How to Use Read-Alouds in Elementary School By Dorit Sasson

Elementary teachers, especially those teaching young ELLs (English Language Learners), are hungry for learning how to teach reading. Teachers can use read alouds to teach letter-sound correspondences, words, sentences, and eventually, other stories. Oral Instruction and Read-Alouds Oral instruction enhances the process of early literacy by providing direct explicit instruction on reading, thinking and learning strategies, word and meaning recognition, and early reading skills. While every teacher's approach to oral work differs, the principles for strengthening an at-risk performance in the early stages of a read-aloud remain the same. Identifying the Type of Read-Alouds Teachers begin by identifying the type of read-aloud (expository or narrative) and how much oral work will be done prior to the read-aloud. As the teacher reads the story, s/he encourages students to predict. Non-verbal clues such as gestures, and verbal clues such as pictures, help facilitate the process of reading the story aloud. Discussing vocabulary is an important linking stage between hearing words and seeing them in their contexts before students have the necessary reading skills to acquire vocabulary independently. Teaching Vocabulary Using the popular read-aloud Bear Snores On, [Karma Wilson, 2003] the teacher presents new vocabulary by showing the cover. and asks "Who is 'snoring'?" While reading the story, teacher refers to the word snoring using guiding questions: "Where is the bear snoring?" "Who comes into the cave when bear is snoring?" Building Emerging Literacy Skills The look-read-say method (otherwise known as the whole word approach) helps ELLs learn early decoding and early reading according to word patterns which were previously introduced in the read-aloud. It is up to the teacher to choose 4-6 target vocabulary that can be explicitly taught from sound and meaning. Stage 1: the teacher presents the word in a sentence strip. Stage 2: The teacher says: "The word X sounds like Y." Stage 3: ELLs hear the pattern. Stage 4: Students say the word and spell out the word. Predicting the contents of a read-aloud is an important pre-reading technique. It should follow the vocabulary presentation stage. ELLs with limited oral vocabulary can supply a few words. Later, they can confirm their predictions in terms of plot, characters, and story sequence. Modeling predictions provide discussions from which student predictions play a crucial role. Read-alouds represent an appropriate oral language program suitable for the language learning development of early literacy and second language learners. The read-aloud is not completely an oral experience. Teachers should connect the oral experiences with early reading components of early literacy To receive your free ebook, "Taking Charge in the Classroom" and your free weekly ezine containing tips, news and in-service training sessions for teachers, visit the New Teacher Resource Center at [http://www.newteachersignup.com] Dorit Sasson is a freelance writer, educator and founder and director of the New Teacher Resource Center. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dorit_Sasson Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3039122

$1000 Shopping Spree!

I saw a fun little game and thought about trying it.
Hypothetical question time. What if you were shopping and the manager rushes up to you and says, "It’s your lucky day. I’m going to give you anything up to the value of $1000"!
You’ve got an hour to choose what you want, it has to be something you would use for school. What would you get?
You can get as many products as you like as long as they total $1000 or less.
Click here to start shopping!

TeacherShare

I am starting a new project where all teachers are welcome to come connect and share with other teachers. There are also a lot of freebies for you to come download. I will be over there getting things running if you want to stop by. Just click on TeacherShare.

Make Your Own Snow!

One of my favorite things when I was a kid was playing in the snow. I grew up in Tennessee so that didn't happen too often. Now the problem is solved. In college I went to a science conference and came across Insta-Snow. I thought it was the coolest thing ever so I had to get some. All you have to do to make your own snow is mix a small amount of this powder with some water and it turns to snow! It is so awesome, and the kids love it. Every year around Christmas I show the kids how to make their own snow. Each year as part of their present they each get their own powder with directions so they can go home and make their own snow for their family. It has been a big hit. I even have students after leaving my class write about it as being their favorite memory of school. It's amazing how something so simple can have such an impression. If you have done this with your kiddos tell me about it in the comments. If not, you can follow the link below to get your own.

Sight Words Freebie

Today's freebie is I have...Who has...Dolch Sight Words Level 1. This is Level 1 Dolch Sight Words turned into the popular game of I have...Who has... This format is the white background copy so you can print on any color paper/cardstock. The words on this activity are:
A AND AWAY BIG BLUE CAN COME DOWN FIND FOR FUNNY GO HELP HERE I IN IS IT JUMP LITTLE LOOK MAKE ME MY NOT ONE PLAY RED RUN SAID SEE THE THREE TO TWO UP WE WHERE YELLOW YOU
To get this freebie and check out others click here.

Homemade Interactive Whiteboard

Here is the video of students using the homemade interactive whiteboard. They are working on a matching game on a regular pull-down screen. This will work on any surface, wall, screen, whiteboard, etc. Click here to get the directions on how to make your own.

Instant Storage

I bet you all know what this is a picture of. It is an organizer you hang over your door to 
store your shoes. Of course, but why does it only have to store shoes? Hang this over a door in your classroom and you instantly increase your storage area in your room (which we all know is limited). You can label each pocket with a student's name and it can be their personal mailbox or where they turn in work. It will make it easy for you to glance at to see who has not turned in their work yet. Or you can use it to store supplies for the class. Use each pocket for pencils, crayons, glue, scissors etc. The ideas are endless. It is a very compact storage tool. It doesn't have to be limited to only shoes.