Final Flashcards
Children’s Literature
- Reading to preschool children is one of the most important factors in literacy development
- children who are read to from infancy onward have enormous advantages once they begin school
- early reading experiences also influence early writing, listening, and comprehension skills
- the more experience children can have with reading, the more successful they will be in school
Picture Storybooks
- Invole a partnership between text and pictures, with the pictures and text together telling the story and presenting information
- Can be wordless books, concept books, predictable books, easy-to-read books, and picture story books.
Storybooks
Allow children to underestand stories through multiples cues (visual), not only text.
- Early readers need both WRITERLY and READERLY texts
Writerly texts
Readers must use their imaginations to fill in the textual gaps
Readerly texts
The writer has provided most of the information for the reader and the write’s meanins tend to be clear and direct
Wordless books
Help children become engaged with books
Picture books for older readers
Teachers plans an imporatnt role, through dialogue and discussion groups, helping chidlren use inferences to understand these multi-layered stories. Often require multiple readings. Not just for easy reading, often deal with mature and complex themes.
Beginning Chapter Books
Grade 2-4
Readability does not depend on the complecity of language alone, however, but has much to do with the structure of the book and the background experiecne the reader is required to being to it.
- Will likely still contain illustrations
- these books require greater investment of time and effort than a picture book
- movement to these books depends largely on the encouragement of their teacher, peers and own interests
- teachers need to read these books in order to engage in disucssions with children
Novels in Upper Elementary
- Contemporary realistic fiction
- mystery
- historical fiction
- time-slip fantasy
- fantasy
- high fantasy (quest stories)
Graphic Novels
- allow students to “read” visually and textually at the same time
- ## multimodal activity (decoding and processing both text and images at the same time)
Collections of short stories
Brief fictional narrative that consists of more than just a mere account of an incident. Has a formal structure with unity of time, place and action.
Traditional literacture
- Mostly short stories that reflect values and dreams of a society
- important genre and one of the first that students usually come into contact with.
- folk and fairy tales
- myths and legends
- fables
- oral tradition of story telling
Informational books (non-fiction)
- must be current, accurate and appealing
- photo-documentaries, “how-to” books, question and answer formats, experiment and activity books, sequential explanation books, field guides, biographies, narrative non-fiction
Non-book resources
Newspaper, magazine, etc - need to have available for students
Guidelines for appropriate selection
- books that meet the needs of the children and curriculum
- understand child development
- literacy quality of books
- knowledge of provincial PoSs + cur standards
- important to consider a broad range of literacture, helps children become critical thinkers and thoughtful human beings capable of making sound judgements both as individuals and as members of society
Teacher considerations of guidelines
- be aware of your own biases and values
- stay current with issues, themes, book publications and reviews
- maintain files of: policy statements, useful resources, procedures for dealing with challenging materials
Critical literacy
- help children learn to critically interrogate all texts, whether in books, in the media or on the Internet
- purpose is to empower teachers and students to actively participate in a democracy and move literacy beyond text to social action
Canadian Literature
Canada is a mosaic, not a melting pot…and we need to show literature that represents this.
- books by aboriginal canadians (helps children understand themselves and their world)
- read about canadian places and people
Language and Thinking
- Language plays a central role in learning
- students are actively engaged in meaning-making processes
- teachers work as facilitators and guides
- all six language arts are involved in active learning
- students are encouraged to express and explore their understanding of concepts and the curriculum using their own language
Working with textbooks
- scaffold students’ reading so they know how to use the text
- talk with the students about what they have read in the book
- teach the students how to pick out the main idea and the details in any paragraph
- teach students ho to use the ToC, index and glossary
- supplement the textbook with other literature
- draw students’ attention to key words and phrases
Non-fiction and information texts
- should have an ample supply of quality nonfiction books
- can be used for: provide a context out of which inquiry might grow, stimulate discussion, provide informaiton, teach children about textual features of info books
- sequence, cause-effect, compare-contrast
Multimodal text
- integration of medial such as sound, text, graphics, animation and full-motion video into a single, computeriaze system ( digital storytelling)
Research Projects
Formulate reserach questions to guide the student - the most interesting and motivating questions are those developed the the students themselves
Voices of Writing
model of writing based on the voice of the writer (writer’s purpose, style, tone, commitment, energy, conviction and personality
Models of Writing
Expressive (personal email or letter to a friend)
Poetic (more literary, stories and poems)
Transactional (when writer wants to convey information to other - report, list, recipe, movie review, textbook
Narrative Writing
A story which links a series of events together. Purpose = entertainment. Can be fiction or non-fiction. Crafted in a certain way (beginning, middle and end)
Expressive writing
Personal, informal writing (blogs, diaries, journals). We rarely revise or craft expressive writing. It expresses who we are and what we think and feel.
Informal/expository (non-fiction)
Intended to explain, persuade, or instruct
- Information, detailed explanations, judgments, and supporting examples.
- Must be organized, clear and coherent. Persuasive writing, anecdotes, explanatory writing.
Process of Composing
“Workshop approach” - cyclical, not series of processes (write, revise, reread, revise, etc)
Process of composing (REHEARSAL)
REHEARSAL - first stage of composing (collecting, prewriting). Collect what’s to be included. Think about the form or media they will use for the composition.
Process of composing (DRAFTING)
DRAFTING - putting onto paper the intentions developed in the rehearsing stage. Many be many drafts. Ideas become clearer about what can be done and what needs to be changed. Editing and revision skills taught via mini-lessons. Many ideas don’t actually come until writing starts/flows.
Process of composing (FEEDBACK)
Good opportunity to learn about writing
Process of composing (PRESENTATION)
PRESENTATION - celebration, share with the audience. Last stage.
Writer needs to consider the role of the audience - the awerness that a real audeince is going to hear and see the work makes all the difference in the world.
Guidelines for conducting a writing conference
LOOK IN BOOK
Teaching writing
About students and teachers taking risks. Value real writing for authentic purposes in their classrooms.
Social interaction in the writing process
- Need to assist children in learning to revise their inner speech = need to make it explicit.
- importance of talk (as children talk together or with a teacher, continual scaffolding is evident. Students eventually become students and teachers interchangeably.
Peer group writing conferences
LOOK IN BOOK
Conventions of Language
- English conventions are often based on conventions from other languages
- Punctuation changes over time and place (long & short vowels - nuclear)
- changes often occur because of aesthetic reasons (luv vs love)
Spelling as Etiquette
- is a courtesy to the reader
- important for clarity
- essential to ensure that the writer’s voice is heard
- is more than a matter of knowing the “correct” spelling
Skills for Conventional Spelling
- developmental approximations
- take risks
- strategies
- application
- learning to detect own errors