Non-Fiction Reading Strategy
Teaching and Reflection Bookmark Strategy
The current unit for the GRADS program at all of my schools has been Family Literacy. We kicked off the Have A Heart, Do Your Part Radiothon with a fundraising project in which the students would list the books they read to their children, even in utero. Students also collected pledges and donations from friends and family. (see attached forms).
I brought bags of books to each school for students to borrow for this project. I also held an evening get together on January 29th at the Cuyahoga Falls Public Library. We gathered in a conference room for refreshments where students from different schools could meet each other and introduce their babies. I supplied free books for students to take home.
I took them to the children’s section and they spent time looking through the books. I encouraged them to read to their baby and reminded them that they could include these books on their pledge sheet. At 6:30pm the students joined the other parents from the community for the weekly Family Storytime. That was a very enlightening experience for the students to observe adult parents. They were somewhat distracted at times with fussy babies and left the room to retrieve bottles, etc. It was a very powerful experience in multiple ways; too many to discuss in this project.
For this particular lesson I wanted the students to understand the meaning of family literacy. I used an activity from Dr. Hruschak’s class in which we listed all of the things we read that day, both fiction and non-fiction. We discussed the importance of parents modeling reading at home. None of the students read the newspapers and only a couple enjoys leisurely reading.
I distributed current newspapers and a Bookmark form with instructions to find the articles marked with post-it notes. The articles have significant meaning to the course curriculum and are varied in subject matter. The point being that as a parent it is imperative to stay abreast of current news and information that can impact their children.
The four students completed the Bookmark and then discussed the articles with each other. The students seemed interested in what others read and they asked each other questions. A couple students could not find any “stats” in their article. Another student came to class late and didn’t have time to complete her form.
I will definitely use the Bookmark Strategy in the future. I use the newspapers for current event activities with a Summary worksheet for students to complete. The students seemed more willing to fill out this half sheet of paper even though it’s basically asking the same information.
Bibliography
Antoniotti, Kathy. “Hands-oh lesson about dirt,” Akron Beacon Journal [Akron, OH]
29 January, 2008: B1
Cardwell, Jewell. “Surrogate mother doubles the bliss.” Akron Beacon Journal [Akron,
OH] 25 January, 2008: B1
Stobbe, Mike. “Vaccine may be offered to boys too”. Akron Beacon Journal [Akron, OH]
February 2, 2008: A3
Wheeler, Tracy. “Preterm problems,” Akron Beacon Journal [Akron, OH]
29 January, 2008: D1
Filed under: Teaching
