Thanks for sharing your experience. I am a first grade teacher and have found the same success you speak of. The students are much more willing to engage and discuss what each beanie baby's role is. I work with a group of teachers who are using them also in k and 1. In 2nd our teachers have a reference sheet up where their new 2nd grade students can transition. We even had a little fun and added "crabby the cross checker" and "Ellie the evaluator" (elephant) to help us provide what our students need due to published curriculum or true needs of our learners. I havent located my elephant yet but I keep looking. ________________________________________ From: mosaic-bounces+ali=palermoschools....@literacyworkshop.org [mosaic-bounces+ali=palermoschools....@literacyworkshop.org] On Behalf Of Mary Jane Chesnutt [m...@hutten.org] Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2011 8:37 PM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Fall is a new beginning
Last year was my first year teaching kindergarten in ten years. In many ways I felt like a first-year teacher all over again! There had been so many changes in teaching practices during that time! One thing I struggled with was how to approach the comprehension strategies with these 5-year-old (and not-quite-5-year-old!) learners. I found a website about using Beanie Babies as comprehension "mascots", and quickly dismissed it as too cute for me. But somehow I kept returning to it, and mulling it over. Could this be an answer for helping kindergarten students grasp these abstract ideas? In January of last year I started introducing the strategies with their beanie baby counterparts. I could not believe how successful this was! Having the cute name and little stuffed animal to attach to each strategy really helped my little ones to remember and apply their learning. I used lessons from Reading Power and Reading with Meaning, and some other resources, but added in the beanie baby component. After introducing all the decoding-type strategies, I gave the kids a bookmark of them to keep in their reading boxes. I can't tell you how often I read with kids and had them come to a tough word and say, "Oh, I know what to do! I should stretch out the sounds like Stretchy Snake!" Perhaps some of you on the list are as hesitant as I was to try something that, at first glance, looked quite contrived. That's exactly why I wanted to post about it! Having used the beanie baby idea in my room this year, I now see it as using the toys as a kind of bridge into the comprehension strategies. It gave the kids a "hook" on which to hang their new learning, and a way to retrieve these strategies during reading times. They loved the beanie babies, but much more than that, I feel they really helped the children to learn. This year I plan to use the CAFE system with my kids. (I've done it in older grades, but not kindergarten.) I will use the beanie babies with their corresponding strategies as they are added to the CAFE board. I'm not quite sure how this will work out, but my hope is that it will help to integrate the comprehension strategies with the other aspects of reading instruction in my room. Here's the site where I first found the information on Beanie Babies & the Comprehension Strategies. http://realclassroomideas.com/194.html I might use the beanie babies in First Grade, should I ever teach that level again. I don't think I would for Second Grade. I am convinced though that in my room, with these very young learners, Beanie Babies have been a wonderful learning tool. MJ _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive
