Quality Learning NB

Storytent / Bookwagon Times

2011-06-15T17:12:00.000-07:00

UndER ConsRTUction :)

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Storytent 2011?

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Guided Reading

2010-09-09T15:58:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-01T15:29:00.000-07:00

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.