Idea Gallery

5/27/07 - Deanna DeCario from South Miami impressed our visitors from Georgia with her excellent implementation of curriculum and her high student expectations. One thing we all loved when we observed her class was one of her greeting time songs. Here are the words. Do it as a chant or make up your own tune:

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday - clap
Wednesday, Thursday - snap, snap, snap
Friday - hop
Saturday - stop
Turn around and spin like a top.
Seven days in the week you see,
Now we'll sit so quietly.

11/13/07 - Dawn Peralta from Madie Ives Elementary has created an extensive list of children's books for parents to use to support the concepts being taught in Shared Reading, as well as a cover letter to send to parents at the beginning of the year. Links to this document will also be found in Teacher Handbook, Appendix S (currirulum, BELL) and Y (family involvement).

Shared Reading Book List by Dawn Peralta

11/7/07 - NEW! This GREAT IDEA was submitted by Michelle Skalski and Delia Katz from Tropical Elementary:

We designed a poster/chart that teachers and students can use at the end of the two week period of reading a particular book in Shared Reading to review the key points of the book.

This Shared Reading Book Summary Chart includes the Title, Main Idea, Author, Illustrator, Characters, Setting, and Sequence. It provides visual support for young students to better understand what is being reviewed. Teachers may use the visuals to build and extend language for second language learners. The pictures may also be used as Alternative/Augmentative Communication for students with various language abilities.

To start building your own Shared Reading Book Summary Chart,

download the symbols here!

(Some story specific symbols may be needed for the Sequence section. Michelle and Delia recommend using symbols from the Cheap Talk 8 overlay for each title - see below)

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Kristi Perez from E.W.F. Stirrup Elementary writes: "Our students this year are really into numbers and counting objects so we created an outdoor activity with the dice with numerals and with the hula hoops. The children took turns rolling their dice, identifying the number independently or with the help of their friends and placing the corresponding number of hoops on the floor. The children then hopped over each hoop as they counted their hops. They truly enjoyed guessing if they were going to hop over many hoops or just a few."

Susan Ramsey from Gulfstream Elementary (Reverse Mainstream) offers this testimonial to the Pre-K Tech Team regarding the power of picture support during Shared Reading and Phonological Awareness activities:

Just a note to let you know how much I appreciate what I learned last summer with you about designing and using visuals to support our literacy program. Children who were usually inattentive started participating more; some could not wait to match their picture cards to the matching picture on the letter or rhyme poster.

The pictures helped me to prompt more language for students, expand on concepts better (ie. classifications, not the same, the same), and describe more characteristics when cuing a child to look at their picture card for certain details.

It was great having all the picture scans for the posters available (Pre-K SPED teachers may contact Sheila or Tina about acquiring and using these materials). Susana Cardona, the best para in the world, printed them, cut them, laminated them and adhered Velcro pieces to the posters and corresponding pictures. She also set up a filing system with envelopes of support pictures,  the scans and photos from magazines.

Downloading the pre-made story boards has been great (see all story downloads here), and your suggestion of giving them to certain children to hold and use has optimized our Shared Reading Time. We were able to a have more interesting and interactive learning experiences. Thank you. Thank you.