Literacy

Literacy Lane

The purpose of this page is to provide strategies and activities to enhance the development of reading comprehension. As a participant in endless conferences, seminars, and university courses, I have always come away with lots of new ideas and generated some of my own. The need to internalize all of the information led me to develop extensive notes in handout format to share with others. I call it The Literarium: A Teacher's Bag of Tricks (a Compendium of Strategies and Activities to Enhance Literacy.) It's one of those "never ending stories." I'll always be a teacher researcher, looking for the better fix! Enjoy!

Now that I have retired from my job as a Language Arts Specialist, I have the time to go through things that I developed and used in the classroom as a regular education teacher. What a goldmine! I had forgotten that I worked on this as a personal literacy project while working on my masters degree. I'm really excited about finding the documents that support this page! If you see something that is not underlined and would like to move it to the front of the line for completion, let me know by sending me an e-mail at carl1404@msn.com and I'll get to it right away.

Some of these files are apparently too large to open as Word documents so I'm in the process of converting them to pdf files, while still trying to add new stuff!! If you can't open something, e-mail me and I'll convert it immediately (same day). Some things are not linked yet, and so they are not underlined. They are here as a reminder to myself to finish them ASAP.

The Literarium:
A Teacher's Bag of Tricks

Literacy: From A to Z
A is for acceleration of learning for all.
B is for books for the tall and the small.
C is for clusters, commercials and change.
D for designing a delightful exchange.
E is for evaluate and edit (sincere).
F is for fluent young readers to cheer.
G is for genre and group gallery walk.
H is for hot seat for questions and talk.
I is for interaction that never seems dull.
J is for jigsaws and journals so full.
K is for knowing how to read and to write.
L is for listening to others recite.
M is for marvelous mysteries and more.
N is for needing to think and explore.
O is for awesome oral productions.
P is for paragraphs, poems, predictions.
Q is for quietly reading each day.
R for responding to what others say.
S is for songs and stories and skits.
T is for themes. Tea parties are hits!
U is for unconditional respect.
V is for videotaping the text.
W is for taking a “walk through the mind.”
X is for extending all you’ve designed.
Y is for yearning to spread literacy.
Z is for zooming toward proficiency.

Effective Teachers and Effective Schools

Accordion Books	Activating Prior Knowledge
Ad Campaign
Alternate Ending	And The Award Goes To . . .
Back to the Future	Banner
Block Out (Words or Phrases)	Book Commercials
Book Covers	Bookmark
Brainabulary	Buddy Reading
Bumper Sticker	Cartoon
Cereal Box Book	Chain of Events
Character Birthday Party	Character Masks
Character Report Card/Judges Panel	A Clear View (Binoculars)
Cloze http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/cloze/index.html	Coat of Arms
Codes	Collage
Combining Sentences	Context Clues
Copy Change	Coupons
Cube	Debate
Dialogue Journals	Diorama (Life in a Shoe Box)
Diorama in the Round	Double Circle Gallery Walk
DRTA (Directed Reading Thinking Activity)	Dual Dialog
Echo Reading	Epitaph
Family Tree	Fiction Fashion: Wear A Word
Fix-Up Strategies	Flag
	Flip Books for Retelling Reproduce and have available for younger readers. Retelling shouldn't become a lesson in folding and cutting!
Found Poem	Genre Switch
Golden Line/Word	Greeting Cards
Guided Imagery	Hollywood Squares (Vocabulary)
Improvisation	Interview
Jigsaw	Job Application
Journals and Learning Logs	Letters
Lists	Mapping
Menu	Metacognition
Mobile	Modeling
Mural/Talking Picture	Name That Tune
Newspaper	Open House
Paper Chains	Paper Dolls
Passport	Peek Over/Add On (with Samples) Pirate Peek Over Pattern (Please note that you have to save the Peek Over documents to your computer and then open the files.)
Pennant	Photo Journal
Picture Walk	Portfolio
Poster	Prescription (Problem Resolution)
Quatro	Quick Write
Quilt	Realia
Recipe	Reenactment
Role Play/Dramatization	Round Table
Scaffolding	Sequencing Activities
Simulation	Sketch to Stretch
Snapshot
Sorting Words
Stamp
	Stick-a-Story
Story Boards	Story Maps
Strega Nona: Songs of Strega Nona Big Anthony Peek Over Strega Nona Peek Over
Telegram	Text Visualization
The Three Bears: Three Bears Gallery of Pictures Three Bears Paper Dolls Three Bears Peek-Over Three Bears Sequencing Three Bears: That One's Mine!
	This is Your Life (Character Analysis)
The Three Little Pigs: Masks Stationery Peek Over Patterns and Samples Three Little Pigs Song Three Little Pigs Body Puppets Three Little Pigs Pop Up Book Patterns and Samples Parents in the Pigpen (Song for Literature Book)	Time Line/Life Line
	Travel Guide
	T.V. for Juniors
$20,000 Pyramid (Vocabulary)
Venn Diagrams
Whip Around/I Have, Who Has?	Word Charades

Licensed by www.graphicgarden.com
Licensed by www.art4crafts.com