READING JOURNAL

Summer 2016 A Publication of the Colorado Council International Reading Association

READING JOURNAL

“El Deafo”

by Bailey Arellano

Letter to the

Would-Be Teacher

by Trish Wojurﬁn

Teaching

Vocabulary and

Writing in

Kindergarten

Through Dramatic

Play Centers

by Shelley Stagg Peterson

and Christine Portier

Conversations on

Policy, Methods,

and Accountability:

An Interview With

Ellin Oliver Keene

by Roland Schendel

and James Erekson

Note From the Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Call for Manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

DEPARTMENTS

SONGS AND POETRY

The Main Idea: Life Is Comprehension, Michael P. Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

INSTRUCTIONAL IDEAS TO SUPPORT DIVERSE LEARNERS

Ideas for Teaching English Language Learners, Brian C. Rose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE IN THE CLASSROOM

Keeping Literacy Alive in Your Classroom, Hollyanna Bates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

DIGITAL LITERACIES AND INNOVATIVE CLASSROOM PRACTICES

Ha-Ha, I’m Comprehending With Imojis, Evan Vargas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

EFFECTIVE WRITING INSTRUCTION

For the Fun of It (And the Learning Just Happens!), David L. Harrison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

FEATURE ARTICLES

Teaching Vocabulary and Writing in Kindergarten Through Dramatic Play Centers,

Shelley Stagg Peterson and Christine Portier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Conversations on Policy, Methods, and Accountability: An Interview With

Ellin Oliver Keene, Roland Schendel and James Erekson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Letter to the Would-Be Teacher, Trish Wojurfin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

WHAT’S NEW?

Read, Sketch, Review, and Rate: Fifth-Grade Book Reviews, Lara Saunders . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

This Contains All That, Kelly McKenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Letter from the Conference Chair, Anne Cook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

OLUME 27 SUMMER 2016

It is the policy of CCIRA to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning

the content and teaching of reading and language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular

speaker’s point of view does not imply endorsement by CCIRA, its Executive Committee, the

Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where

such endorsement is clearly specified.

Reproduction of pages in this publication is hereby authorized provided the use of the

material is for educational, noncommercial purposes and the number of copies does not exceed

100. Consent to photocopy does not extend to poems, cartoons, photographs, or items iden-

tified as reprinted by permission of other publishers, nor to copying for general distribution,

advertising, or promotion, for creating new works, or for resale, unless explicit permission to

copy for these purposes is granted by CCIRA. Before reproduction, full citation should be

placed in a prominent place.

Editors: Suzette Youngs, University of Northern Colorado

Christine Kyser, University of Northern Colorado

Associate Editor: Kimberli Bontempo, University of Northern Colorado

Designer: Scott Johnson

Colorado Council International Reading Association

Executive Committee 2016–2017

Amy Nicholl, President

Anne Cook, President-Elect

Amy Ellerman, Vice President

Jan Killick, Immediate Past President

Michele Warner, Executive Secretary

Cathy Lynskey, Treasurer

Jessica Rickert, State Coordinator

Jennifer Lindbo, Associate State Coordinator

Molly Rauh, Director of Membership Development

Sue Goodenow, State Membership Coordinator

It is bittersweet as we write our last “Note From the

Editors” of the Colorado Reading Journal. It has been a

wonderful experience working with members of CCIRA

and all the authors that have contributed to the Journal

over the past few years. We leave our tenure with some

tips on how to make the most of your Journal. This letter

provides a road map for easy, accessible, professional

development. As editors of your state reading journal, it

has always been our mission to use the Journal as a vehicle

to share ideas, offer support, and celebrate the amazing

teachers that teach everyday in classrooms in Colorado

and across the country. To help you get the most of each

issue, we’ve outlined some ideas for using the Journal as

an instant and accessible professional development tool:

• Conduct an article study with colleagues.

Article studies are great discussion tools to

challenge our beliefs, build empathy, and learn

new teaching strategies. This edition features an

interview with Ellin Oliver Keene, “Conversations

on Policy, Methods, and Accountability,” which

will truly get you thinking about how to stay

focused with current educational demands.

Similar to a book study, read the interview and

start talking. An alternative is to read an article of

interest with a practical application, such as

“Keeping Literacy Alive in Your Classroom,” “Ideas

for Teaching English Language Learners,” and “Ha

Ha I’m Comprehending With Imojis,” and apply it

in your own class, and revisit with colleagues to

discuss how it went. For teaching strategies, we

recommend articles such as “Teaching Vocabulary

and Writing in Kindergarten Through Dramatic

Play Centers.” Review the reference section of any

article in this issue and read widely within an area

of interest. We highly recommend opening these

study sessions with a song from Michael Ford.

Each issue has a parody that addresses issues in

education. These songs will certainly put you in

the right mood for taking on the big ideas.

Note From the Editors

•

Hold an “appy hour.”

Use the Journal’s “What’s New?” technology

articles to ﬁnd great new apps and imple -

mentation ideas. The “What’s New?” department

features Augmented Reality Apps (Summer 2015)

nd Digital Storytelling and Photo Manipulation

Apps (Summer 2014). This Summer 2016 edition

features apps for creating infographics. The

articles provide short introductions to integrating

these tools into your classroom along with speciﬁc

and recommended apps. We suggest looking at the

apps with colleagues on a Friday afternoon oﬀ

campus!

• Participate in classroom author studies.

We’ve featured several authors in our tenure as

editors and encourage you to share the work that

happens behind the scenes with your students.

This issue features insights from David Harrison’s

process of writing poetry in “For the Fun of It

(And the Learning Just Happens!).” Or return to

the Summer 2015 issue and share Tom

Lichtenheld’s process of an illustrator’s intention

in every aspect of a picturebook (“Studio Shoes

and Moo Puns: An Inside Look at the Life and

Work of Author and Illustrator Tom Lichtenheld.”

• Be the teacher as a writer.

In our Winter 2014–15 note, we encouraged our

readers to be readers and writers ﬁrst, to live the

life of a reader who can talk about and

recommend texts, and to be a writer who

understands how diﬃcult the writing process can

be. In this issue, Trish Wojurﬁn a ﬁfth grade

classroom teacher, gives advice to future student

eachers in her article “Letter to a Would-Be

Teacher.” So, grab a pencil or your laptop and

collaborate with a colleague to share insights from

your classroom. Use the Journal as a mentor text

and submit your own article for the next issue.

• Read, sketch, review, and rate books in your

classrooms.

In each edition, we’ve put out a call for Colorado

students to tell us what they’re reading, sketch an

image, give it a quick review, and rate the text. This

edition features students from Lara Saunders’ ﬁfth

grade class at Mary Blair Elementary in Loveland,

Colorado. Lara used our previously published

editions as mentor texts for her students. The class

analyzed the published works and designed their

own pieces to submit to the Journal. Enjoy this

issue’s submittals and then and read, sketch,

review, and rate some books in your own

classrooms.

All issues of the Colorado Reading Journal under our

editorship are available online at ccira.org. We encourage

you to download and share PDFs of individual articles to

best meet your needs. We’d love to hear how you’re using

your state journal to further literacy education. In this last

issue from the three of us, we say to you: happy reading

and happy trails!

—Suzette, Christine, and Kimberli

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

Call for Manuscripts

The Colorado Reading Journal is a peer-reviewed journal of the Colorado Council Inter-

national Reading Association. The Journal is published in the winter and summer of each year.

The Journal publishes articles that address topics, issues, and events of interest and value to

teachers, specialists, and administrators involved in literacy education at all levels. The Journal

seeks submissions for the categories below.

• Departments (1,000–2,500 words in length, not including references): These shorter

articles should offer specific classroom practices that are grounded in research and can

easily be implemented by readers. Submit to any of the following departments:

– Songs & Poetry

– Instructional Ideas to Support Diverse Learners

– Children’s and Young Adult Literature in the Classroom

– Digital Literacies and Innovative Classroom Practices

– Effective Writing Instruction

• Feature Articles (3,000–4,000 words in length, not including references): These

articles may include descriptions of instructional practices based on theory, research,

and/or practical experience; research based on original investigations, commentaries

on, or analyses of issues related to literacy practice; and profiles or interviews of

literacy professionals, authors, and illustrators of children’s books.

We are especially interested in hearing from Colorado teachers who are willing to share

classroom practices and ideas on how they are dealing with and/or incorporating 191/Teacher

Effectiveness, READ Act, and Common Core.

For detailed information about submitting to the Journal, visit CCIRA.org, click on the

“Publications” tab, and then select Colorado Reading Journal.

The Colorado Reading Journal is published twice a year by the Colorado Council

International Reading Association as a professional benefit of membership. A single copy can

be purchased for $5. Remittances should be made payable to CCIRA and sent to Suzette

Youngs, Colorado Reading Journal, McKee Hall 310, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley,

CO 80639. Although the Journal is supported financially by CCIRA, advertisements are sold

on a first-come, first-served basis to offset costs. For more information, contact Suzette Youngs

at coloradoreadingjournal@gmail.com. For CCIRA membership information, contact Amy

Ellerman at coloradoreadingjournal@gmail.com. The cost of a consolidated membership is

$35 per year and includes membership in both your local and state councils. For more

information about CCIRA, visit our website: www.ccira.org.

What good is barking at print on the page

If it don’t mean a thing?

We need to understand this stuff.

Let’s make these pages sing!

Enough of phonics...

Let’s balance it out.

How about some strategies?

If we’re going to understand this stuff,

Comprehension is what we need.

Let’s think aloud!

Let’s visualize!

Let’s get our whole brain activating,

Why keep all your schema waiting?

Now when we’re reading

Words fly off the page

The meaning is getting clear

Comprehension is what it’s all about

When we’re doing our reading here!

Songs and Poetry

The Main Idea:

Life Is Comprehension

MICHAEL P. FORD

When selecting a song for this last issue of the Col-

orado Reading Journal under the editorial leadership of

Suzette Youngs and Christine Kyser, I had to consider a

final song that might sum it all up. I needed a “main idea”

song. For me, reading and writing are all about making

meaning. No matter on which small feature of reading and

writing we might focus, we need to always remember that

it is done as a means to an end—comprehension. In more

than a decade of policies that often had us narrowly

focused on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and

vocabulary, comprehension was often delayed, marginal-

ized, or forgotten—and outcomes from those policies

often reflected that. We should never lose focus that the

end should always be about making meaning so we can

find the joy from being entertained or informed from our

reading, or entertaining and informing others from our

writing. With that in mind, I offer this song “Life Is Com-

prehension” to remember the main idea: we need to

always celebrate the meaning that brings about the joys of

reading and writing.

Life Is Comprehension

(Sung to the tune of Life Is a Cabaret because what is better than reading alone in a room?)

Michael P. Ford is professor emeritus from the Department of Literacy and

Language at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Ford has been working

with preservice and inservice teachers for the past 29 years. He is a former

Title I Reading and First Grade teacher. He is the author or editor of eleven

books, including his latest Guided Reading: What’s New, and What’s Next?

from Capstone Publishing.

To sing along with Mike, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6_Ze7iXBT8&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

There is a population explosion occurring in the

United States. While the English language learner (ELL)

population is certainly growing, similar diversity within

U.S. schools does not exist. Indeed, white students inte-

grate more fully with their minority peers, but minority

students have actually experienced greater isolation in

schools (Pew Hispanic Center, 2007b). Close to one third

of Hispanic students attend nearly all-minority schools,

with more than half of these students attending majority

Hispanic schools. In fact, since the 1993–1994 school year,

the number of these schools has almost doubled. Such iso-

lation has its consequences. For instance, ELLs are among

the farthest from meeting most metrics of school achieve-

ment (Pew, 2007a). “When ELL students are not isolated

in these low-achieving schools, their gap in test score

results is considerably narrower” (Pew, 2008, p. i). In addi-

tion to poor performance on standardized tests, the

dropout rate of Hispanic high school students is greater

than all of their classmates combined (Laird, DeBell,

Kienzl, & Chapman, 2007). ELLs also attend low-per-

forming schools with high student–teacher ratios, high

student enrollment, and high poverty levels with greater

regularity than their peers (Pew, 2008).

Teachers who find themselves in these schools are

not always prepared to work effectively with ELLs. Indeed,

very few states require all incoming teachers be competent

in aspects of ELL instruction, and there are several states

that do not require teachers of ELLs to have any special-

ized training or certification at all (Ballantyne, Sanderman,

& Levy, 2008); further, incentives and assistance for teach-

ers who wish to earn an English as a Second Language

license of endorsement are not widespread. In the face of

this lack of urgency and with states struggling to make

sure that teachers are prepared to teach the ELLs in their

classrooms (Capps, Fix, Murray, Ost, Passal, & Herwan-

toro, 2005), it is not surprising that many teachers do not

believe they are able to teach these students effectively

(Harper & de Jong, 2009; Parsad, Lewis, & Farris, 2001).

Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to offer teachers

who work with ELLs some feasible instructional ideas that

can aid in providing ELLs greater access to the academic

content and the instructional practices of the classroom.

Instructional Decisions

During any single lesson, teachers make innumer-

able instructional decisions. These decisions can center on

a variety of classroom circumstances, including how much

time a particular aspect of a lesson might take, which

behaviors to reward or correct, how many and which stu-

dents should share their work with the rest of the class,

and what to do with student work that fails to meet or

exceeds the expectations of the lesson. There are some

decisions, however, that are made ahead of time, during

planning, that allow for specific instructional differentia-

tion among the students in the classroom. These modifi-

cations are often made to allow students greater access to

the content of instruction as well as greater support for

completing classroom activities.

The data presented in the discussion that follows are

culled from a study investigating the specific modifications

preservice teachers chose to include in planning docu-

ments aimed at addressing the needs of ELLs. Detailed

Instructional Ideas to

Support Diverse Learners

Ideas for Teaching

English Language Learners

Brian C. Rose

This article offers instructional ideas for teachers to implement while

working with English language learners. Putting these ideas into practice

will provide more effective learning opportunities for all students.

below are specific, recommended modifications that can be

categorized as offering peer assistance, allowing native-lan-

guage use, and encouraging family and community

involvement during lessons to be enacted in elementary-

grade classrooms. The preservice teachers’

lessons, from which this discussion finds

it origin, were part of a unit of study

assigned as part of a course offered within

a teacher preparation program. The

teacher candidates’ work is not the main

focus of this article; rather, how the mod-

ifications they suggest be put into place in

classrooms to provide the prism through

which we can analyze the assumptions

inherent in certain instructional decisions

and offer some ideas that teachers can implement in their

classrooms to more effectively work with ELLs.

Peer Assistance

Preservice teachers often over-rely on modifications

that offer ELLs opportunities to work with their peers and

receive assistance from other students (Rose, 2015). For

instance, one such modification outlines why within a les-

son ELLs can work with their native-English-speaking

classmates—“For my ELLs, I will have each ELL at a dif-

ferent table with English-speaking students so they can get

ideas.” Another possibility, of course, is grouping ELLs

together to access further instructional support—“I can

also pair my ELL students with another

student who speaks their language and

could translate to them if it is possible in

my classroom.” These modifications are

not unusual in any way. In fact, research

suggests that students can indeed learn

through interactions with their peers

(Antón & DiCamilla, 1998; August, 1987;

Chen & Goswami, 2011; De Guerrero &

Villamil, 2000; Swain & Lapkin, 1998).

There are many theories that guide

the research of and instruction in second language acqui-

sition (see VanPatten & Williams, 2007). However, one of

the more present theories guiding the use of interaction

toward language learning is sociocultural theory (Lantolf,

2000; Lantolf & Thorne, 2006), and more specifically, the

Vygotskian construct of the zone of proximal development

(ZPD). The ZPD is defined as “the distance between the

actual developmental level as determined by independent

problem solving and the level of potential development as

Students can indeed

learn through

interactions with

their peers.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

IDEAS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANG UAGE LEARN E R S

etermined through problem solving under adult guidance

or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Vygotsky,

1978, p. 86). Within instruction, the ZPD can be exempli-

fied through scaffolding (see Wood, Bruner, & Ross

[1976] for a theoretical exploration of scaffolding princi-

les), or the provision of specific guidance, instruction,

and/or assistance with the aim of developing new skills,

strategies, or knowledge. These empirical and theoretical

findings are typically the basis for grouping strategies rep-

resented in modifications such as these.

Assumptions. One assumption that undergirds the

instructional practice of pairing ELLs with either their

native-language-speaking counterparts or their English-

speaking classmates is that assistance occurs naturally—

as if simply grouping students together will result in

learning. Further, in employing various grouping strate-

gies, teachers relegate themselves to a secondary position

within instruction. In other words, it is possible for teach-

ers to group students and then expect that the students

will provide all subsequent instructional support. This

stance also assumes that the students know everything

they need to know regarding the activities in which they

engage and the academic content they need to learn. In

fact, these practices presuppose that some students are

already somewhat of an expert in the content the teachers

will present in any given lesson or that they can expertly

navigate the specific instructional activity they are tasked

with completing.

Some ideas. To more effectively leverage peer assis-

tance for ELLs, teachers can provide instruction regarding

routine classroom interactions, explicitly modeling the

language ELLs can use to seek information they need, con-

firm and clarify information they receive, and offer assis-

tance of their own to their peers. In what Manyak (2007)

calls language-rich instruction, teachers can support all of

their students to more effectively construct questions that

help ELLs elicit from any of their peers the type of assis-

tance they may need. Of course, this strategy seems simple

on its face, but there may be some concern as to where

within a lesson this type of support might reside. Logisti-

cally, offering support of this nature is not much different

from classroom directives that offer alternatives for stu-

dents who don’t know what to do when they finish early,

do not know the meaning of a word, or are learning how

to pick appropriate texts for themselves. More important,

though, is the focus on providing ELLs greater ability to

advocate for their own academic needs, removing the onus

from their peers to divine what kind of assistance may be

needed.

Should teachers choose to group students to engage

in classroom activities, teachers must organize the work,

upport the students in their work, and hold appropriate

expectations as to what learning the students will demon-

strate. However, to reiterate, simply grouping students

together does not necessarily accomplish what teachers

may have identified as the objective of a lesson. Cohen and

otan (2014) present a framework through which teachers

can develop and support group activities. These authors

present four phases: get-along, developing relationships, pro-

duction, and autonomy. During each of these phases, the

expectations for students shift. For instance, during the

get-along phase, students engage with their peers socially,

present ideas, and address any conflicts that may arise.

This differs greatly from the autonomy phase, in which

students are expected to complete assigned tasks, switch

between multiple activities, and engage with their peers

with little to no assistance from the teacher.

For ELLs to be successful in groupwork in general,

teachers need to be cognizant of how these students are

able to participate in groups. Further, teachers need to pro-

vide specific language to help address the linguistic

demands of the activity. For instance, in the developing

relationships phase, students need to know how to negoti-

ate roles with their peers. This negotiation requires stu-

dents to identify what their peers are able and willing to do

and what they, themselves, are capable of adding to the

group. In this vein, questions such as “What would you

like to do?” and statements such as “I can do…because…”

become useful and, indeed, necessary to successfully par-

ticipate in the activity. By attending to the specific linguistic

demands of an activity, as well as the academic content of a

lesson, teachers provide greater access to both the curricu-

lum and practices of the classroom.

Native-Language Use

School-aged students arrive in their classrooms with

a wealth of knowledge and personal experiences. Regard-

less of the student’s background, his or her language expe-

riences are brought to bear upon the learning required in

the classroom. In their review of all relevant research lit-

erature, Genesee, Lindholm-Leary, Saunders, and Chris-

tian (2006) state, “Maintenance and development of ELLs’

L1 is influential in all domains we examined: oral lan-

guage, literacy, and academic achievement” (p. 223). More

specifically, ELLs have access to and do employ various

cultural and linguistic strategies toward their social and

academic lives (e.g., Jiménez, 2001; Jiménez, Garcia, &

Pearson, 1996; Puzio, Keyes, Cole, & Jiménez, 2013).

Teachers who tap into these resources can provide their

students greater access to instructional content and rou-

tine classroom practices (Jiménez & Rose, 2010). Instruc-

tional modifications such as “I will give the ELL students

copy in their native language” or “I will also be allowing

the students, in some lessons, to write in their own lan-

guage and translate it back to English” provide some evi-

dence that preservice teachers understand the value of

their students’ experience and linguistic strengths.

ssumptions. Providing ELLs opportunities to use

their native language in the classroom is not an inher-

ently valuable option. First, this kind of instructional

decision assumes that the student(s) can speak, read,

write, listen, view, and/or represent proficiently in his or

her native language. In allowing students to use non-

English languages in classrooms,

teachers accept, possibly without

confirmation, that students have the

necessary academic proficiencies in

their native languages required to

both participate in the specific activ-

ity and negotiate the specific aca-

demic content of the lesson.

Although many students may be able

to work successfully with academic

content in their native language, it is

possible that neither of these two

assumptions may be met satisfacto-

rily by the students at all times.

Modifications such as those

mentioned above also view native language use, in and of

itself, as meaningful and demonstrative of academic

achievement. Assessment, in this case, becomes incredibly

problematic. Some teachers may also be proficient in the

languages spoken by their students. In these cases, the

teachers may be able to assess their students appropriately.

However, many teachers may not be able to conduct

assessments in language other than English, making it very

difficult for them to evaluate whether ELLs using their

native languages have met the lesson objectives.

Some ideas. Teachers can effectively incorporate the

native language proficiencies in the classroom by offering

ELLs the opportunity to leverage these skills toward learn-

ing language and academic content. There is a difference

between this leveraging of linguistic strength and teaching

a student in their native language. To do this effectively,

teachers need to allow students to use their native lan-

guages, to whatever extent possible, to engage in learning

processes, leading to the ultimate demonstration of learn-

ing. In other words, while the final product, performance,

or assessment can be completed in English, it may be

incredibly useful, for students who are able, to engage in

various learning process in their native languages. One

example of this is a think, pair, share activity where stu-

dents participate in all thinking and pairing in their native

anguages. The sharing activity, then, is in English. For

some students, this may still be a bit of a challenge, but

for others, using their native languages to confirm their

understanding of content, interact with other capable

peers, and possibly rehearse various elements of the activ-

ty before demonstrating their content knowledge in Eng-

lish can be extremely useful. Leveraging native languages

in this way allows teachers to provide students opportu-

nities to bring all of their cultural and linguistic resources

to bear on the content of instruction. After all, if students

are struggling with the content of instruction, why not

allow them full access to all of the

knowledge, skills, and strategies?

Of course, before teachers can

effectively leverage their students’

linguistic strengths, they must try to

confirm or deny the assumptions

mentioned above. Simply asking

students about their language use

can provide the teacher with a better

understanding of the breadth of his

or her students’ language proficien-

cies. However, student responses to

basic questions such as “What lan-

guage do you speak at home?” do

not necessarily provide teachers

much data with which they can plan instruction. More

helpful might be the implementation of a survey of lan-

guage use and literacy practices. Gottlieb and Hamayan

(2007) offer some guidance to teachers by outlining vari-

ous contexts, activities, and languages in which students

may participate. Information such as which languages stu-

dents speak around their homes, around their neighbor-

hoods, and around their school as well as in which

languages students read and write for various purposes is

much more beneficial for teachers to know. With these

data about their students (even those who speak English

natively), teachers will be better equipped to provide

appropriate opportunities for all students to build upon

their linguistic and literate strengths.

Family and Community Involvement

Much importance has been placed on the connec-

tions of home and school practices. There is a deep tradi-

tion of empirical work suggesting that how students

behave “literately” can differ in the home as opposed to in

schools (e.g., Gay, 2002; Heath, 1983: Lee, 2001; Moll,

Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992). Through knowledge of

these differences and engagement in more culturally

informed instruction (see Gay [2010]; Ladson-Billings

[1995] for more on culturally responsive and relevant

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

Leveraging native

languages allows teachers

to provide students

opportunities to bring all of

their cultural and linguistic

resources to bear on the

content of instruction.

IDEAS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANG UAGE LEARN E R S

eaching), teachers can bridge these differences and pro-

vide for a more accepting, inviting, and familiar classroom

to students from diverse backgrounds. However, a word

of caution—Pranksy and Bailey (2002/2003) posit, “Even

with attempts to make the classroom a more comfortable,

ccepting place, the academic progress of at-risk students

can be compromised unless they are ‘initiated’ into the cul-

tural rules and language use of the school community”

(p. 373). I would argue that even this “initiation” is limited

in its effect, as it implies a one-way street of cultural prac-

tices wherein the classroom can become a place where the

specific cultural strengths and knowledge of some stu-

dents is denied. By expanding the cultural repertoires hon-

ored in the classroom, teachers can

more fully involve students in the

instruction they present. Educators,

then, need to “look more deeply and

carefully into what is already in front

of us, connecting it to ideas, experi-

ence, and theory beyond our culturally,

personally, and even professionally

informed beliefs, values, and assump-

tions” (p. 382). In this way, teachers

can provide for an inviting and safe

classroom environment by bridging the

differences between home and school

practices, all the while increasing stu-

dent engagement (Jiménez, Smith, & Teague, 2009) and

maintaining academic rigor (DaSilva Iddings & Rose,

2010). Instructional modifications and decisions such as

“Parents are welcome to visit and volunteer in the class-

room at any time” and “Students will have the chance to

be able to bring in their knowledge and ways of learning

these stories from their home life” suggest that preservice

teachers understand the value of students’—and indeed

the larger community’s—experiences and practices as they

pertain to the classroom.

Assumptions. Involving family and community

members in classrooms and schools is not always a

straightforward experience. Arriving on school premises,

for instance, may not always be possible for many parents,

or any parent for that matter. Teachers and school officials

misunderstand parents’ failure to visit schools and suspect

a “lack of interest, apathy, and even antagonism and were

baffled and troubled by the failure of these parents to ‘care’

about their children” (Valdés, 2001, p. 35). Of course,

inviting family and community members to visit class-

rooms does have the potential to benefit all students, but

the assumption present in modifications that advocate for

family and community member involvement in the class-

room is that their mere presence is enough.

ome ideas. Teachers can invite family and commu-

nity member to speak to the students in their classroom.

Invited guests allow teachers to develop their students’

specific literacy practices as well as provide greater access

to instructional content. To accomplish this, the teacher

hould know what the speaker will present and prepare

the students to interact with the visitor. Numerous aca-

demic standards of practice can be addressed through

work of this kind. For instance, Colorado Academic Stan-

dards Standard 1: Oral Expression and Listening contains

two grade level expectations, both of which can be

addressed through providing opportunities for students to

interact with any classroom speaker. For instance, students

can demonstrate that they can “ask

and answer questions about what a

speaker says in order to clarify compre-

hension, gather additional informa-

tion, or deepen understanding of a

topic or issue” (CDE, 2009a, p. 14). Of

course, the students in the classroom

need to be able to participate meaning-

fully with the guests, and by preparing

questions before the speaker arrives to

the classroom, teachers can ensure that

all students are able to engage directly

with whoever comes to visit.

Additionally, guest speakers from

different communities can help students meet social stud-

ies standards that require them to be able to “compare how

communities and neighborhoods are alike and different”

(CDE, 2009b, p. 13). In addition to the above recommen-

dation, teachers can provide students opportunities to

identify specific features of their own communities and

neighborhoods that they can juxtapose to what the guest

presents. Engaging in this activity before the speaker

arrives organizes the content of the presentation and

allows all students, not just those for whom English is a

non-native language, to more effectively process what they

hear and see. Ultimately, when teachers invite guests to

the classroom, regardless of which community or family

they represent, they need to integrate the guests into the

classroom curriculum and provide students greater and

specific access to the academic content being addressed.

Moving Forward

One of the main challenges teachers may face when

working with ELLs is knowing, in the first place, that their

instruction needs to shift. “It’s just good teaching” does not

invoke the true professionalism required to do the job. After

all, teaching is a deliberate act, with teachers basing instruc-

tional decisions on the specific needs of their students, both

By expanding the

cultural repertoires

honored in the classroom,

teachers can more fully

involve students in the

instruction they present.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

as a whole and individually. To boil

down this pursuit to a universal set of

actions, enacted in a classroom where

the students respond and learn to the

exact same degree, is to fundamentally

misunderstand how teaching and learn-

ing occurs. Too often, however, the work

teachers do is reduced to maxims such

as the one mentioned above as well as to

those that might espouse the inherent

value of groupwork, language immer-

sion (or submersion), or parental

involvement. The reduction of these complex theoretical

and empirical constructs, however, can unnecessarily

unburden teachers from seriously considering what their

students know, are, and do. Further, without considering,

or even knowing, the cultural and linguistic strengths of

their students, teachers will find it difficult to effectively

leverage what their students know/are/do toward the learn-

ing of academic content.

The ideas forwarded in this article represent only a

few of the instructional possibilities teachers can imple-

ment in their classrooms. While the recommendations

themselves seem fairly simple at first glance, they each

embody the professionalism teachers need to maintain

when developing instruction for their

specific students. We cannot hand off

our instruction to our students, hoping

that they will serve as reliable teachers

for their peers; rather, we need to put

students in a position to advocate for

themselves within instructional activi-

ties to make clear to others, including

us, what needs they have. We cannot

assume that simply having knowledge

of another language equates to aca-

demic prowess in that language; rather,

we need to put students in a position to mobilize the vari-

ous linguistic resources they may have, all the while main-

taining a strict eye on what students need to learn. We

cannot expect that the simple presence of family or com-

munity members in our classroom will result in learning;

rather, we need to leverage experiences familiar to students

toward specific academic goals. Ultimately, the ideas pre-

sented here highlight the need for teachers to understand

the specific assumptions that exist in their classroom deci-

sions and reconcile these assumptions through more

nuanced instruction. If teachers can do this, then they are

well on their way to providing more effective instruction

to not just their ELLs, but to all of their students.

One of the main

challenges teachers may

face when working with

ELLs is knowing, in the

first place, that their

instruction needs to shift.

IDEAS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANG UAGE LEARN E R S

rian C. Rose, PhD, is a former kinder-

garten and fourth grade teacher. He is cur-

rently an assistant professor of teacher

education at the University of Northern

Colorado. His professional work focuses

n supporting teachers to teach diverse

populations of students. In other words, he

helps teachers work effectively with every

student in their classroom.

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heterogeneous classroom (3rd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.

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100.

The heart of the classroom is the library and how

children interact with the rich materials you’ve worked so

hard to select and maintain. Children’s access to literacy

and achievement in literacy is directly connected to their

access to high-quality reading materials (Neuman, 1999).

The following checklist is designed to help novice and

experienced teachers evaluate their classroom library prac-

tices and set goals for improving aspects of the system. A

wonderful classroom library has no effect on the children if

the system is not well developed. The system includes how

children select books; identify authors, topics, or genres

they like; return books after

reading; recommend books

to others; put their names on

a wait list; and learn about

new books to expand their

reading palettes. Formalized

processes for all of these

aspects create a strong sys-

tem, one that supports all

learners on the path to

become lifelong readers.

While the checklist

can seem daunting, review-

ing the components can

help guide teachers to see

the progress they have made

while also identifying one or

two practices to improve for

the future.

Hollyanna Bates is past president of

CCIRA and co-president of Ten Mile Read-

ing in Summit County, Colorado. She is a

Reading Recovery teacher leader in Sum-

mit School District where she facilitates

district staff development, coaches teach-

ers, and teaches Reading Recovery.

Reference

Neuman, S.B. (1999). Books make a diﬀerence: A study of access to

literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 34, 286–301.

Keeping Literacy Alive

in Your Classroom

HOLLYANNA BATES

Access to books does make a difference in students’ lives,

and the thorough checklist provided in this article can help

teachers improve the quality of their classroom libraries.

Children’s and Young Adult

Literature in the Classroom

KEEPI NG LIT E R AC Y ALIVE IN YOUR CL AS S ROOM

Classroom Library Self-Evaluation Checklist

Quality of the Collection

☐ There are at least 1,000 books that represent a range of reading levels.

☐ Most of the books are targeted for the reading levels typically represented in my grade, with ample selections for

below- and above-grade-level readers.

☐ Every year I purge damaged and low-interest books and purchase/acquire hundreds of new books.

☐ There is a formal wish list system as students discover new books and authors.

☐ I can name at least 40 books that I’ve used to hook hard-to-please readers.

☐ I know the books in the library and read many of them each year so I can recommend books effectively.

☐ There is a formal student recommendation process that students participate in daily.

☐ Book trailers and book talks are a daily practice.

☐ I go through the monthly Scholastic catalog to highlight books; book orders provide a constant influx of high-

interest books for students at home and in the classroom.

☐ The quality of read-alouds is so high that it’s often the most memorable experience of the child’s year—read-alouds

are located in a special bin.

Organization of the Collection

☐ Students give input about how the books are organized and make suggestions as the year goes on.

☐ A sticker or marking system makes the continued organization easy for students to manage with easy-to-identify

labels.

☐ I worry less about losing books and checking them out properly than I do about kids having access to books for

nightly reading.

☐ At any time, any student can go right to a tub of books on his or her level.

☐ Books are easy to sort through and are at the children’s height with covers facing the student.

☐ There are comfortable cushions and the space welcomes readers.

☐ There is a formal wait list so that books can go directly from one child to another; students have a list of books

they would like to read that year.

Access to Books

☐ Students are invited and encouraged to choose new books every day, even on field-trip days.

☐ Before students leave for the day, I ensure that every child has at least one book they are interested in reading.

☐ Students have a reading log that stays in class and tracks progress made in finishing books but also notes which

books were abandoned; this reading log is an important tool for reading conferences.

Goal for this school year:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Digital Literacies and

Innovative Classroom Practices

Ha-Ha,

I’m Comprehending With Imojis

EVAN VARGAS

This article blends insight from case studies concerning punch lines in humor

and nonverbal imagery to provide strategies that assist comprehension in

English and language arts using innovative meme imagery, called imojis.

When trying to teach middle schoolers, some peo-

ple say, “Kill them with kindness,” but I like to think that

you have to dig deeper than that. These students possess

the rambunctiousness of bulls and the need to be spoon-

fed instruction like toddlers. Being a middle school

teacher, my motto is “Kill them with laughter.” I make

classroom use of their satiric vocabulary, which is founded

on memes.

Memes are funny images, typically spoof-like and

derisive in nature, containing a phrase or two for comedic

effect. Memes say a lot, and can have multiple meanings

depending on what text is sandwiched in. By taking out the

added phrase from the meme, you get something called an

emoji, which allows us to add content. Not to be confused

with an emoticon—a typographic display of a facial repre-

sentation; for example,

)

for a smiley face or

;

)

for a wink-

ing smiley face—emojis are picture characters that are used

by most operating systems today. Similar to an emoji, an

imoji is a picture, a photo, or text turned into a sticker that

has been created with a mobile software

application called ImojiApp (available

through Google Play or the Apple

Store). See Figure 1.

Who could not laugh when an

imogi of Macaulay Culkin’s famous

scream is shown on the projector with

the headline, “Don’t forget your con-

sent forms for this week’s field trip!”?

Does Humor Help

With Comprehension?

According to Shibata, Terasawa, and Umeda (2014),

humor is like a “cognitive problem-solving task” (p. 137),

because learners must first make a prediction before the

Figure 1. Emoticons, emojis, and imojis

emoticons emojis imojis

:) :(

HA -HA , I ’M CO MP R EH E ND I NG WI T H IM OJ I S

unch line to a joke is delivered; then

identify reasoning that will aid under-

standing of the punch line; and last,

appreciate the joke through laughter.

Similarly, Shibata et al. (2014)

iscovered that learners who under-

stood the punch line measured greater

activation in a functional magnetic res-

onance imaging reading in language

and semantic neural networks when

compared to those who did not under-

stand one. These neural networks,

according to Shibata et al. 2014, “play a

central role in incongruity detection

and resolution, as well as in positive

emotional response” (p. 137).

Imoji Basics

You can download ImojiApp from

either Google Play or the Apple Store

into your smart device. Smartphones

that are not Apple based typically use an Android operat-

ing system, which will already have Google Play installed.

For Apple users, I recommend using the Apple Store,

which is pre-installed on Apple devices. Simply type

“Imoji Google Play” or “Imoji Apple Store” in your pre-

ferred Internet browser’s search field, and a link will pop-

ulate for the recommended program. When you have

opened the application, simply click on the desired imoji.

The imoji search engine will allow you to narrow down

your ideas. I also recommend e-mailing each imoji you

plan to use to your e-mail address. This enables you to

plug them into your slides, word processing program, or

e-mail message. Simply, click on the imoji you wish to use,

select the mail icon, and enter your address to send the

imoji to your e-mail account via Apple. For Android users,

you may have to download the imoji sticker by first click-

ing the imoji, then the download button. Send your imoji

as an attachment through your e-mail, which should be

located in your download folder. This provides you with

access to your imojis using any platform that allows Inter-

net access.

How to Use an Imoji to Activate

Schema

I have found that a plot diagram is a great place to

input imoji imagery, to activate prior knowledge and lure

our learners into the plot. For instance, in Walter Dean

Myer’s short story, “The Treasure of Lemon Brown” (2010),

Greg gets into a lengthy, didactic conversation with his

father about his fascination with basketball over school.

Greg is anxious and upset almost to the point of tears over

their discussion, and he decides to run out into the

evening streets of Harlem.

In order to have memes or imojis retain the punch

line rather than give false predictions, Fein, Beni-Noked,

and Giora (2015) recommend that we do not associate

nonverbal cartoons used prior to the punch line. This

means that if you show the same imoji before and after

prediction, learners are more likely to remember false ideas

from their prediction. Before showing your imoji, or a

composition (Figure 2), pose a question to your learners

in order for them to predict, for example, “What do you

think will happen next?”

At this point, let’s assess our prediction using a com-

position highlighting the use of prior knowledge and an

imoji to keep the students engaged in the story. Many stu-

dents know about LeBron James’ success playing basket-

ball, so seeing this National Basketball Association’s (NBA’s)

dominating small forward show facial tears in an imoji

would register with many of them as humorous. Similarly,

showing the outspoken provocateur Kanye West whimper-

ing when portrayed as LeBron’s (Greg’s) father would also

connect with the students, using imoji humor to suggest

that the two had an argument, which caused LeBron to run

away. Learners enjoy seeing their idols connected to an

assigned story. Shibata et al. (2014) found that “the funny

condition induced a perception of funniness and caused a

greater activation in language and semantic regions, as well

as in mesolimbic reward regions” (p. 144).

Figure 2. Composition example with imojis

o extend the imoji instructional mileage, you can

now go back to the introduction of “The Treasure of

Lemon Brown,” and have your students locate the key-

words that support the imoji sketch.

Similarly, you can have your learners

ddress other symbols, such as the

NBA logo and its relevance to Greg’s

character. Have them ponder the ques-

tion: “Why did I use LeBron James to

represent Greg?”

You can also ask the learners to

make a sketch, using their iPads,

mobile devices, or school computers,

to highlight other elements in the story,

such as the climax and resolution.

How to Use Imojis for

Comprehending Adjectives and

Idioms

Sometimes it is hard to explain what adjectives and

idioms look like. Yes! These words do look like something.

When one student remarked,

“Mr. Vargas, I don’t get what taken

aback means,” I used an imoji to

help me explain it. Imojis can also be

used to overexaggerate the meaning

of words, gluing their meanings to

each learner’s mind.

With each imoji, you can use a

variety of words for the expression.

With the image here on the left, we associate the following

words: taken aback, confused, not supportive, dazed, per-

plexed....

good strategy is to have a word bank of adjectives,

and have learners connect as many adjectives they can to

an imoji. This can be used as a warm-up before the lesson

is taught. It can also create friendly com-

petition among peers or participating

lass periods to see who is able to con-

nect the most correct responses per

imoji. It would be best to then list the

best examples in a slide or anchor chart,

and link a new imoji that has similar

adjectival features, so learners can asso-

ciate the correct synonyms with the

imoji. Fein et al. (2015) found that pair-

ing nonverbal cartoons (which for us is

the imoji) before and after the punch

line caused learners to retain false predictions despite

receiving the answer.

How to Employ Imojis to Send

Messages

Learners are often confused about our instruction

and content, but they do not always let us know. Some-

times we are not able to decipher their anxiety or confu-

sion in time to clarify the lesson. One way to assess our

learners’ comprehension is by providing a set of imojis,

each showing an emotional state that is broad enough to

carry a range of similar feelings but precise enough to be

universally understood (Figure 3). These can be posted on

the wall.

Similarly, you can let your learners know that they

can raise their hands and display a number (e.g., the num-

ber 1, denoting confusion) at any time during class, to sig-

nal they’re having a problem with comprehension. In a

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

1 2 3

Figure 3. Imojis showing emotion can be displayed in the classroom

Sometimes it is hard to

explain what adjectives

and idioms look like.

Yes! These words do

look like something.

HA -HA , I ’M CO MP R EH E ND I NG WI T H IM OJ I S

ifferent context, number 1 could connote not feeling well

and possibly needing a restroom break or a visit to the

school nurse. It is great to provide flexibility and options

for your learners to communicate how they are feeling. By

changing the process from the traditional

odel of raising a hand and speaking aloud

their concerns, you can give learners

options that mitigate the occasional awk-

wardness. Kids like to send a coded mes-

sage, like a number, without making

themselves stick out.

For Imojis and Other

Apps, the More the

Merrier

Anyone familiar with photo editing has probably

heard of Photoshop by Adobe. However, not everyone who

knows of these types of products can afford such software.

Within the open-source boom, mobile app developers

have been creating similar applications that do pretty

much the same things as the costly professional software

programs. However, open-source apps and software are

free and do not need to run only on your computer; they

can be used online through an app or on a website as well.

Pixlr is a Photoshop-like mobile app that allows you

to arrange a variety of images and revise them however

you like, shrinking a little here and there, and clipping

media to compose your backgrounds and characters. Pixlr

provides free tutorials via articles on https://support

.pixlr.com/hc/en-us/categories/201021817-Tutorials-Tips

-Templates.

Similarly, ToonDoo is a comic-strip-making, web-

based app that allows you to choose among a variety

of backgrounds and character bodies to render a scene

that can vary from a seated boy postulating with a

thought bubble atop his head to someone running in

fright as shown in my first imoji composition, Figure 2.

ToonDoo provides free tutorials via their forum on

https://toondoo.wiki.zoho.com/.

Conclusion

Engaging our learners’ interest is essential. Fortu-

nately, humor promotes engagement, and research has

shown that humor aids learner comprehension (Shibata et

al. 2014). Humor is a mood enhancer that encourages pos-

itive emotional response (Shibata et al. 2014). It is being

apitalized on within social media, and it can become a

welcome addition to our classrooms via imojis.

Oddly enough, my fascination with meme imagery

came from everyday tasks, such as sending messages via

social media, or being amazed at how com-

any logos are continuing to minimize their

brand into an icon, getting rid of text to con-

vey a message, for example, the Starbucks

logo. We can easily brand our class rules and

expectations as an imoji logo for learners to

become better invested in the class. Similarly,

learners can create their own imojis to rate

experiences they had with books they have

read or journal reflections they have written.

Mobile apps are continuing to expand and innovate

how digital literacy and communication affect understand-

ing and comprehension. As educators, understanding how

visual media aids comprehension is necessary, but doing

so in the lingua franca of the now seeks to go that step for-

ward into tomorrow.

Evan Vargas is an English and language

arts educator, certified in the state of Texas

for grades 4–8. Evan is currently teaching

sixth graders at Pasadena Independent

School District. He holds a master of edu-

cation and a bachelor’s degree in architec-

ture, both conferred by the University of

Houston. Evan enjoys all types of media

and technology, and researches visual media’s effect on cogni-

tion and comprehension to provide simple, yet rigorous

higher-order instruction in a student-centered and technol-

ogy-friendly format. Having had experience in multimodal

approaches to learning from undergrad and graduate school,

he seeks to mine a pedagogy that blends the tactile and tech-

nological to craft strategies that are meaningful, relevant, and

useful for learning in the now.

References

Fein, O., Beni-Noked, S., & Giora, R. (2015). Under/standing car-

toons: The suppression hypothesis revisited. Journal of Pragmatics,

86, 86–93, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2015.05.016.

Myers, W.D. (2010). The treasure of Lemon Brown. In K. Beers et al.

(Eds.), Elements of Literature (pp. 14–26). Austin, TX: Holt, Rine-

hart, and Winston.

Shibata, M., Terasawa, Y., & Umeda, S. (2014). Integration of cogni-

tive and aﬀective networks in humor comprehension. Neuropsy-

chologia, 65, 137–145, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia

.2014.10.025

Humor

promotes

engagement.

When I made up my first poem, I was hungry and

tired of waiting. My mother was frying fish in the kitchen

and I was sent to the living room to wait for dinner. The

words I thought of expressed my need. I liked the way they

sounded. “Sometimes I wish/I had a fish/Upon a little dish.”

No one told me I had to make up a poem. I was six-years-

old. It was just a fun thing to do. My mother taped the

poem into my scrapbook. High praise!

Seven decades later I’m still making up poems. Kids

ask why I climb out of bed at 6:00 to settle into my daily

writing routine. The reason hasn’t changed: It’s a fun thing

to do. Writing poems makes me feel good. Writing well is

neither simple nor easy, but it provides me with a sense of

gratification that drives my desire to do it again.

I tend to have paper and pen close by. I stash them

in my bedroom, my car, and my pockets. If there’s anything

I’m better at than recognizing million dollar ideas at unex-

pected times and places, it’s forgetting them if I don’t

quickly scratch out a note. I would never admit to an officer

of the law that I’ve made notes in my car. I’m just saying

that I have a good many notes that I can’t read the next day.

One of my favorite ways to dive into a poem is by

association. I pick a word or phrase and follow where it

leads me. “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat

a path to your door.” I don’t remember who said that. By

association I realized that the proper addendum for that

advice would be, “But mice will hate you.” Mice led to

cheese. Cheese led to the moon. If you’re not old enough to

know that the moon is made of green cheese, indulge me.

The moon led to the Man in the Moon, which led to a poem.

THE MAN IN THE MOON

From Using the Power of Poetry

The man in the moon

Eats nothing but cheese.

There’s nothing but cheese to eat.

Often he cries

To the cheddar skies,

“I’m dying for some little treat!”

He dreams of chicken salad, he says,

On slices of fresh whole wheat.

“I yearn for yams,

Sugar-cured hams,

Or anything gooey or sweet!”

The man in the moon

Eats nothing but cheese—

There’s nothing but cheese to eat—

But oh how he wishes

For tastier dishes,

Like salads!

And veggies!

And meat!

Effective Writing

Instruction

For the Fun of It

(And the Learning Just Happens!)

DAVID L. HARRISON

Entice your students to “come alive” with the

many tips for reading and writing poetry from

this renown author who makes learning fun!

* For the Fun of It (And the Learning Just Happens!), © by David

L. Harrison, was first published in New England Reading Association

Journal, Volume 51, Winter issue, 2015. Reprinted with permission

of the author and NERA.

FO R THE FUN OF IT (

ND TH E LEARNING JUST HAPPENS!

)

Learning takes place when we add something new

to our base of knowledge and prior experiences. When we

ask students to choose writing from the long list of possi-

bilities that vie for their attention, we’re expecting too

much if, for them, writing does not bring pleasure. Readers

who stumble at making sense of words strung together

into sentences and paragraphs often find the shorter, more

inviting lines of a poem easier to “get.” Other senses

ecome involved. They hear the

beat, feel the rhythm, and see the

pictures.

Poetry teaches while it enter-

tains. A letter from a little boy who

as a struggling reader expresses

what it feels like when words work

their magic. “The words [in your

poem] have a rhythm to them,” he

wrote. “I can hear the beat in my

head. Then when I get it down I read

it out loud to myself.”

A six-year-old girl was given

one of my books called Farmer’s

Garden in which a dog interviews

various inhabitants of his master’s

garden. The girl sat on her mother’s

lap and listened to the poetic inter-

views over and over. She read them

silently to herself. She read them

aloud. She asked an adult friend to

sit down and listen to her read her

new poems. She asked the adult to

take turns reading with her. The lit-

tle girl loved the words so much

that she began acting out some of

the parts, leaping and waving her

arms and dancing in exuberant

interpretations of what she heard

and felt and saw in her imagination.

The following morning she

took the book to school. There she

organized her classmates into teams.

As the book was read aloud, the

children performed the girl’s chore-

ographed movements. Was this

youngster a struggling reader? I

doubt it, but I’m willing to bet that

some of her dancing classmates

were, and her rambunctious joy in

turning words into dance must

surely have been good for every

reader in the class, wherever they

were along the reading scale.

Poems can convey moods, messages, and voices as

broad and deep as the experience of being human. Some-

times the most serious among us feel like being silly. The

most rambunctious have quiet moments; the classroom

comic, his reflective times. We may feel certain emotions

so deeply that we find them difficult to talk about. Being

embarrassed, abused, poor, homeless, hungry, frightened,

We may feel certain

emotions so deeply that

we find them difficult to

talk about....Sometimes

a poem can express

what the tongue cannot..

egraded, and alone are hard to dis-

cuss. Sometimes a poem can express

what the tongue cannot.

I remember being mortified as

a middle school student when I fell

ff the back of the bandstand at a

school party, still clutching my trom-

bone. I could barely stand the

thought of climbing back up and fac-

ing the crowd.

FROM THE BACK ROW

From Connecting Dots

Tonight our band performed at school,

on risers in the cafeteria,

music folders on black stands,

our first gig, professional.

My solo came, I stood tall,

pushed back my chair,

played flawlessly,

acknowledged applause,

nonchalantly took my seat,

Fell off backward, chair and all,

off the back of the top riser,

somersaulted through the air,

crash-landed behind the band.

Huge applause when I reappeared,

climbed the risers carrying my chair.

I wish I’d broken both legs.

A little sympathy is my only chance

for tomorrow.

Young people in school have almost unlimited

opportunities to be embarrassed. Maybe that’s why they

can be so sensitive to the plight of others. This student

knew exactly what I was talking about.

“Dear Mr. Harrison, My favorite poem was the

one with you falling off the risers. When you fell

off the risers I bet you were embarrassed. I have

embarrassing moments too.”

Another common experience is being the new kid.

Whether in church, neighborhood, class, school, or com-

munity, nearly every child knows what it’s like to be on

the outside feeling alone and excluded. If you’re a new kid

and you’re shy, you can spend a lot of time staring at your

desk or looking out the window—anywhere to avoid mak-

ing direct eye contact.

NEW SCHOOL

From Connecting Dots

What did you do

in school today?

I saw a boy

looking at me.

I waved,

but he looked away.

His friends ran up,

yelling and laughing.

I laughed, too,

but they looked away.

I answered wrong

in class today.

The boy laughed,

I looked away.

I know I’m reaching my audience when I receive

notes like this one: “Mr. Harrison, I’m new so I relate. That’s

exactly what happened to me.”

A poet’s job is to write so that readers want to read

what he has to say. I like nature. One day on a walk I

stooped to examine a single hoof print pressed into a soft

spot in the path. Alone in the forest silence, I felt somehow

connected to the wild creature that had walked where I

now stood, perhaps moments earlier. I didn’t think, “Aha!

A poem!” But I carried the memory away with me, and the

act itself became part of the poem that I eventually wrote.

CROSSING PATHS

From Wild Country

A single hoof mark

in the moist trail,

small

probably a deer.

We’ll never meet

yet our paths cross

here.

In these woods

our separate ways

are clear

but standing briefly

where this deer stood

is a memory

worth taking

beyond the wood

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

FO R THE FUN OF IT (

ND TH E LEARNING JUST HAPPENS!

)

he deer poem seemed as inevitable as the fish poem

of my youth. They both sprang from sudden urges to

record a moment that felt important. I’ve developed a lot

of tricks over the years to help me find my way into

poems, but most of my favorites take their

oices from something as simple and per-

sonal and compelling as wanting to eat or

crossing paths with a deer. I am my first

and most important audience. If I don’t

like it, I take for granted that my readers

won’t either.

Serious times in our lives often gen-

erate serious writing to describe them, but

not always. As I look around at the size of

a lot of us these days, I want to write about

the enormity of the problem. But to write

a poem about being overweight that might be read aloud

in a class would risk embarrassing some of the students.

Poets have a responsibility to consider such possibilities

before choosing how to present a subject. My solution in

this case was to keep it light and silly.

THE PERFECT DIET

From The Boy Who Counted

Stars

Mrs. LaPlump weighed 300

pounds,

Her husband weighed 202.

“I’ve got to lose some

weight,” she said,

I’ll give up potatoes and

pizza and bread.”

Mr. LaPlump said, “I will,

too.

My darling, I’ll do it for you.”

When each of them lost 100 pounds,

He only weighed 102.

“I’ve got to lose more weight,” she said.

“This next 100,” said he, “I dread,

For when we are finished I’ll only weigh 2,

But darling, I’ll do it for you.”

When they lost another 100 pounds,

Her figure was perfect and trim,

But there is a lesson here I think,

Mr. LaPlump continued to shrink

Till one day he disappeared down the sink,

And you may find this grim, my dears,

But it was the end for him.

f we expect to draw in readers and entice writers,

we need to learn what kids like. School visits help authors

remember the differences from one grade to another.

Sometimes this can be a challenge! If I spot some boys in

the back, slouching at their seats, ankles

rossed, determined to be unreachable, I

play my trump card: one of my nonfiction

books called Cave Detectives. One passage

describes the discovery of ancient claw

marks high on a cavern wall.

“Those deep gouges in the clay were

put there by a bear,” I tell them.

The boys, still motionless, peer out

through their eyelashes.

“Fourteen feet up the wall.”

Feet uncross.

“Four feet higher than a basketball goal.”

They lean forward.

“That bad boy could

weigh 2,000 pounds, run 45

miles per hour, and was always

hungry for meat.”

They’re mine. Sometimes

so much so that I have a hard

time moving on to the next

topic. Think those boys would

read a poem about a bear?

Would they try their hand at

making up their own bear poems? I’d bet on both.

When I was developing Connecting Dots, 54 memory-

based poems that covered the arc of my life from 3 through

my age at the time (early 60s), I visited P.S. 86 in the Bronx.

With the wonderful support of the principal, reading coach,

and teachers from third through sixth grades, every poem

was read aloud in classes and rated on a grid by every stu-

dent in those grades.

At the time, more than 1,700 students attended P.S.

86. Weeks later I received 12,000 ratings that ranged from

yuck to amazing. I learned a lot about what those kids liked

and didn’t like. I removed some poems, expanded others

at their request, and added others that they suggested.

But stimulating kids to read poetry is only half the

battle. They also need to write their own poems. On my

blog I post a new word each month and challenge poets

of all ages to write poems inspired by that word. A teacher

in Florida began submitting student poems. The poems

were often weak, but the students soon became fully

engaged in the effort. The teacher told me that her stu-

dents came from a low socioeconomic area and were in a

Level 1 ninth-grade class. No one ever asked them to write

poetry although Level 1 students were given Intensive

If we expect to

draw in readers

and entice writers,

we need to learn

what kids like.

eading courses to help them with the FCAT (Florida’s

Standardized Test).

She said, “I truly believe that by shoving reading les-

sons down their throats without the benefit of creative

writing lessons served only to bore them to tears and

aused them to shut down.” Who wants to read boring,

nonfiction passages about a spider or a country they never

heard of before? Now, when I introduced poetry, they were

interested. At first, they tried to act cool and aloof, but I

knew them.... When I showed them poetry, they were a lit-

tle interested. When I taught them to read poetry, they

were more interested. When I told them to write poetry,

they thought I was crazy.

When they wrote poetry, they came alive.

Were the poems good? No, not technically. But they

poured their hearts into them and they loved seeing their

names on your blog.

And that is when their

reading scores went up.

And that seems like a good

place for me to end.

HAVE IT YOUR OWN

WAY

(Two Voices)

From The Mouse Was Out

at Recess

(Isabelle) (Teacher)

Me and Sally are pals!

Sally and I are pals.

I didn’t know you knew her!

I don’t.

Then why did you say,

“Me and Sally are pals?”

Sally and I are pals.

You said it again!

You said,

“Me and Sally are pals!”

Sally and I are pals!

Have it your own way.

You and her are pals.

But I don’t believe it,

And Sally won’t neither!

You know what? This is just a fun thing to do.

avid L. Harrison is a poet, author, and

nationally known speaker. He holds

degrees from Drury and Emory universi-

ties and an honorary doctorate of letters

from Southwest Missouri State and Drury

niversities. His 2016 publication, Now

You See Them, Now You Don’t, is his sev-

enteenth collection of poems and his 90th

book for young people and teachers. His books have won

numerous honors including the Christopher Medal. In 2013,

Pirates was chosen to represent Missouri at the National Book

Fair in Washington, D.C. His work has been reprinted in

classroom texts and statewide reading tests, anthologized in

185 books, translated into more than 10 languages, and has

appeared in more than 100 journals, magazines, newspapers,

and videos. His poem, “My Book,” is sandblasted into the

Children’s Garden sidewalk at Phoenix’s Burton Barr Central

Library and painted on a bookmobile in Pueblo, Colorado.

David Harrison Elementary School was named for him. In

2014, Missouri DESE and the State Board of Education pre-

sented Harrison with its Pioneer in Education award “for dis-

tinguished and devoted service to public education.” David is

Poet Laureate of Drury University.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

Books by David L. Harrison

The Boy Who Counted Stars. Honesdale, PA: Boyds

Mills Press, 1994.

Cave Detectives: Unraveling the Mysteries of an Ice

Age Cave. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2007.

Connecting Dots: Poems of My Journey. Honesdale,

PA: WordSong/Boyds Mills Press, 2004.

Farmer’s Garden. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills

Press, 2000.

The Mouse Was Out at Recess. Honesdale, PA:

Boyds Mills Press, 2003.

Now You See Them, Now You Don’t: Poems About

Creatures That Hide. Watertown, MA:

Charlesbridge, 2016.

Pirates. Honesdale, PA: WordSong, 2014.

Using the Power of Poetry to Teach Language Arts,

Social Studies, Math, and More (with K. Holderith).

New York: Scholastic, 2003.

Wild Country. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mill Press,

1999.

In many communities, parents, administrators, and

policy makers see the development of literacy skills as the

key to children’s school achievement and later success as

adults. As a result, teachers at all levels, including kinder-

garten, are increasingly under pressure to devote consider-

able classroom time to measureable literacy skills, rather

than creative activities such as dramatic play. This is true

in the United States, where Dombkowski (2001) found that

parents wanted kindergarten and primary grade schooling

to give their children a “competitive edge...[Parents] want

to see results from educational expenditures, and while

they do not mind seeing children paint and play as they

might in a non-academic kindergarten, they would some-

how rather see a rise in test scores” (p. 545). It is also true

in developing countries, such as Bangladesh, where

Chowdhury and Rivalland (2012) found that low socio -

economic parents of young children viewed their children’s

school success as a way out of their socioeconomic condi-

tions. They believed that play did not have a place in school

because it would distract children from their study.

In this article, we argue that dramatic play is a highly

motivational forum for literacy learning. While we agree

that there is a place for formal literacy instruction in

kindergarten, it should not be confined solely to teaching

Teaching Vocabulary and

Writing in Kindergarten

Through Dramatic Play Centers

SHELLEY STAGG PETERSON AND CHRISTINE PORTIER

Explore tactics for connecting vocabulary development and play centers

to enrich kindergartners’ conceptual and print understanding of words.

hildren about print and language (e.g., learning how to

form letters and arrange them into words with spaces

between them, learning new vocabulary through being

introduced to words, and learning letter–sound relation-

ships). There is a far greater chance that children will learn

bout print if they have opportunities

to learn what they can do with print by

writing self-initiated texts in meaning-

ful contexts. Similarly, children are far

more likely to learn new vocabulary if

they have a chance to use the vocabu-

lary in dramatic play settings.

We draw on research and theory

and our observations of children in the

dramatic play centers in Cassie’s

kindergarten class in Eagle Hills (all

names are pseudonyms), a rural com-

munity in northern Canada. Cassie is

involved in an action research study with us (a university

professor and postdoctoral fellow) where we explore ways

to support young children’s writing and oral language

through play.

Dramatic Play and Literacy

Centers Supporting Vocabulary

and Writing

Eagle Hills, a town of about

6,700 people in the far north of a

Canadian province, is an industrial

center based on the abundant natural

resources in the area. A large percent-

age of the town’s occupants are

working age (15–64) and working

class. Most of the town’s residents

speak English as their mother

tongue, and of those whose first lan-

guage is not English (typically Ger-

man, Pilipino, and Cree), a large percentage most often

speak English at home. Cassie typically has 24 students

attending each of her two half-day (morning and after-

noon) kindergarten programs every day. The students in

her class reflect the demographics of the town.

Cassie reads narrative and nonfiction books to the

children in her class. Students and teacher talk about the

books, and Cassie invites children to be physically inter-

active (e.g., with gestures) and to chime in or make appro-

priate sound effects as she reads. In this way, Cassie helps

the young writers in her class to “build understandings

about texts, process, and what it means to be a writer”

(Ray & Glover, 2008, p. 127). She devotes 30 minutes

ach day to centers, where groups of four or five children

spend 10 minutes at three of five centers on any given day.

At the literacy center, Cassie, or an educational assistant,

model and provide support for children in forming letters

and learning letter–sound relationships. At the dramatic

lay center, the children organize their

own play scenarios around the furniture,

costumes, and props that Cassie has set

up. The theme for the dramatic play cen-

ter changes each month. This year, the

center had shelves of clothes and shoes

for children to dress up in October, and

hats, coats, and other items for a fire sta-

tion center in November.

Dress-Up Center: A Context for

Children’s Writing

Near the beginning of October, the

wardrobe at the dramatic play center

included adult dresses, suits, and shoes, as well as other

items, such as wallets and purses. Children donned the

clothes and took up roles as family members in their inter-

actions at the center. For about two weeks, the children

explored the dress-up clothes and items and created their

own play scenarios. Cassie then added Halloween cos-

tumes and the children explored dressing up with these

outfits. A week later Cassie asked the children to put on a

costume and look at themselves in the large mirror beside

the center, and talk about how they looked all dressed up.

Cassie taught a shared writing lesson where children gen-

erated adjectives and nouns to describe how they looked.

She gave them sentence starters, such as “I look …” and

wrote some of their descriptive words (e.g., pretty, cool) on

a white board that was hung up beside the mirror.

Throughout that week at the dramatic play center,

the children were invited to write on four-by-three-inch

pieces of cardstock and describe what they looked like

when they dressed up. Children could have copied some

words, if they wanted, but Cassie encouraged them to

write words on their own. The children were highly moti-

vated to write. In Cassie’s words, the “students took to this

like wildfire,” and soon “the writing took over.” In some

cases the children dressed up as a perfunctory activity

before starting to write, and in other cases, the children

were so engaged in their writing that they forgot to dress

up. The children were proud of their writing and showed

each other what they had written. Cassie gave the students

bulletin board space to post their writing, and by the end

of the week, the board was covered. Some children took

their writing home to show their families.

Children are far more

likely to learn new

vocabulary if they have

a chance to use the

vocabulary in dramatic

play settings.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

TEACHING VOCABUL A RY AN D WR ITING IN KINDERGART EN THROUGH DR A M ATIC PL AY CENTERS

Fire Station Center: A Context for Supporting

Children’s Vocabulary Development

Toward the middle of November, Cassie replaced the

costumes in the dramatic play center with clothing and

props to create a “fire station.” She set up a wooden “fire

truck” with steering wheel, windshield, and walkie-talkies

and a seat that fit two or three children. The fire truck hood

opened and stored firefighter coats, hats, wooden axes, plas-

tic fire extinguishers, and small fire trucks (Figure 1). For

this first week, Cassie deliberately kept her center introduc-

tions and descriptions brief, simply letting the students

know what items they would find at the fire station and how

to open and close the truck lid safely. The students’ first

rotation to this center gave them a chance to explore the

items and what they knew about firefighters. As Cassie put

it, “each group had a very different take on the fire station

play.” The children sat in the fire truck, tried on the coats

and hats, spoke into the walkie-talkies, and tried to figure

out the uses for the axes and fire extinguishers.

The following week, Cassie invited the local fire-

fighters to visit their classroom. The firefighters talked

about the different aspects of their jobs and how they used

the equipment. The children had a chance to go outside

to see the fire truck and to talk about its parts and how

they function. Cassie told us that in the past, she had taken

the students on a field trip to visit the fire station, but

decided this year to ask the firefighters to come to the

school. She found that this unexpectedly shifted the focus

from the fire station to the roles that the firefighters take

in their jobs. This led her to follow up the visit with dis-

cussions about the roles of the firefighters in relation to

the items that they use. She created a fire truck center list

of “roles” and posted it beside the fire truck. For each item

(e.g., axe, truck, walkie-talkie, fire extinguisher), Cassie

listed the actions and purpose associated with it. For the

next few weeks of dramatic play, the students referred to

this list to select their roles and organize their play.

Children’s Writing at the Dramatic

Play Centers

Children use mark making and

drawing to represent things and ideas

that are significant to them. Whenever

children make marks or draw pictures

to communicate with others, perhaps

to tell a story about what happened to

them or to represent someone or some-

thing important to them, they are

engaged in early writing activity

(Anning, 2003; Yang & Noel, 2006).

Figure 1. Boys playing at the fire truck center in Cassie’s classroom

s children encounter print in their lives, they discover that

some types of marks (letters) are used in environmental

rint and continuous texts such as books, magazines, and

websites. The adults in their lives read the words formed

by these letters for various purposes (e.g., to get the infor-

ation they need or for entertainment). These types of

marks start to show up more and more frequently when

children represent their own meanings in their writing. The

marks and drawings that children create show adults what

they know about letters, sounds, and spaces. However,

what adults know about print can also help children

achieve social purposes, such as communicating ideas to

others, regulating others’ behavior, and providing informa-

tion (Rowe, 2009). Children’s learning about print, created

while they engage in formal classroom lessons and every-

day encounters with print, is reflected in their writing.

The writing samples in Figure 2, written by 10 chil-

dren at the dress-up center, show varying principles about

print that the children have hypothesized. First and very

importantly, all the children told Cassie and the educa-

tional assistants in the classroom what their writing, or

“signs,” meant. They had generated an understanding that

Clay (1975) identified as the sign concept. In other

words, they understood that “print is symbolic; it is used

to ‘stand for’ other things” (Pahl, 1999, p. 58). As one boy

wrote his family members’ names (the writing in the

lower right-hand corner of Figure 2), he told the children

in his group about his family. He recognized that he could

use print to introduce peers to people from outside the

classroom who are important to him. Although the chil-

dren’s writing at the dress-up center may not have con-

tained the letters of words that they wanted to

communicate, their writing is, however,

a symbolic representation of an idea in

the same way that written words are

symbolic representations of ideas.

Some of the children from the Fig-

ure 2 sample represented their ideas

with what Ferreiro and Teberosky

(1982) found were typical of young

children’s initial writing: continuous

wavy lines and a series of small circles.

These beginning hypotheses will pro-

vide a foundation for later understand-

ings about letter correspondences with

voiced sounds (often each letter stands for one syllable—

the syllabic hypothesis) and further understandings about

written characters corresponding to sounds rather than to

syllables.

Although Cassie had written some words on the

interactive board that had been generated in the whole-

class shared writing activity, she encouraged the children

to create their own texts, rather than

copying these words. Her practice is

consistent with research findings that

literacy development is limited in situ-

ations where children copy letters,

words, and sentences. Copying takes

away the important cognitive demands

that are placed on children when they

create their own symbols using their

ever-growing knowledge about print

(Clay, 1975; Ferreiro & Teberosky,

1982). The phonics and letter forma-

tion work at the literacy center are

important to children’s literacy learning. Yet there must

also be opportunities for the intellectual work that goes

into the creation of independently written products to sup-

port children’s literacy learning.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

The marks

and drawings that

children create show

adults what they know

about letters, sounds,

and spaces.

Figure 2. Writing from the children in Cassie’s kinder-

garten class

TEACHING VOCABUL A RY AN D WR ITING IN KINDERGART EN THROUGH DR A M ATIC PL AY CENTERS

Children’s Learning of New

Vocabulary at the Dramatic Play

Center

To learn new words, children need repeated and

meaningful exposure to words, including word meanings

(Biemiller & Boote, 2006), words presented within a

theme or in context (Neuman & Dwyer, 2009), and

opportunities to talk and use new words in meaningful

contexts. Hearing, using, and exploring new words in

meaningful contexts is important for vocabulary expan-

sion and overall language development, and for coming to

know the possibilities for using words in various social

interactions (Blachowicz & Fisher, 1996; Dickinson,

Golinkoff, & Hirsch-Pasek, 2010). Cassie’s support for

children’s vocabulary development at the fire station center

aligned closely to the following principles for teaching

vocabulary.

Immerse students in words. By simply setting up a

dramatic play center, Cassie gave her students an environ-

ment where they could practice talking with one another,

develop their general or usable vocabulary, and figure out

the meaning of the new fire station–related vocabulary.

The students negotiated how they would use the props

and how they would equitably take turns doing so. By set-

ting up this center for several weeks, the students were

able to expand their use of new vocabulary and begin to

develop play fire-station scenarios that made use of the

words they were learning.

Encourage students to be active in making connections

between words and experiences. The dramatic play center

provided a way for students to take an active role construct-

ing the meanings for the new words they were learning.

For example, hearing their teacher introduce them to the

word fire extinguisher served as only the first step in their

real understanding of those words. In the first week of their

play, many of the students called the fire extinguisher prop

by its name and even knew that it put out fires. Much of

their play with this prop involved standing still and making

“ssssshhhhhh” sounds as they sprayed pretend fires with

it, then trading so someone else could try it out. Over the

weeks, students began constructing fire-fighting narratives

that incorporated the fire extinguisher into the roles they

took in their stories. By creating fire-fighting experiences,

the students explored the relationships between the items,

their use, and the people who use them.

Encourage students to personalize word learning. By

visiting the fire station center several times over four to

five weeks, the students were able to personalize their

word learning and expand on their understandings of the

concepts. For example, during the first week, one group

of children spent half their playtime negotiating for a turn

to use the axes. Suddenly one boy connected the axe to

the popular online game Minecraft. He suggested that they

use these props to play a Minecraft scenario where they

were fighting off zombie attacks. The meaning of the axe

was personalized through the children’s experiences with

virtual axes in the online environment. Over the course of

a few weeks, after talking with firefighters and reading

texts, the students created new fire-fighting play experi-

ences. Although the function of the axe remained the

same, the students acted out expanded meanings of this

word in scenarios that showed how axes are used by dif-

ferent people (firefighters in addition to zombie fighters)

for different purposes (free people who are trapped in

addition to stopping a zombie’s attack).

uild on multiple sources of information. By pairing

this center’s theme with visits from the local firefighters as

ell as fiction and nonfiction texts that she and the stu-

dents read together, Cassie introduced the children to new

vocabulary from several sources and related vocabulary

bout the roles of firefighters in relation to the tools and

vehicles that they use.

Help students to control their learning. Cassie set up

a chart beside the fire station center that listed (words and

pictures) the different fire-fighting tools and the roles asso-

ciated with each one. In the third and fourth rotations to

the center, she asked students to look at this list and decide

which tool and role they would take in their play. They

were essentially considering the new vocabulary words

and how they might interact with them prior to entering

the center. The students could then develop narratives

based on what they knew about the words in context and

in relation to the roles their peers had chosen.

Assist students in using words in meaningful ways.

Overall, the fire station center gave the students a way to

contextualize the new vocabulary that they were intro-

duced to at the beginning of the center and throughout

the next few weeks. The play center offered a context for

literacy and vocabulary development in the classroom,

where the props could help children draw relations to the

“real” objects they discussed with firefighters and read

about in texts.

Supporting Children’s Writing

Writing is a natural part of many contexts that teach-

ers can set up for dramatic play in their classrooms. Table

1 provides a few suggestions for ways to integrate writing

and vocabulary development into children’s dramatic play.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

Table 1. Writing Opportunities in Dramatic Play Centers

Dramatic Play Center Writing Opportunities

Repair shop Create work orders.

Create checklists for repairs.

Take inventory of vehicle parts.

Draw diagrams with labels.

Flower shop Create cards with messages for flower deliveries and create flower orders.

Create signs advertising flowers and other items for sale.

Grocery store Create labels for boxes and cans of food.

Prepare shopping lists.

Make signs with prices of food items.

Principles for Teaching Vocabulary

1. Immerse students in words.

2. Encourage students to be active in making

connections between words and experiences.

3. Encourage students to personalize word

learning.

4. Build on multiple sources of information.

5. Help students to control their learning.

6. Assist students in using words in meaningful

ways.

TEACHING VOCABUL A RY AN D WR ITING IN KINDERGART EN THROUGH DR A M ATIC PL AY CENTERS

If there is not sufficient space for a permanent dra-

matic play center in the classroom, teachers might create

portable centers by filling a blanket, tablecloth, or box

with materials for dramatic play that can be brought out

when needed.

Teachers might introduce writing possibilities by

modeling during their shared or interactive writing lessons

(McCarrier, Pinnell, & Fountas, 1999), and show how

print texts might enhance the roles that children take at a

dramatic play center. They might also demonstrate the

types of thinking that are involved in creating the various

texts. With the inclusion of writing materials at the dra-

matic play centers, children would be free to create texts

before they initiate their dramatic play, or as needed

throughout their play. Our observations in Cassie’s class-

room show that children might post their texts in places

they believe are appropriate in the center, incorporate the

texts into their dramatic play, or simply engage in the writ-

ing and then leave the texts to the side for use another day.

Supporting Vocabulary Learning

Dramatic play also provides a

meaningful context for children’s

vocabulary development. Children

can repeatedly use the new words

they learn in their interactions with

peers. As they incorporate the words

into their play, they see how others

respond to their use of the terminol-

ogy to get a sense of what they can

do with the words in various social

contexts. For example, in a flower

shop or repair shop dramatic play

setting, the vocabulary shown in Table 2 could be intro-

duced and experienced by children as they create narra-

tives about what happens in these settings.

This new vocabulary can be introduced to the chil-

dren as the teacher reads aloud to them. Stories can be

chosen that take place in the focus settings or include the

setting as one aspect. Informational texts can also intro-

duce the students to new words in context. As teachers

read, they can provide the children with new word mean-

ings in relation to the context of the text and other words.

These texts can be placed in the classroom reading area

for children to read during the day.

Teachers also might want to consider ways to con-

nect a writing center to the dramatic play center. For

example, some of the writing examples listed in Table 1

could form a separate writing center where the children

can focus on exploring the new vocabulary and context

through writing. Center rotations could be organized so

that the children visit the literacy/writing center either

immediately before or after their dramatic play center rota-

tion. If the writing center is visited before dramatic play,

the writing might serve as a way for children to plan their

play, and the vocabulary practiced in writing may find its

way verbally into the play.

Alternatively, the students may bring their writing

with them to the dramatic play center as part of the con-

text of their play. For example, the writing center may be

a place where children can create maps of outer space,

which they may decide to take to the space dramatic play

center. If the children visit the writing center after the dra-

matic play center, then the writing becomes more of a

reflection on their play scenarios or a way to extend the

ideas they developed during play. Keeping with the space

center example, children may develop a “Captain’s log-

book” where they write of their explorations at the space

dramatic play center. In this logbook, students might write

about their “discoveries” during the play scenarios or they

may imagine new events that extend the space travel ideas

from their dramatic play.

Table 2. Vocabulary Development in Dramatic Play Centers

Type of Vocabulary Flower Shop Vocabulary Repair Shop Vocabulary

Characters Florist, assistant, customer Carpenter, joiner, apprentice

Actions Arrange, deliver, plant, feed, water, cut,

design, wrap

Fix, break, damage, twist, measure, weigh, snip,

glue, fasten, oil, clean

Items Bouquet, flower, rose, leaves, centerpiece,

vase, wreath, pot, soil, roots, stem, petals

Bolt, screwdrivers, measuring tape, pliers, ruler,

safety glasses, tool belt, wire cutter, sander,

workbench

Description Dozen, beautiful, aroma, scented, rancid,

crimson, pink, gold, damp, wet

Broken, damaged, shiny, rough, dull, scratched,

polished, smooth, oily, patched

Summary

Societal, parental, and admin-

istrative pressures to devote sizeable

mounts of time in kindergarten to

supporting children’s literacy do not

have to lead to the elimination of

play in daily classroom activity.

Indeed, by removing dramatic play

from the kindergarten classroom,

teachers are doing away with a valu-

able context for reinforcing the con-

ceptual and print understandings

that children construct in formal instruction. Dramatic

play offers a motivating and authentic context for children

to write, as they apply their understandings about print to

create texts that mean something to them. Dramatic play

centers also support children’s vocabulary development,

providing opportunities for children to practice and con-

struct deeper understandings of words by using them in

context as they interact with peers.

* * * * *

We thank Cassie and the children in her class for their

participation in our research. We are also grateful to the

Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada for fund-

ing the NOWPlay (Northern Oral Language and Writing

Through Play) research project.

A former elementary teacher in Alberta,

Canada, Shelley Stagg Peterson is a liter-

acy professor in the Department of Cur-

riculum, Teaching and Learning at

University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for

Studies in Education in Ontario, Canada.

Her current research involves action

research with northern Canadian primary

teachers, examining ways to support young children’s oral lan-

guage and writing in various play contexts.

A former K–6 teacher in Ontario, Canada,

Christine Portier is a postdoctoral fellow

in the Department of Curriculum, Teach-

ing and Learning at University of Toronto’s

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

She works with Shelley on the Northern

Oral Language and Writing Through Play

project.

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CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

Ellin Oliver Keene is an educator who works con-

stantly to make sense of the educational landscape and

stay focused on supporting teachers to meet the individual

needs of their students. She proved this through an inspi-

rational and grounding speech at the 2016 annual CCIRA

conference. She has also supported teachers and their stu-

dents through published works, including Mosaic of

Thought (2007) and To Understand (2008).

Ellin shared her time for an interview shortly after

the conference to help us think about current educational

demands and how to stay focused on meaningful philoso-

phies and practices for teaching and learning.

As part of the CCIRA Legislative Committee (“LC”

in the interview that follows), we hope to back Ellin’s

efforts and support you during and after you read this

interview. As you read, feel free to take a moment to reflect

on your own experiences and beliefs or to capture impor-

tant questions, ideas, or solutions that come to mind. We

have included space for you to hold your thinking by note-

taking. After reading, it is our hope that you will continue

critical conversations with others (i.e., team meetings,

book clubs, curriculum discussions, parent meetings, etc.)

in an effort to capitalize on this learning experience.

* * * * *

Conversations

on Policy,

Methods, and

Accountability:

An Interview With

Ellin Oliver Keene

Roland Schendel and James Erekson

Inspiring deeper thought and

engagement in students, preserving

and growing best practices despite

seemingly rigid policies, trusting one’s

instincts and beliefs, finding the

artistry in teaching—all this and more

is revealed in this insightful interview

by a true pioneer in reading education.

C: What makes To Understand your favorite piece of

work?

Ellin: To Understand is the most challenging book I have

ritten. It involves the most complex thinking. It was like

a 20,000-piece puzzle that had to be put together very

meticulously, and that challenge was difficult. It is very

content rich in that it delves into a lot of different pieces

we hadn’t explored that focus on comprehension strate-

gies. This was a challenging and therefore

extremely gratifying piece of work for me

because it was intended to help teachers

peer insightfully at the complexities of

reading comprehension.

LC: In Daniel Pennac’s work, he talks

about the value of our profession as

teachers when we didn’t focus so much

on our methods. What are your reactions

to this message?

Ellin: The speech I gave at the CCIRA

conference addressed this message. Per-

haps what he is asking us to think about

is the lack of spontaneity in responding to

children as learners. The practices driven by policies and

program scripts for instruction are causing us to be too

precise and rigid in our responses to children. We are

thinking about articulating exact responses to kids accord-

ing to some program or pacing guide, and maybe we could

respond more authentically or warmly to kids. I love

thinking about teaching methods, but I want them to

always be eclipsed by authentic, genuine, and warm

responses that inspire children’s inquiries and ideas.

LC: We are particularly moved by your use of the words

spontaneity and authenticity. Have we forgotten that we

are teaching people?

Ellin: Yes, exactly. That is what that reads to me. It is in

the context of what [Pennac 2006] values and what he

writes. I think we are forgetting in some cases that the

focus on assessments and particular instruction does not

feel spontaneous.

Hold your thinking:

________________________________________________

__________________________________________

LC: How might policy efforts in Colorado be deciphered

and used to inspire teachers?

llin: I love this question. The way you phrased it gave

me a lot to think about. I wonder about how many schools

we have where faculty are engaged in a conversation about

what policies are and how we can build on our knowledge

and beliefs about best practices in teaching given those

olicies. I think it is fascinating to think about faculty con-

versations about policy realities and how to approach these

realities with our own ideas about best practices based on

what we know from research, while keep-

ing our belief systems and philosophies

firmly intact. Our knee-jerk reactions to

new policies are usually one thing that will

keep us from doing our best work with

children. Often, the policies are not as well

thought out as they would be if teachers

were an integral part of their creation. But

I think we can make the best of this

dilemma by really asking how can we

address the READ [Reading to Ensure

Academic Development] Act, for example.

Revisions to that act are necessary for pre-

serving, enhancing, even growing what we

think of best practices in our schools.

LC: Ellin, you have inspired a line of thinking on our

part with respect to Karen Durica’s (2008) work How We

Do School and the use of those poems to inspire profes-

sional development conversations. What might be the

value in gathering teachers together, presenting them the

READ Act in its simplest form, and asking them to

reflect about what they see and what can be done about

it?

Ellin: Sure it’s up to our interpretation. You know there are

some non-negotiables in any statute. I think we have a

tremendous amount of latitude and we ought to take it.

Instead of feeling passive, overwhelmed, or intimidated by

policy, let’s get it out there, define it, and make sure that

we are clear on what it is so we can really talk about how

to preserve and grow best practices in light of a policy.

LC: Will you elaborate a little on what shift is necessary

to allow teachers to really envision and embrace multiple

pathways for teaching children?

Ellin: I think the heart of it lies in those faculty-level dis-

cussions, where the climate of the conversation is essen-

tially about what is in the best interest of the children.

How do we adopt a positive outlook toward policies and

varieties in practices? It is about understanding our expe-

riences with children and what the research says about

best practices in literacy. It is about forging a very individ-

ual path based on both of those sources of information to

Our knee-jerk

reactions to new

policies are usually

one thing that will

keep us from doing

our best work with

children.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

CONVE R S ATIONS ON PO L I C Y,

ETHODS,

AND AC C O U NTABILIT Y

reflect on our decisions with children. Where those two

overlap is really where people can find the artistry in

teaching. That is what I think we are about in education.

e are trying to find the artistry in teaching. As I men-

tioned in the keynote at the CCIRA conference in Febru-

ary, it is about finding our own fingerprint, our own

unique way of approaching teaching. It is also aligned with

what the research says and what we know about the par-

ticular group of kids in front of us at any given time.

Hold your thinking:

________________________________________________

__________________________________________

LC: What have you seen in those phenomenal schools

where teachers are supported positively and encouraged

professionally to follow that individual

pathway to their teaching identity?

Ellin: Oh, my goodness, I have been so

lucky to see wonderful schools all over

the country! I mean really extraordinary

schools. I am thinking about a school

that I visited very recently in downtown

Los Angeles where they were serving a

100-percent-free and reduced-lunch-

eligible population and 100-percent

bilingual or students learning a new language. The prac-

tices and conversations in that school are so smart that the

leadership in that particular school is setting up regular,

intellectually rigorous conversations about how much kids

are able to do. I think the thing that really makes it remark-

able is that there is just a no-limits thinking about the chil-

dren in that school. They focus on the advantages of being

a second-language learner. This view is reflected from the

leadership on down. There are so many meaningful con-

versations occurring, so many schools that I can describe.

The commonality between the really terrific places that I

get to observe these days is a set of expectations that tran-

scends socioeconomic and language realities. That is what

I am excited to see! They are places where teachers simply

know their children. They know them extremely well and

are responding to them in very different ways. Happily,

there are many examples of that around the states and they

don’t all look the same. There are many ways of having

high expectations, lots of ways of having an access orien-

tation to children rather than a deficit orientation.

I think the deficit model is pervasive in policies and I’m

sorry to say that the READ Act is one of those policies. It

is based on the identification of language and reading dif-

ficulty for diagnosis and remediation rather than describ-

ing a kid’s assets. We need to look at kids based on what

s going well and build on those strengths. If a child speaks

two languages, that is an asset, not a liability.

LC: If you could do anything to make a difference for

teachers, what would it be?

Ellin: It would be to give them the gift of conversation, of

high-level conversation among themselves. The real

experts are the people who know their children and need

the time and structure to talk about those kids in an open-

ended way. If I could give teachers any gift, it would be to

teach them that they truly are the people that have the

expertise. I’m not saying that they don’t need ongoing

learning in new areas and an understanding of what the

research says about what other people are doing in respect

to the best practices, but ultimately they need each other.

LC: That speaks back to your focus on

the artistry of teaching and the per-

sonal aspects of teaching. It reiterates

how our pathways as classroom

teachers are different than yours

because we are responding to differ-

ent learners and we are different

learners as well.

Ellin: Exactly!

Hold your thinking:

________________________________________________

__________________________________________

LC: How might a teacher respond to a student to inspire

deeper thought and engagement?

Ellin: This is the area that I love, am deeply invested in,

and am exploring constantly. I think there is a huge benefit

to taking a deep breath and slowing our interactions

down—not calming them down, but slowing them down.

It buys us the time to say, when a student responds to a

learning experience, “What else are you thinking?” or,

“What else would you like to tell me?” I have this little

thing that my mother taught me, “I know you don’t know,

but if you did know, honey, what would it be?” I use that

with kids all the time. The bottom line is the interaction

between the teacher and the child or group of children. It

is a matter of pausing, of slowing down for children to

develop thought. You cannot think well quickly. If I asked

I think there is a huge

benefit to taking a deep

breath and slowing our

interactions down.

ou to say something really smart, really fast, you would

say, “Sorry, I need a little time to think about that.”

LC: From our perspective, that might be the really smart

hing to say: “Sorry, I need some time to think.” That is

proof that the student is thinking.

Ellin: Exactly. We need to empower kids to say precisely

that. The urgency that we teachers feel because of policies

and assessments are causing us to race through curriculum

and to hurry through conversations and not give the gift

of time and the gift of silence that let

thoughts develop in our classrooms.

We adults are very uncomfortable

with silence. Kids are not. Kids are

fine with silence. I think we need to

get comfortable with the time that it

takes to develop a thought. If you are

talking about engagement and saying

to children something as simple as

“What else?”, you are going to get to

greater depths of thought. This

requires us to adopt a different state

of thinking, a different view of pace.

This transformation of thought

addresses the tension that runs

through our instruction because we are so worried about

what we are missing, what we are not getting to, and where

the kids need to be next.

LC: We hear a conversation theme running through this.

The thinking process evolves and is nurtured throughout

conversations between teachers with respect to their

unique teaching and learning experiences, and an abun-

dance of conversations between students in the class-

room allow them to nurture, share, and reveal their

understanding.

Ellin: Yes, it is very important. We need to be very present

for children and focused on the immediate responses that

they have. We need to be asking them open questions to

get them to probe their thinking more deeply. For me, my

favorite moment as a teacher is watching the surprise on

a child’s face when he or she discovers that their thinking

is much more sophisticated than they thought it was.

Hold your thinking:

________________________________________________

__________________________________________

C: What role does grouping play in the classroom to

allow a teacher to make these kinds of conversations

happen and to promote meaningful learning experi-

ences?

Ellin: I have very strong feelings about this that may run

against the tide in some educational circles. I am a very

strong proponent of heterogeneous grouping, and by that

I don’t mean large group or whole class instruction all the

time. I mean getting kids together for particular learning

objectives based on observed need

rather than level. I think our leveling

has really had a pernicious effect on

children. I can understand the need

to understand, generally speaking,

where a child’s instructional and

frustration levels are in reading, but

grouping children based on a letter

level does not mean the children in

that group have the same needs. So,

for me, grouping is a very dynamic

process. The groups change all the

time and are populated by children

with the same interest, level of

curiosity, and specific learning need.

The children in any given group are unusual suspects, if

you will. I believe in the power of heterogeneous, needs-

based, dynamic groups, and I am working with teachers

on this all the time to create those groups and respond to

them in meaningful ways. I call these groups invitational

groups in which children are invited to come to a group

to discuss something, a particular common interest—for

example, inviting a group of kids that are not using ending

punctuation. I have them come to an invitational group to

explore ending punctuation and all that they might want

to know about it as a writer as opposed to grouping driven

by the mindset “you don’t know how to do this,” or “let’s

slug through level J in order to get to level K.” It is a very

different conception of grouping.

LC: Grouping is grounded on a specific learning need

whereas leveling a child is usually so broad.

Ellin: [Leveling] is a coarse way to think about children’s

needs as readers and we need a much more refined way to

understand their needs. Refining is made possible through

conferencing with individual students. The teacher is

going to know the child well enough as a reader and a

writer and is going to understand his or her particular

needs. So a lot depends on the time we carve out to be with

a student individually.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

My favorite moment as a

teacher is watching the

surprise on a child’s face

when he or she discovers

that their thinking is much

more sophisticated than

they thought it was.

CONVE R S ATIONS ON PO L I C Y,

ETHODS,

AND AC C O U NTABILIT Y

C: These conferences allow a teacher to naturally, flex-

ibly group students based on needs students tell us,

needs they share with others. With respect to this think-

ing, what moments would you encourage teachers to

focus on?

Ellin: Focus on those moments of surprise—not where

children surprise us, but where children surprise each

other and themselves. Focus on those moments of insight

where the other children in a group are sitting around

someone and showing understanding. Moments of insight

that come from each other and not from the teacher are

important signs of thinking, of understanding. These are

precious moments, and I think the teacher’s responsibility,

in the moment, is to define it and to describe it to increase

the likelihood that it will happen again. To be clear, it is

not just saying, “What a great idea.” It is defining and

describing why it was great and exactly what the child did

to get to a particular insight. For

example, I might say, “Oh honey, you

showed great empathy for that char-

acter and that allowed you to under-

stand him on a deeper level.” Our job

is to name and describe what children

do naturally. But students need to gain

insights themselves, and that means

that we have got to give them lots of

time for oral language interaction.

Hold your thinking:

________________________________________________

__________________________________________

LC: How do teachers prove and reveal their accountabil-

ity?

Ellin: I think this is very difficult. I think there is a lot of

tension about this right now. The best way to show our

accountability is to show children’s accountability through

authentic work that they do in the classroom. It is

extremely difficult to describe the work of the mind, which

is what reading, writing, speaking, and listening are. It is

extremely difficult to describe the work of the mind in

quantitative terms. We as a nation need to get our heads

around the fact that we are not going to be able to describe

the best our children can do through purely, or even

mostly, quantitative description. We need children’s work

to speak for itself and then we have a more robust descrip-

tion of the children’s strengths and needs. It is about the

aily work that children choose to do to reveal their think-

ing that really matters. As professionals, we need to

become more articulate about explaining what pieces of

work tell us about a child. We need to stand up and let

policy makers, parents, principals, and others know that

e can see many layers of brilliance, and need as well, in

children’s writing, oral language use, and responses to text.

That is really the most descriptive and helpful way that we

can go about it. Unfortunately, I think we are far from

being able to do this.

Hold your thinking:

________________________________________________

__________________________________________

LC: Ellin, what else would you

would like to share with Colorado

teachers?

Ellin: I think Colorado educators are

certainly among the most thoughtful,

reflective, and intelligent people with

whom I have an opportunity to work

with every year. A message to teach-

ers is to trust your instincts and your

beliefs as well as the knowledge that

you accumulate over the years. Trust

what you know is best for kids and

make it an intellectual challenge to figure out how to pre-

serve those practices in a time when things seem to be

working against you. I’m not sure things are working

against us as much as we may think.

LC: We feel the same way. Ellin, do you have any advice

for a professional group like CCIRA for overcoming

these challenges in support of teachers?

Ellin: CCIRA, which is widely regarded as one of the best,

if not the best, in the country, can continue to support

teachers through online forums and actual conversations

about policy. Read and discuss policies, regulation, and

district mandates. Face them head on and really ask your-

selves the question, “How can we work with these policies

by Holding on to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones?” as

Thomas Newkirk (2009) called it with the title of this

book. I think CCIRA can provide the venue for those con-

versations, and that is enormously helpful.

Moments of insight that

come from each other and

not from the teacher are

important signs of

thinking, of understanding.

oland Schendel is currently an assistant

professor of literacy at Metropolitan State

University of Denver. Roland’s research and

teaching efforts focus on understanding and

nurturing partnerships with local area

chools to create meaningful learning expe-

riences for teacher candidates and profes-

sional development for elementary teachers.

James Erekson is associate professor of

reading at University of Northern Col-

orado. Jim’s current work focuses on help-

ing teachers become advocates for their

literacy work, creating structures for com-

municating about meaningful classroom-

based assessments with administrators,

parents, and the public. He has been work-

ing with Colorado teachers since 1999.

References

Durica, K.M. (2008). How we do school. Newark, DE: International

Reading Association.

Keene, E.O. (2008). To understand. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Keene, E.O. & Zimmerman, S. (2007). Mosaic of thought: The power of

comprehension instruction (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Newkirk, T. (2009). Holding on to good ideas in a time of bad ones.

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Pennac, D. (2006). The rights of the reader. Cambridge, MA: Can-

dlewick Press.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

Alright, so I don’t really think that I am THAT hard

to get along with. I am pretty easy to figure out. I say what

I mean; I mean what I say. Sometimes, I can be very direct

(which can be off-putting for some folks). That being said,

I have a message for student teachers, new teachers, and

those people out there who think they want to become

teachers.

I love teaching. But, teaching

isn’t a job. It is my life. Sure, I have

other things in my life. Don’t even get

me started. But without teaching, those

other things would lose their flavor, a

bit. :-) So these are my tenets, my

instructions, my je ne sais quoi, so to

speak (student teacher beware—this is

how to succeed in my classroom!).

Teaching Is a Craft and

YOU Are Not a Craftsman

Yet, YOU are an apprentice—and better yet, you are

MY apprentice. Therefore, don’t try to impress me. Don’t

try to know “everything” (because you don’t—but don’t

worry, neither do I). Don’t try to knock my socks off with

amazing lessons that you read from Pinterest or “Teachers

Pay Teachers.” Just don’t. Instead, watch and learn. Ask

questions. Wonder. Explore. Fail. Try again. Make a mess.

Try Again. Fail Again. Then...try again. You are an appren-

tice. Sometimes there are moments that aren’t fun. For

those times, it is fun to conjugate new cuss words (be sure

to do that part in your head).

Remember that teaching isn’t something you DO, it

is something you ARE. Because of that, you will be doing

A LOT of “doing” until it becomes something you “are.”

This process takes time, effort, sweat, tears, and lots and

lots of chocolate, or wine (whichever you prefer). In the

meantime, learn how the brain works, learn how students

acquire skills (hint: it doesn’t come from flashy lesson

plans with cute fonts and neat-looking clip art), learn by

becoming the student yourself. Do everything you are ask-

ing your students to do. And then do

it again while pretending you are a

reluctant, pain-in-the-neck, ten-year-

old. And then do it again and pretend

you haven’t eaten breakfast and there

may or may not be anyone at home to

help you. Because THAT is what it

looks like sometimes. Look at your les-

son from the view of the student, NOT

from the view of other adults you are

trying to impress. (Again, don’t try to

impress us; it WON’T work)

Self-Reﬂection Is a Must

You must be able to look at your own teaching in a

completely objective way. Get rid of the ideas of positives

and negatives, and seek and speak the truth. You didn’t do

a good job with your lesson; you did A job. You must pro-

vide evidence for your reflections. You must use this evi-

dence and reflections to make goals. These goals will drive

your learning. Take a look at your teaching and describe

what went well and what...did not. What worked and what

NEEDS work. And for the love of all things holy, stop

using the word good. You should shoot for something bet-

ter than “good.” Be excellent. Be superb. Be remarkable.

Don’t be good. Make a difference in the lives that you are

leading in your classroom. Those words are just labels and

Letter to the

Would-Be Teacher

TRISH WOJURFIN

Are you new at teaching? A student teacher maybe? Or are you

thinking about becoming a teacher? Then the tips in this must-

read article are for you, from a teacher who loves being one.

Look at your lesson from

the view of the student,

NOT from the view of

other adults you are

trying to impress.

nyone can say that about themselves; show HOW you are

being excellent. This comes from hours of painstaking self-

reflection. Look at how your lesson affected the room of

learners. How effective was your delivery? Did anyone

learn something from you today? How did you measure

hat they learned?

Real learning doesn’t come from finding the right

answers but from finding the right questions. Ask yourself

questions about your teaching. Struggle in the answering,

for he who works the most, learns the most.

You Need to Be a Student of

Instruction, Classroom

Management, AND Content

You cannot be a teacher just because you know a lot

about a lot. Content knowledge is simply not enough to

carry you through. Yet, it is a key aspect, so you had better

have it. Knowledge of instructional practices is also a

must. Different classes call for different approaches, so you

had better have more than one instructional approach in

your wheelhouse. There is new research written every day.

If you are not reading, then you are not learning (and you

should always be learning). Find some aspect that you

want to learn more about and STUDY it. Have initiative,

have drive, find people to learn from. Be curious, have an

urgency for more knowledge. And here is a

little secret to success: True classroom man-

agement begins and ends with instructional

pedagogy. The better the classroom instruc-

tion, the less effort needs to be put into

classroom management. That is because an

engaged kid is less apt to cause problems.

(Notice here I use the word engage. Engage-

ment is not the same as excitement. So,

please stop confusing the two. Building

excitement by throwing the kids into in an

exciting activity of fun ways to do worksheets or doing

crafts from the Internet is not the same as kids putting

their heads together to dig deep into a unit of inquiry.

Shoot for the latter, please). (Also, stop doing crafts as the

sole entry to learning; kids CAN learn things without glu-

ing M&M’s to papers).

Kids Are Awesome, and Terrible

And amazing. And horrible. It is okay to like them,

but it is better to love them. You must learn to build a rela-

tionship with all of them. The best way to do this is during

conferences—hint, hint (workshop model). Also, a rela-

ionship is a two-way street. You need to follow through

with what you say to kids. Give them feedback that will

be useful and true. Telling a student “good job” may make

YOU feel better, but it doesn’t tell the student anything

specific about their skill set. It doesn’t tell them how to

row; it doesn’t tell them what they should shoot for next

time. It just tells them that you are happy with what they

did. Don’t you think it is more important about how THEY

feel about their work? You have to own up to them as a

person.

You cannot just be friends with kids. You should get

your own friends. You shouldn’t be the funniest person in

the room (but it is OK to be funny). But it isn’t about you.

It is about them. They should be stronger after you leave

them. They should be more independent, more responsi-

ble, more everything. This is hard to do. You shouldn’t be

the center of the room. They should be. You already passed

elementary school—now it is their turn. So, make it about

them. Talk to them, learn from them, listen to them, watch

what they DO…and DON’T do. Look back at your lessons

and your approach. Build something that is worth lasting.

Teaching Is an Impossible Job

You are never done. Your best year should be your

last year. You will never be “good” at this job and you

shouldn’t strive for that (see above). There

are thousands of aspects that you need to

learn to even attempt to be a teacher. But if

you are stalwart, if you are worthy, you can

achieve many things as a teacher. But forget

all of that because teaching needs to be stu-

dent centered. It needs to be about growing

students through intrinsic motivation,

brain-based education, authentic learning,

and so much more. You may feel like this

job is overwhelming. Good, because it is.

And only those hungry enough for it are going to make

the profession a better place.

Alright, so maybe I AM hard to get along with.

Maybe.

Trish Wojurfin has been teaching fifth

graders for 12 years at University Schools

in Greeley, Colorado. While some people

may say she doesn’t have a life, she would

like to remind people that reading books,

being a working parent, and pondering the

inner workings of a fifth grader’s mind IS

a life. Just not an exciting one.

Make a difference

in the lives that

you are leading in

your classroom.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

Students at Mary Blair Elementary in Loveland, Colorado, wrote book reviews this year as part of their

work with persuasive writing. To begin the exercise, students read multiple book reviews as mentor texts to

ascertain how to write a review. From this process, they determined that each review needed to include an

engaging introduction, a short synopsis, and, of course, an opinion. Interestingly, students also noticed that

many reviews included the mention of an author’s message or theme; given that determining the theme of a

story is part of the fifth-grade standards, they were encouraged to include this in their own reviews.

Later in the year, students turned their written book reviews into oral book “ads” and shared them with

the class while including all of the same components. Not only did this expose students to other books, but

it also gave them the ability to practice speaking and listening skills as well. In addition, the book ads inspired

students to share their favorite books and, in turn, students read more books, which ultimately is my goal in

the classroom. The following reviews are a few of our early efforts.

Read, Sketch, Review, and Rate:

Fifth-Grade Book Reviews

LARA SAUNDERS

What’s

New?

El Deafo

Written by Cece Bell

Reviewed by Bailey Arellano

El Deafo is an amazing book that I loved so much

that I am saving my money for it. Cece is just a regular

little girl when one day she gets really sick. After she feels

better, she finds out she can’t hear. She has to get hearing

aids and go to a special school full of kids like her. Then

suddenly her family is moving. Cece will have to go to a

new school and make new friends. She starts out making

new friends but then realizes they aren’t real friends. Find

out how Cece’s life is full of ups and downs and how her

hearing aids become a super power.

I think the theme of this book is perseverance. I

think this because Cece has to persevere to make it

through all the ups and downs in life. This is a marvelous

book! I truly loved all the funny things in it. ENJOY!!!!

Bailey gave this book 5 out of 5 Superman signs.

oney

Written by Sarah Weeks

Reviewed by Brooklyn Ewert

It has just been Melody and her father for as long

as she can remember. Lately, her Dad has been totally

out of it, and when she hears him calling someone

Honey, she knows something’s up. She starts to tune in

to the world around her, and while she tries to find out

what is going on, she gets it all wrong. Then Melody

finds herself missing her Mother she never knew. What

is Melody to do?

The message of this story is, it is not good to keep

a secret from someone because they might get the

wrong idea. This book was so good that I could not put

it down until I read the very last page.

Brooklyn gave this book 4 out of 5 question marks.

Wonder

Written by R.J. Palacio

Reviewed by Caleb Sutter

Wonder is about a kid named Auggie who has a facial deformity.

I think that this book was an amazing book that everybody should have

a chance to read; in some parts of the book it almost got me crying.

In the beginning of the book, Auggie was not going to school

because his parents were protecting him from being made fun of

because of his face. The problem is that Auggie is a normal and ordi-

nary kid but other people don’t think that. This year is his first year of

public middle school (5th grade). On his first day of school he was

excited and nervous. His mom, dad, and his sister all kissed him good-

bye as he jumped out of the car for his first day of school.

Once he got in school, he could feel people staring at him or get-

ting a second look. He didn’t know what to do, so he just went straight

to homeroom. Then this guy named Jack sat next to him who Auggie

had already sort of met from a meeting before school started. Then the

principal, Mr. Tushman, plus three other kids, Jack, Julian, and Char-

lotte, organized a meeting. All of them are in Auggie’s homeroom. Then

the first day of lunch came, and he found an empty table and sat there.

Later a girl came over who Auggie has never seen before in any of his

classes. Auggie was surprised because he thought nobody would sit

next to him. Later during the year it was Halloween and Auggie came

in the room with his face covered by a mask. He heard his best friend

Jack saying mean stuff about Auggie’s face.

I think that this book taught me to be kind to everybody, even if

they are different from me, because everyone is different.

Caleb gave this book 4 out of 5 stars.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

READ,

KETCH,

EVIEW,

AND RAT E:

IFTH-

RADE BOOK REVIEWS

The Throne of Fire

Written by Rick Riordan

Reviewed by Gavin H.

The Throne of Fire is a beckoning, adventurous book that is totally amazing. This book is about two siblings that have

learned they are magicians. They have also found out that a giant snake, Apophis, is trying to break free and swallow the

sun. He wants the earth to become total darkness and chaos. Sadie and Carter discover one god that can defeat Apophis:

Ra the Sun God. Apophis has taken over people like Menshikov to help him escape his prison. Sadie reawakens Ra but he

acts like a child. He is old and strange, talking about zebras. His real soul is trapped inside him, reducing his power. Then

they go to Apophis’ prison and confront Menshikov. All of a sudden, the chief lector of the first Nome, a known enemy of

Carter and Sadie, appears and does something very hard but great. In the end, does he turn out to be a friend or enemy?

Read to find out.

I think Carter and Sadie learn that they should not judge a person on how they are now and always bear in mind that

they might change.

Gavin gave this book 4 out of 5 fireballs.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

The Colorado Reading Journal editors extend the

invitation to other Colorado classrooms to submit

their own Read, Sketch, Review, and Rate commen-

taries. Please feel free to enhance/extend the response

and/or focus on other themes that highlight the latest

and greatest in children’s and young adult literature.

I Survived the Joplin Tornado, 2011

Written by Lauren Tarshis

Reviewed by Anna Kash

I Survived the Joplin Tornado, 2011, is a breathtaking and scary book that I really enjoyed reading. Dex is 11 years old

and [gets to chase a tornado] with a storm chaser named Dr. Gage. Dex is driving with Dr. Gage when a terrifying tornado

hits Joplin! They both get shaken up in the car that they were driving, and when it finally moves on, Dex sees Dr. Gage on

the ground and thinks he might be dead. Will Dex get help in time before Dr. Gage is gone? Find out in I Survived the Joplin

Tornado, 2011.

I think the message from this book is that even when times are tough or you lose everything, you can find hope in

yourself and other people. What I enjoyed about this book is that it definitely shows you what it would be like if the most

terrifying tornado hit you, with all of the amazing details included.

Anna gave this book 3 out of 5 tornados.

Lara Saunders is a fifth grade teacher at

Mary Blair Elementary in Loveland, Col-

orado. Lara graduated from the University

of Northern Colorado and has been teach-

ing for 18 years.

Information graphics, also known as infographics, are

visual representations of information. Infographics allow

information to be quickly and clearly presented in a visually

appealing manner. These graphical representations of infor-

mation have long been a method for presentation, but his-

torically infographics were difficult and time-consuming to

create. Advances in technology have generated a variety of

free and easy-to-use tools, allowing everyone the opportu-

nity to effortlessly create infographic masterpieces.

Infographics are a unique and creative way to engage

students in visual literacy. Students have the opportunity

to communicate knowledge through the creation of a dig-

itally created graphic representation. And, with the inte-

gration of technology in teaching and learning, students

are no longer limited by their artistic ability, graph paper

and other available supplies, or a static image.

The following 10 infographic tools are free or offer

free versions and can easily be used by students in the

classroom to assist in visually communicating their mes-

sages successfully.

1. Easel.ly (www.easel.ly)

Easel.ly has a variety of customiz-

able templates for creating info-

graphics that are appropriate for

all ages. It employs a simple drag and drop method. Doc-

uments and pictures can be uploaded, and colors and text

can be tailored to construct a unique end product. A brief

and basic video to get started is available on the website.

Once you create an account (e-mail address and pass-

word), you’ll be e-mailed additional video tutorials and

how-to articles.

This option has some great templates for younger

audiences.

2. Piktochart (piktochart.com)

This tool offers templates in four for-

mats: infographic, presentation, poster,

and report. The templates are set up in

a grid for simple modification. Pik-

tochart allows you to search through

its icons and pictures or the option of

uploading your own images for personalization within the

graphic. The tool also makes it easy to create your own

charts and graphs for inclusion. The finalized infographic

can be saved as a JPEG, PNG, or PDF, or shared on social

media.

One unique feature is the ability to import data

directly from SurveyMonkey.

3. Infogr.am (infogr.am)

The free version of Infogr.am

allows you to create 10 info-

graphics. The tool uses dummy

spreadsheets for incorporating

charts, graphs, and maps. These spreadsheets are edited

by adding your own data. Chart properties such as size

and color can be modified. Finished products can be pub-

lished on a website with the provided embed code.

Infogr.am allows you to upload videos into your

infographic.

4. Venngage (venngage.com)

This tool offers templates for info-

graphics, reports, posters, promo-

tions, and social media. The free

version limits the accessible tem-

plates and only allows you to create

five free infographics, but there are a

This Contains All That

KELLY MCKENNA

What’s

New?

Explore the fascinating world of infographics with these free online tools.

multitude of templates. The simple drag-

and-drop creation includes a plethora of

widgets that can be incorporated in the

image. The ability to upload personal

images is also an option.

Interactive polls are an added fea-

ture in this tool.

5. Visme (www.visme.co)

The biggest draw-

back to Visme is

its limit of three

projects with the free version.

However, although templates are limited, there is an abun-

dance of distinct pictures and infographic backgrounds for

use. This tool specializes in infographics, presentations,

and banners (a unique format). It uses a simple drag-and-

drop system and has an introductory video.

The biggest draw to using Visme is the option to

include audio within the infographic.

6. Canva (www.canva.com)

Canva starts you out with a beginner’s

challenge, a simple tutorial that can be

engaging for all ages. The challenge

allows students to be introduced to all

the options available to them while suc-

cessfully creating a basic, but imagina-

tive infographic. Once completed, you’re

ready to get started or go to Design

School. The options available for photo

effects, speech bubbles, text, and pic-

tures are impressive. The infographics

can be as simple or complex as fits your

objective, but charts within the image

can’t be edited on Canva.

The best features of Canva are the

lesson plans and workshops available

for teacher use in the classroom.

7. Timeline JS (timeline.knightlab.com)

With this tool the use

of a spreadsheet assists

in creating multiple

slide timelines. All cells within the templates must be com-

pleted. A variety of media can be incorporated into the

visuals. The tool is used in conjunction with Google Drive.

Once completed, the timeline is published; then the

embed code can be used to incorporate the images on a

website for presentation.

Timeline JS works well for narratives that are pre-

sented in chronological order.

Students are no longer

limited by their

artistic ability, graph

paper and other

available supplies, or

a static image.

CO LO R A D O RE A D I N G J O UR NA L — SU M M ER 2016

THIS CO N TAINS ALL TH AT

. Creately (creately.com)

Creately allows for simple drag and

drop of shapes and images or click and

drag to incorporate lines. There are

umerous preset color themes and

templates that are customizable. Com-

pleted infographics can be exported as

a PDF or shared via e-mail. The free version is slightly dif-

ficult to find and includes five infographic diagrams.

The most attractive element of Creately is the real-

time collaboration.

9. Statsilk (www.statsilk.com)

The web version of StatTrends and the

desktop version of StatTrends Plus are

both free. These infographics include

interactive maps and graphs. Excel or

other spreadsheet software is used to

insert or import the data. A data editor

is available for customization of the information.

Charts and graphs in the infographic can be ani-

mated when using this tool.

0. Dipity (www.dipity.com)

Dipity specializes specifically

in timelines. Video, audio,

links, and social media can

ll be added to the visual and

will be recorded with location and time stamps. This tool

is likely more appropriate for older students and students

with more experience. The interactive capabilities are a

unique aspect.

Dipity timelines allow you to have followers.

* * * * *

Images are powerful and contain copious amounts

of information in a single visual. Check out one of these

10 tools in your classroom and allow students to realize

the abundance of information they can communicate

through one infographic.

Kelly McKenna is an assistant professor in

the School of Education at Colorado State

University, teaching online, face-to-face,

and hybrid courses. Kelly has a PhD in

educational technology and formerly

taught preservice teachers how to integrate

technology into the classroom. Her

research interests focus on creating optimal

learning environments and facilitating successful student

experiences through technology-enhanced teaching and learn-

ing and educational learning communities.

As I sit on my deck on an absolutely gorgeous Col-

orado day to think about what lies ahead as we plan

another fabulous conference, I stop to ponder what makes

each of us value our surroundings and what we put into

our profession every day. We are so lucky to

live in this beautiful state with all its

resources and breathtaking scenery. The

things we value about living here are just

some of the ingredients to why we live here.

Our motivation to work in a vocation that

changes the world through exploring, syn-

thesizing, and stimulating new ideas is the

perfect recipe for success for our students

and ourselves.

My vision for the upcoming 2017 con-

ference, “Golden Ingredients for 50 Years of

Literacy,” is for all of us to gather together in

February and share our wealth of knowledge

and understanding about how so many ele-

ments go into teaching and learning effec-

tively. It takes many “ingredients” for our

students, and us, to be successful…not just information

given, but shared experiences, exploring, listening, speak-

ing, and the thoughtful development of the specifics

offered. The speakers and authors who are coming will

share their expertise and provide solid examples of valu-

able “recipes” that are practical, logical, and applied in

their own teaching of students. Some of the “master chefs”

who will attend include Doug Fisher, Nell Duke, Ruth

Culham, Kelly Gallagher, Penny Kittle, Stephanie Harvey,

Kate Messner, Janet Stevens, Lester Laminack, Tim Rasin-

ski, Jan Richardson, Kristin Ziemke, Danny Brassell, and

so many more. Our conference has an amaz-

ing reputation outside of Colorado too. So

many speakers and authors did not hesitate

to say “Yes!” when asked to join us in 2017.

Of course, we must also celebrate 50

years of the Colorado Council of the Inter-

national Reading Association. Our organiza-

tion has been providing support, grants,

resources, a place to collaborate with other

educators, and an amazing conference each

year for 50 wonderful years. The member-

ship of CCIRA is strong, and the educators

that are involved cannot be compared.

Involvement is key, and the strong support

and collaboration with others has been why

I personally have been involved for many

years. I know that when I go to a meeting or

mini-conference, or just talk with others over coffee in the

Atrium at the Marriot during the February conference, I

am among a mighty group of educators who are dedicated,

loyal, and on a quest to do whatever is best for students.

Come join that fabulous group of educators at the annual

conference on literacy February 1 –4 at the Denver Mar-

riott Tech Center. It will be delicious!

Letter From the Conference Chair

ANNE COOK

CCIRA 2017

EARS

Danny Brassell Ruth Culham Kelly Gallagher Penny Kittle Lester Laminack Kate Messner

C C I R A 2 0 1 7

5 0

Y E A R S

Here’s what we’re

CookingUp

for 2017!

2017 is a 50th Anniversary landmark for CCIRA —

50 years of promoting and celebrating literacy in

the state of Colorado. We are marking the

occasion with a tasty theme guaranteed to

get mouths watering in anticipation!

Look for conference information

materials in October; registration

opens November 1. We will look

forward to you celebrating with us

the ﬁrst week of February 2017!

Pam Allyn

Jeﬀ Anderson

Danny Brassell

Danny M. Cohen

Ruth Culham

Nell Duke

Doug Fisher

Kelly Gallagher

Dr. Vickie Gibson

Nikki Grimes

Stephanie Harvey

Linda Hoyt

Penny Kittle

Lester Laminack

Barry Lane

Kirby Larson

Christopher Lehman

Kate Messner

Donalyn Miller

Julie Ramsey

Tim Rasinski

Jan Richardson

Laura Robb

Janet Stevens and

Susan Stevens Crummel

Diane Sweeney

Kristen Ziemke

...and many, many more!

2017 CCIRA

Conference

on Literacy

FEBRUA RY 1 - 4, 2 017

Nonproﬁt Org.

U.S. Postage

PAID

Wheat Ridge, CO

ermit No. 81

CCIRA

10148 Mockingbird Lane

Highlands Ranch, CO 80129