Storytent / Bookwagon Times

UndER ConsRTUction :)

View Bookwagon Route in a larger map


Storytent 2011?


View Storytent 2011 in a larger map

Guided Reading

Fountas and Pinnell's 1996 Guided reading: Good first teaching for all children revives E.W. Dolch's reading program known as independent reading. He explains this approach in the essay "Individualized Reading vs. Group Reading", captured in Joe Frost's Issues and innovations in the Teacher of Reading (1967).

Dolch (and others) had come to see that scaffolding means helping learners master tasks of increasing difficulty and complexity. More, it means meeting each learner where they are at, and giving them exactly "the help that he needs just when he needs it" (p. 141). "So 'a book suited to the child' is a basic rule of individualized reading" (p. 145).

By the time we were ready to write our how-to manual for the storytent program, we were making reference to "an adaptation of guided reading, which involves promoting specific reading strategies (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). We use leveled books that are in children’s instructional ranges (not too hard, not too easy) and try, gently, to match up children and texts."



Guided reading or individualized readings supposes an understanding of reading levels and the availability of books at all levels. Following Fountas and Pinnell, we use a letter system that relates loosely to grade level. Although there are commercial sets of guided readers designed to take children through all the levels, we prefer using trade fiction - the books and stories children aready love - which we level with the help of some online tools. You can see a partial list of the books we use in this page's sidebar.

One of our favourite tools is the Beaverton School District's Leveled Books Database. Nancy Giansante of the the McCarthy-Towne School offers another leveled book list. Still not satisfied? Check out Battle Creek's Guided Reading Leveled Library for more lists and links to related resources.

Our 'Must Have' Books

We bring between 200 and 400 books to each storytent (depending upon the weather). Among these are 50 or 60 "must have" titles that we know families will be looking for. Some of these titles are popular because they are useful for new readers (young or old). Some are popular because they are popular.


Books that Help New Readers

Books that help new readers are books with few words per page, clear relevant pictures or illustrations, and a clear pattern. Examples of books with matching text and illustrations would be Big and Little by Samantha Berger and Blue Hat Green Hat by Sandra Boynton. An example of a predictable pattern book is Brown Bear Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin Jr.

Crowd Pleasers

Crowd pleasers are books that hold the attention of children of different ages. In our tent, Mortimer and Stephanie’s Ponytail by Robert Munsch, or chanting and singing books like Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Miss Mary Mack, and Lady with the Alligator Purse work well.




Here is a partial list of crowd pleasers, easy-reads and otherwise effective books we try to always have in the storytent:

Robert Munsch

• 50 Below Zero
• Aaron’s Hair
• Alligator Baby
• Good Families Don’t
• Jonathan Cleaned Up…
• Look at Me
• Makeup Mess
• Moira’s Birthday
• Mortimer
• Mud Puddle
• Murmel Murmel Murmel
• Pigs
• Purple, Green and Yellow
• Smelly Sox
• Something Good
• Stephanie’s Ponytail
• The Boy in the Drawer
• The Dark
• The Paper Bag Princess
• Up, Up, Down
• Wait and See

Phoebe Gilman

• Jillian Jiggs
• Pirate Pearl
• Something From Nothing
• Grandma and the Pirates
• The Balloon Tree

Donald Crews

• Ten Black Dots
• Freight Train
• Truck
• Harbor
• School Bus
• Sail Away

Byron Barton

• My Car
• Trucks
• Trains
• Machines at Work
• Planes
• The Three Bears
• Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs
• I Want to Be an Astronaut
• Airport
• Boats
• Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones
• Little Red Hen Big Book
• Building a House
• Tools
• Airplanes
• Wheels

Dr. Suess

• Cat in the Hat (1957)
• Fox in Socks
• Green Eggs and Ham
• Hop on Pop
• One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
• There's a Wocket in My Pocket!
• Are You My Mother?

Arnold Lobel

• Frog and Toad Are Friends
• Frog and Toad Together
• Owl at Home
• Frog and Toad All Year
• Mouse Soup
• Mouse Tales
• Days with Frog and Toad

Sandra Boynton

• Moo Baa La La La
• Going-To-Bed Book
• But Not the Hippopotamus
• Blue Hat, Green Hat
• Doggies
• Barnyard Dance!
• Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!
• Your Personal Penguin

Ezra Jack Keats

• A Letter to Amy
• The Snowy Day
• Whistle for Willie
• Peter's Chair
• Goggles!
• Dreams
• Regards to the Man in the Moon

Other noteworthy authors include:

• Betsey Chessen and Samantha Berger (nonfiction);
• Barbara Reid;
• Sheree Fitch;
• Paulette Bourgeois,
• Dav Pilkey;
• Frank Asch;
• Bill Martin Jr.;
• Eric Carle;
• David Shannon;
• Don Freeman.

Have fun!

Quality Storytents 2004

Quality Storytents 2004: Revisiting using choice theory to support reading through a community literacy project.


Abstract

This paper documents the results of efforts to replicate research from 2003 in a 2004 storytent program which ran in a Public Housing Neighbourhood in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The research component examined the impact of the program on the frequency of reading in children's lives, on their own reading levels, and on their perceptions about reading and themselves as readers. As well, this year, we researched the impact of our method of delivery on social interaction. The program had a positive impact on reading frequency, and all of the children who were assessed maintained or showed a gain in reading level. For those children who chose to make frequent or intensive use of the storytent, the program was instrumental in helping them acquire or improve their reading skills. Statements by children showing them to be surprised and delighted at their own emerging and growing skills appear in staff notes, and parent reports corroborate this appearance of positive self perceptions in their children as a result of having had a reading success in a need satisfying environment. Worker and parent comments indicate that most children who participated in the project socialized more positively with their siblings and peers. The authors believe that building and maintaining relationships, with children as well as their parents, is the heart of Storytent work.

Quality Storytents 2003

Quality Storytents 2003: Using choice theory to support reading through a community literacy project

Abstract

The research component of a 2003 storytent project documents the positive impact of the program on the frequency of reading in children's lives, on their own reading levels, and on their self-perceptions about reading and themselves as readers. What made this program successful was a method of delivery combining Choice Theory, humanistic learning principles and developmentally appropriate practice. Statements by children showing them to be surprised and delighted at their own emerging and growing skills appear in worker notes, and parent reports corroborate this appearance of positive self-perceptions in their children because of having had a reading success in a need satisfying environment. A fuller version of this study appeared as Brown, Cheryl and Wendell Dryden (2004). "Quality Storytents: Using Choice Theory to Support Reading Through a Community Literacy Project." International Journal of Reality Therapy 24(1), 3-12.