The Reading Dozen

Pam’s recipe for Reading

  1. Environmental Print – reading a stop sign, knowing that Colgate toothpaste is red and white. It’s a big poster board with familiar objects and words underneath.
  2. Reading for Routines – you’ll have mail coming in in the mail box, schedule for the day
  3. Reading Centre – create a reading corner!
  4. Chart Reading – poems with rhythm and rhyme on big chart paper for class to see, kid can touch the paper, reading left to right. So important to get physical books in kids’ hands in the day of digital iPads. With a pointer, get the kids to read along.
  5. Listening Centre Reading – Audio books.
  6. Story Telling/Re-Tell Reading – with partners, getting kids excited about reading.
  7. Read Alouds – read twice a day to kids even if you teach grade 8s! Reading aloud has huge impact.
  8. Shared Reading –
  9. Independent Reading
  10. Reading Comprehension – responding to reading is best when it’s an open-ended sheet.
  11. Response to Reading – Text to self – when teacher reads me a book and you already know the author. Text-to text – book about plastic bags, I know plastic bags are bad for the environment.
  12. Take Home Reading– 5 books in a bag, cloth bags donated to parents, tag with name of books. Bags returned on Monday to teacher, bags switch. Run book bag program from Jan-May. If kids can’t read the book, get parents to read the book to their kids.

You can and should use picture books up to grade 12. So many ways to represent thinking for kids.

The Bee tree – Patricia Polacco

About a grandpa in the Hebrew tradition that puts honey on a book.

Lon PoPo

A Red-Riding Hood Story from China

Chester’s Masterpiece – MĂ©lanie Watt

Disects all the things that kids can write about in a story. Canadian author.

If… – by Sarah Perry

Flexible thinking, creative thought. Get kids to write more.

The Adventures of Harris Burdick – Chris Van Aushburg (Grade 5-8)

Pictures with only captions in a museum. People guess what is happening in the illustrations. “Tell a story about this illustration.” This author wrote Polar Express, Jumanji.

Chalk by Bill Thompson

Wordless picture book. Read the book then write in the text for the book.

Who is the Beast – Keith Baker

Great book for cultural appreciation and how we have to appreciate our similarities before our differences.