Speed Dating with Picture Books...An Adventure with Oasis Tutors

Picture books are the perfect avenue to connect, share, and learn with readers of all ages. Oasis Intergenerational Tutors use picture books each week while they work with students. So many picture books are published each year, and it can be difficult to keep up with all the new picture books out there.  "Speed Dating" was an activity used with a group of over 60 tutors at their monthly enrichment meeting. The goals of this activity were:

• Help tutors identify the characteristics of picture books they enjoy.
• Provide an opportunity for tutors to read several picture books.
• Discover titles of books tutors can use in their tutoring sessions.

The first thing I asked participants to do was to think about the characteristics of picture books that they find appealing. I gave the tutors a few minutes of think time. Then I asked them to jot down the characteristics that drew them to certain picture books. Finally, the tutors shared their thoughts with other tutors at the table.

It was time to dig in and start meeting new books. In speed dating we judge the potential matches, get to know the matches better, and then finally have a date or two with a match. This book speed dating experience will be similar.

Let's get started and meet some books. The steps for each round included:

1. Judge- Quickly judge the books by their covers. Find a few books that you are attracted to based on the covers.
2. Date- Choose one of the books you are attracted to and read it. (Feel free to stop reading it if you aren't interested.)
3. Give it your number- Record your thoughts about the book on the recording sheet. That way you will remember it later.

The tutors were eager dive into the stack of books on the tables.  Tutors read quietly, judged what they read, and switched books. After 10-15 minutes I gave tutors the opportunity to share their opinions of the books they read. The room was buzzing with conversations and books being shared back and forth.    

Then I asked the tutors to move to a different table in order to meet new books. They all scattered, found seats quickly, and started judging the new books they found. Tutors continued to read, write, and share. After about 15 minutes everyone chose a new table in order to repeat the process.

At the end of three rounds of "speed dating" I asked the tutors to reflect on all the books they read during our time together. The tutors chose the top 3 books they had read. They shared those titles with the others at the table.  Here are a few comments from the tutors about this experience:

• "Loved exposure to new books and comments from other tutors."
• "Found several to use as a springboard for writing and discussing feelings."
• "Loved reading lots of children's books. Nice to move around and meet other tutors."
• "I can gather several books and do the same thing with my student."
• "As a new tutor, it allowed me to ask questions of those at the table."
• "I have already ordered (reserved them at the public library) several of the books which I will read with my children."

Are you ready to try an activity similar to this with readers you know? Here are a couple of tips.

• Choose good books- This is the most important thing. Be thoughtful about the books you are choosing to share with your readers. I wanted to include biographies and newly published books. Don't know where to start? Check out Courtney Hinshaw on Instagram at Ramona Recommends or her blog at http://ramonarecommends.blogspot.com/ for tons of picture book recommendations. Also check out Colby Sharp's YouTube page to find videos of his engaging book recommendations. Read ALL the books you are going to use. 
• Get LOTS of books- I would have 2 books for each person you think will be reading. I thought there would be 50 tutors, but around 60 tutors showed up.  I brought about 100 books, and I could have used about 20 more. 
• Decorate- Make the room look special or different. A couple tablecloths from the local dollar store can make the room look inviting and exciting. (Also, you can save them and use them again.) I also bought some Valentine doilies at the dollar store to help decorate the tables. Little touches can go a long way.
• Provide a recording sheet- Provide some type of organizer for your readers to use. Give them titles and authors if you can. Have pens or pencils ready to use as well as note pads.
• Keep things moving- Listen to the buzz in the room. You don't want to rush the readers, but you want to move them to the next task or table before they get finished or bored. This will leave them wanting more.
• Allow time to share- Include a share time at each table. Readers will want to discuss their new discoveries with others. This will help them engage with the reading.
• Wrap things up with reflection- Allow your readers to have a quiet minute or two where they can identify which books were their favorites. 

Keep reading! Keep sharing!

How the Brain Learns to Ready by David A. Sousa- Chapter 5

This blog post will discuss chapter 5 in How the Brain Learns to Read by David A. Sousa. Chapter five deals with recognizing reading problems. This chapter was very interesting to me since I work with striving readers every day. We easily see the struggles of students with reading problems. This chapter sheds light on some of the reasons readers struggle.

One thing to keep in mind is the fact that "decoding written text is a wholly artificial creation that calls upon neural regions designed for other tasks." (p. 122) Reading occurs when many different parts of the brain work together complete the task of reading.

• "In some children, the problems occur during early brain development and affect their ability to process the sounds of language and, eventually, to decode written text. This development deficit appears to be the most common cause of reading difficulties, and usually results in a lifelong struggle with reading." (p. 123)

Dyslexia is reading problem that has gained attention in Missouri schools recently.

• "In developmental dyslexia, the child experiences unexpected difficulty in learning to read despite adequate intelligence, environment, and normal senses. It is a spectrum disorder, varying from mild to severe, that has a genetic component." (p. 123)
• ..."there are significant differences in the way normal and dyslexic brains respond to specific spoken and written language tasks." (p. 123)

There are several potential linguistic causes of reading problems and developmental dyslexia.

Phonological Deficits-  "Phonological information is used by the working memory to integrate and comprehend words in phrases and sentences. Numerous studies continue to show that phonological operations are impaired in many dyslexics, but not all." (p. 124)

Differences in Auditory and Visual Processing Speeds- Some studies have noted "abnormal auditory activation but normal visual activation during reading". (p. 124) "To read successfully the visual and auditory process systems have to work together."

Structural Differences in the Brain- "Most children with developmental dyslexia have visual analysis and phonological decoding areas of the brain that are insufficiently active and dysfunctional". (p 126)

Phonological Memory Deficits- Some studies have shown that weak phonological memory among dyslexic readers.

Developmental dyslexia is complex and may be caused by many factors. One important thing to keep in mind is that "dyslexia is a lifelong condition and not just a phase." (p. 127)

How the Brain Learns to Read- Chapter 2

Here are some of my notes and thoughts after reading chapter two from How the Brain Learns to Read.

Chapter 2- Learning to Read

• Learning to read connects the spoken language networks to visual recognition circuits
• "Speaking is a normal, genetically hardwired capability; reading is not." p. 35
• Phonological awareness- "recognition that oral language can be divided into smaller components, such as sentences into words, words into syllables, and ultimately, syllables into individual phonemes." -p.37
• Phonemic awareness- "understanding that words are made up of individual sounds and that these sounds can be manipulated to create new words." p. 38
• Phonics- "instructional approach for teachng reading and spelling that emphasizes sound-symbol relationships." p.39

Phonemic awareness in kindergarten is a strong predictor of reading success. Early instruction in letter-sound association is important. This statement reassures me to keep working on the letter-sound association work I am doing with my kindergarten students. 

"By grade 3, morphological awareness begins to surpass phonemic awareness in the development of decoding skills." p. 45  This makes sense when I noticed that phonemic awareness activities have dropped from the Challenge SIPPS lessons. Morphological awareness is an important component of the SIPPS Challenge system. This reminds me that I need to be more explicit when I am teaching the morphology component. 

Where are my students in their reading development?

Kindergarten- letter sound

1st grade- full alphabetic

2nd grade- chunking

3rd and 4th- morphology

Using concrete images when presenting abstract concepts

My September goal has been to use concrete images when presenting abstract facts.

How have I been able to use this recently?

• Heggerty Phonemic Awareness practice- using hand gestures to show the position of the target sounds has been very helpful for students. Positional words can be tricky and confusing for young learners, so having the hand gestures is very helpful.
• SIPPS- When practicing oral blending and segmenting it is really helpful for the students to use the graphic organizers of sound placeholders in the program.

How the Brain Learns to Read- Chapter 1

How the Brain Learns to Read by David A. Sousa, chapter 1 Learning Spoken Language

David Sousa lays the foundation of learning to read in chapter 1 with how children learn spoken language. Here are a few take-aways from this chapter.

• Most language is activated in the left hemisphere, but the emotional content of language is held in the right hemisphere. p 13  What can we do to connect the two hemispheres to anchor student learning.
• Infants' brains are wired for all the language sounds, but at about age 1 they start pruning out/off the sounds not found in the language they hear. p. 15 Another reason why it is important for dual languages to be spoken in the home if that is available. Also, this is another reason why it is so important for young children to have lots of experiences with conversations in the home.
• Image-loaded words and verbal (abstract) words are activated in different parts of the brain. Teachers should use concrete images when presenting an abstract concept. p. 16-17
• Building vocabulary in young children (ages birth-3) is very important. Have conversations with young children. The impact continues past age 3. p. 18

Picture Books You Should Read Part 2

The Bad Seed by Jory John and illustrated by Pete Oswald is a picture book that all readers can enjoy. It takes us on a journey through the eyes of a sunflower seed who identifies himself as a baaaad seed.

(Yes, you must read it aloud with a lot of expression.) We all get a little giggle out of mischievous characters who do those naughty things we wish we could do, but we don't want to label ourselves. Does the seed continue to be the bad seed? Will he ever be a good seed?

The Good Egg by Jory John and illustrated by Pete Oswald is a fabulous follow up to The Bad Seed.

Readers get to see the viewpoint of the good egg. He has always been the good egg. He tries to get all his other egg friends to be good eggs. When his friends can't be good he starts cracking up. The egg decides do a little self-care. At this time of year, teachers can be a little weary of trying to be the "good egg". We need to remember that we need to take care of ourselves.

Choice Words by Peter H. Johnston

Peter H. Johnston published Choice Words, How Our Language Affects Children's Learning in 2004. Johnston's text examines the language between teachers and students and how it impacts learning. He states, "In other words, the language that teachers (and their students) use in classrooms is a big deal." p. 10

In chapter one, Johnston gives an overview of the importance language holds on students and learning. Explicitness is one aspect that teachers must determine. "We don't explicitly detail how we do things because one of the rules of conversation is that you don't tell people what they already know. (Grice 1975) Minority students often pay a high price for this assumption." p. 7. Since the assumptions by teachers can have an impact on students, it is important  to consider the explicitness we use in our language, "deciding what to be explicit about requires some knowledge of our audience." p. 8.

Thoughts to consider-

• What do I assume my students already know? How might those assumptions be detrimental to student learning?
• How might my explicit language help my students?
• Where do I need to be more explicit?