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Katherine Ali is a dual-certified elementary and special education teacher. She recently graduated as a literacy specialist with a Masters in Science from Manhattanville College. She has experience teaching internationally in northern China and now teaches in the Bronx, NY.

In order to be active participants in the literate world, students must be reading, writing, speaking, and listening at all ages. The natural interplay of language looks slightly differently across grades levels, but the foundations and mission are the same:

Reading:  Text Complexity and the growth of comprehension

We want our students to ascend the staircase of text complexity and simultaneously sharpen their comprehension skills.  Students, of all ages, need to build stamina through independently reading more rigorous and complex texts.  Additionally, read-alouds allow students to access content and concepts they may not be able to decode themselves.

Writing: Text types, responding to reading, and research

Opinion pieces, research-based projects, and narratives are the three main categories of student writing the Common Core State Standards focus on.  It is also imperative that our students engage in the writing process and expand their writing style using the conventions of the English language.

Speaking & Listening: Flexible Communication and Collaboration

Speaking and Listening in each grade level includes but is certainly not limited to presentations, group work, and class discussion.  Students need to be aware of their oral language skills and communicate their thoughts and research appropriately.   Building off other students’ ideas is also an important component in developing these skills.

In this series,  I’ve looked at:
Integrating reading, writing, speaking, and listening in grades K-1
Integrating reading, writing, speaking, and listening in grades 2-3

Today I look at how to integrate reading, writing, speaking and listening standards in grades 4-5, using the book Bird as an example.

Bird, by Zetta Elliott, illus. by Shadra Strickland
Interest Level: Gr. 3-8
DRA: 40, Guided Reading Level: Q

Reading:   Due to some heavy content (drug use and addiction, death) this story must be used in a safe learning environment.   It allows for great discussion around the themes of death, decision-making, perseverance, and coping skills.  Reading this book closely with a small group of students – almost page by page – will allow the students to deeply recognize the narrator’s point of view and how it affects the story.   Character description and point of view are the two main reading strategies I would suggest teaching with this intense, powerful text.

Writing:  Quick writes about students’ reactions and connections to the story are still merited in fourth and fifth grade.  Higher-level thinking questions can also be posed for students to develop their inferential thinking skills as well as their ability to cite evidence to support their answer.  Questions can include, “How are birds important in this text?” “What happened to Marcus? How do you know? What in the story tells you this?” and “How do you feel about the ending? Why?“  Using a high-interest and provocative book such as Bird may elicit a higher level of student participation.

Speaking & Listening:  To engage the students immediately, introduce this story by showing the Book Trailer posted on the Lee and Low website.  After students read and listen to the trailer, have them turn and talk with a partner to make predictions.  Or you can pose the question, “How does this trailer make you want to read the book Bird?” and give students 5 – 10 minutes for a quick write and share.   Then, discuss the media medium of the trailer asking, “Whose perspective is the story being told from? How do you know?  What decisions did the editor have to make? How do the music and transitions affect the presentation?”  The S&L standards for these grades want the students to converse about multimedia and presentation decisions.

There is also an extensive free teacher’s guide available to go with Bird, with several additional ideas.

Notice the close relationship between the modes of communication as the students read, listen to, write, and speak about complex, grade-appropriate texts.   If these key features are central to your instruction, your students will leave with a toolbox of skills they can rely on forever.

Katherine Ali is a dual-certified elementary and special education teacher. She recently graduated as a literacy specialist with a Masters in Science from Manhattanville College. She has experience teaching internationally in northern China and now teaches in the Bronx, NY.

In order to be active participants in the literate world, students must be reading, writing, speaking, and listening at all ages. The natural interplay of language looks slightly differently across grades levels, but the foundations and mission are the same:

Reading:  Text Complexity and the growth of comprehension

We want our students to ascend the staircase of text complexity and simultaneously sharpen their comprehension skills.  Students, of all ages, need to build stamina through independently reading more rigorous and complex texts.  Additionally, read-alouds allow students to access content and concepts they may not be able to decode themselves.

Writing: Text types, responding to reading, and research

Opinion pieces, research-based projects, and narratives are the three main categories of student writing the Common Core State Standards focus on.  It is also imperative that our students engage in the writing process and expand their writing style using the conventions of the English language.

Speaking & Listening: Flexible Communication and Collaboration

Speaking and Listening in each grade level includes but is certainly not limited to presentations, group work, and class discussion.  Students need to be aware of their oral language skills and communicate their thoughts and research appropriately.   Building off other students’ ideas is also an important component in developing these skills.

Last week, I explained what what it looks like to integrate reading, writing, speaking, and listening in grades K-1, using the book Rainbow Stew as an example. This week, I take a look at grades 2-3:

As Fast As Words Could Fly by Pamela M. Tuck, illus. by Eric Valesquez
Interest Level: 2 -7
DRA: 34, Guided Reading Level: O

Reading:  Doing a close read with students of As Fast As Words Could Fly fulfills the Common Core’s shift up the staircase of text complexity and builds strong vocabulary skills. Words such as refused, boasted, disbelief, barricaded, grimaces, and blurted are rich and valuable for second and third graders to read and understand.  This text is also an excellent model of the use of dialogue.  Through close reading activities students can highlight the dialogue and the speaker to understand the different ways to properly punctuate dialogue in a narrative. Of course, teachers can also read this story aloud so students can connect to the themes of perseverance and overcoming adversity.

Writing: Tuck’s writing style is strong and complex.  She uses compound sentences, prepositions, and onomatopoeia throughout the story creating a very sophisticated narrative.  Teachers can focus on one of these skills in a Writing Workshop model in which students translate the skill into their own writing. Mason’s story also evokes different opinions and feelings that lead to rich discussion. Use these discussion questions as a guide and encourage students to write a Reader’s Response and to share their responses with the class.

Speaking & Listening:  By second and third grade, students should be developing their formal presentation skills, therefore they may share Mason’s story through a presentation about influential people who took risks (complement the study with this interview with Moses Teel Jr., whose experience as a teenager during integration was the basis for Mason’s story).

Students also need to learn to lead discussions.  Assign a group of students to be the leaders of an interactive read-aloud and have them come prepared with various questions they developed in advance with the classroom teacher.  Creating a routine of student-led conversations around literature will catapult students into the upper elementary grades.

Stay tuned next week, when I discuss how to integrate reading, writing, speaking, and listening standards for grades 4-5 using Bird.

Katherine Ali is a dual-certified elementary and special education teacher. She recently graduated as a literacy specialist with a Masters in Science from Manhattanville College. She has experience teaching internationally in northern China and now teaches in the Bronx, NY.

As educators, we witness the transformations of students throughout elementary school.  First graders will one day become fifth graders, while fifth graders were once first graders.  So we must think, where did our students come from? and where are they going next? Our classroom must be structured to prepare our students for the future and help them build a skillset they can bring with them.  In order to be active participants in the literate world, students must be reading, writing, speaking, and listening at all ages.

Here on the LEE & LOW blog, I’ll illustrate what it looks like to integrate reading, writing, speaking, and listening across several grade levels: K-1, 2-3, and 4-5. The natural interplay of language looks slightly different across grade levels, but the foundations and mission are the same.

Reading:  Text Complexity and the growth of comprehension

We want our students to ascend the staircase of text complexity and simultaneously sharpen their comprehension skills.  Students of all ages need to build stamina through independently reading more rigorous and complex texts.  Additionally, read-alouds allow students to access content and concepts they may not be able to decode themselves.

Writing: Text types, responding to reading, and research

The three main categories of student writing the standards focus on are opinion pieces, research-based projects, and narratives.  It is also imperative that our students engage in the writing process and expand their writing style using the conventions of the English language.

Speaking and Listening: Flexible Communication and Collaboration

Speaking and Listening in each grade level includes (but is certainly not limited to) presentations, group work, and class discussion.  Students need to be aware of their oral language skills and communicate their thoughts and research appropriately.   Building off other students’ ideas is also an important component in developing these skills.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll share a few titles published by LEE & LOW BOOKS that illustrate opportunities for integrating oral and written language in the classroom. The stories can be used in different capacities depending on students’ interest and ability; therefore I focus on the interest level as well as the guided reading level to determine each book’s grade-level appropriateness.  Furthermore, while the mini-lesson ideas and strategy-based activities are categorized by each key feature, they are still connected.

Grades K-1

Rainbow Stew by Cathryn Falwell

Interest Level: Grades K -3

DRA: 16, Guided Reading: I

Reading:   The rhythm and rhyming of Rainbow Stew (“Whimper, sigh, cloudy sky, is it to wet to play? We don’t want to stay inside/ because of rain today“) make it a fantastic read aloud.  Teachers can model how to use the bright, colorful pictures and other context clues to unlock the meaning of unfamiliar words such as “soggy” and “grasshopper.”

image from Rainbow Stew

Students can also practice reading together through choral reading exercises in either whole class or small group instruction. Choral reading supports struggling readers and strengthens fluency.  Students are also then listening to the rhythm and rhyming of the author’s words repeatedly.   Additionally, students may be able to read this story independently to practice fluency and build vocabulary.  For emergent readers, this text can be a tool to teach phonemic awareness and word patterns as well.

Writing:  Author Cathryn Falwell uses a methodical writing style of action words followed by rhyming verses.  Young learners can discuss the writer’s craft in this picture book as well as notice some nuances in the different verses with strong scaffolding.  Teachers can lead a shared writing project in which the class borrows Falwell’s style and writes their own book, playing with words.  Another age-appropriate reading and writing strategy presented in Rainbow Stew is sequencing.  Students will need to refer to the story in order to recount the events by either drawing pictures or writing.

Speaking & Listening:  Teachers can facilitate an interactive read-aloud in which students turn and talk to one another about the story.  Asking questions such as, “What other stories does Rainbow Stew remind you of?” adheres to the reading standards in making connections across different texts and fosters intentional discussions.  Through the choral reading exercise students are reading, speaking, and listening to the text.  Creating a class book improves collaboration skills such as taking turns, listening to other’s ideas, and compromising.

Stay tuned next week as I demonstrate how to integrate reading, writing, speaking & listening for grades 2-3 using As Fast As Words Can Fly by Pamela Tuck!

Further Reading:

Integrating Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening in the Classroom

What Does Close Reading Look Like in Kindergarten?