madlibs/

[14] MadLibs: http://madlibs.org/

[15] MadLibs Official Web Site: http://www.madlibs.com/

[16] Mrs. P’s Kids Lit Log Response Starters: http://lasd.k12.pa.us/teachers/purnellj/LLResp.html

[17] Education World Reading Log Template: http://www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/template_HomeReadingLog.pdf

[18] Tooter4Kids Online Literature Log: http://www.tooter4kids.com/classroom/literature_log.htm

[19] Inspiration Language Arts (look for the Character Analysis Concept Maps): http://www.inspiration.com/Examples/Inspiration?fuseaction=langarts#Language-Arts

[20] SMART Ideas 5.1: http://smarttech.com/Support/Browse+Support/Download+Software/Software/SMART+Ideas+software/SMART+Ideas+software/SMART+Ideas+software+for+Windows

[21] ReadWriteThink Word Maps: Developing Critical and Analytical Thinking about Literary Characters: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/word-maps-developing-critical-773.html

[22] ReadWriteThink: Literary Elements Mapping Tool: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/lit-elements/

[23] Kaboose Bingo Games: http://crafts.kaboose.com/bingo-games-for-holidays-and-every-day.html

[24] Teacher’s Pet Macro: http://www.teachers-pet.org/index.php

[25] Vocabulary Bingo at http://www.figg.com/activity_types/Bingo.PDF

[26] GeoBingo Louisiana-Style: http://www.figg.com/activity_types/geobingocard.pdf

[27] Texas TIPD KeyPal Activity Examples: http://txtipd.wm.edu/keypals.php

[28] Ask an Expert at JustAnswer: http://www.justanswer.com/

Reading & Writing Activity Types 21

[29] Texas TIPD Question-And-Answer Activity Examples: http://txtipd.wm.edu/questionandanswer.php

[30] Texas TIPD Impersonation Activity Examples: http://txtipd.wm.edu/impersonation.php

[31] Mother Goose Rebus Rhymes from Enchanted Learning: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Rhymes.html

[32] Scholastic’s Reggie the Rhyming Rhino: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bll/reggie/

[33] The Exploratorium: IMOK. UROK. Site: http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/imok.html

[34] Woogle from Google: http://www.gujian.net/woogle/

[35] Wordle from Google: http://www.wordle.net/

[36] Houghton Mifflin’s Bright Ideas for Writing: http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/6_8/brightideas/index.html

[37] Picture Prompt Writing: http://pirate.shu.edu/~jamesjan/picturePrompt.htm

[38] Write an Instant BioPoem: http://ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/bio.htm

[39] Writing a BioPoem (scroll down from the advertisements): http://oldfashionedliving.com/biopoems.html

[40] ThinkQuest’s BioPoem Poetry Page: http://library.thinkquest.org/11883/data/biopoem.htm

[41] Heidi Lynn Cahoon’s BioPoem: http://novelinks.org/uploads/Novels/Beauty/BioPoem.pdf

[42] Education World: Tomie DePaolo’s Adelita: A Biopoem: http://www.education-world.com/a_tsl/archives/04-1/lesson027.shtml

[43] Dictionary.com: Brochure: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/brochure

[44] Homeless Youth in America (Carrie Bartlett): http://www.figg.com/activity_types/broc1.pdf

[45] Mummification and You (Amy Swartz): http://www.figg.com/activity_types/broc3.pdf

[46] Plants: An informative brochure (Jennifer Morales): http://www.figg.com/activity_types/broc2.pdf

Reading & Writing Activity Types 22

[47] Dictionary.com: Newsletter: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/newsletter

[48] World War II Newsletter: http://www.figg.com/activity_types/wwIInews.pdf

[49] French Club News Newsletter: http://www.figg.com/activity_types/french.pdf

[51] Texas Twist Newsletter: http://www.figg.com/activity_types/texasNew.pdf

[52] Peter Pappas, Document Based Questions: http://www.edteck.com/dbq/testing/dbq.htm

[53] CI&IT Document-Based Questions: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/dbq/home.html

[54] The Document Based Questions page: http://home.earthlink.net/~gfeldmeth/DBQ.html

[55] The Document-Based Question (DBQ) Project Page: http://www.dbqproject.com/

[56] Handy4class PowerPoint template for book report: http://www.figg.com/activity_types/BookReportTemplate.ppt

[57] PhotoPeach: http://www.photopeach.com

[58] Fotobabble: http://www.fotobabble.com/

[59] Animoto: http://animoto.com/

[60] Zoho Presentation: http://www.zoho.com/docs/online-presentation-tool.html

[61] Handy4class 3D Book Report template: http://www.figg.com/activity_types/3dreport.pdf

[62] Teachnet’s Not Your Same Old Book Report: http://www.teachnet.com/lesson/langarts/foldedbkrpts071599.html

[63] Samantha McCracken’s Third Grade PowerPoint into Book Reports: http://www.buckeyeschools.info/uploads/elementary%20computer-powerpoint.pdf

[64] PREZI: Creating a PowerPoint book report: http://prezi.com/kvnqvpy7dxka/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

[65] Handy4class BookGuide: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs: http://www.figg.com/ired320/howto/bookguide.PDF

Reading & Writing Activity Types 23

[66] K-12 Handhelds Podcasting: http://www.k12handhelds.com/podcasting.php

[67] Learning in Hand Podcasting: http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/

[68] Moving at the Speed of Creativity Great Podcasts Examples: http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2005/12/13/great-k-12-podcast-examples/

References

Clark, J. M., & Paivio, A. (1991). Dual coding theory and education. Educational Psychology Review, 3, 149-170.

Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA). (2001). Put Reading First: Fluency instruction. Retrieved August 10, 2013, from http://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/PRFbooklet.pdf

Hayes, J. R., & Flower, L. S. (1980). Identifying the organization of writing processes. In L. W. Gregg & E. R. Steinberg (Eds.), Cognitive processes in writing. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Hepler, S. (1988) A guide for the teacher guides: Doing it yourself. New Advocate, 1(3) 1988, 186-95. EJ 374 854.

Manning, M. (1999). Reading across the curriculum. Teaching Pre K-8, 29(5), 83-85.

Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representations: A dual coding approach. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Peha, S. (1997-2003). Writing across the curriculum. Retrieved August 10, 2013, from http://ttms.org/PDFs/06%20Writing%20Across%20the%20Curriculum%20v001%20%28Full%29.pdf

Pappas, P. (2009). Teaching with documents: Document based question. Retrieved July 26, 2009, from http://www.edteck.com/dbq/testing/dbq.htm

Rosenbaum, C. (n.d.). Wordsalive. Retrieved August 10, 2013, from http://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/english/middle/wordsalive/index.shtml

Routman, R. (1994). Invitations: Changing as teachers and learners K-12. New York: Heinemann.