RM Winter 2016 FLIP

Geographic Extreme Explorer magazine during her January thematic unit on polar animals. Mrs. Oliver read sections of the article over two days, using the Listen Sketch Label strategy on a portion of the article entitled “Some Like It Hot.” Mrs. Oliver gave students the Listen Sketch Label template that she modified to limit the number of vocabulary terms and enlarged sections to accommodate the larger writing and drawings of her young students. The template included three terms she wanted her students to understand: glacier, survivor , and burrow . Instead of asking students to immediately sketch their understanding of each word, Mrs. Oliver realized that many of her students would not have prior experience with this vocabulary, so she provided the words in context before she asked them to sketch their understanding of the word. She permitted students the time to turn-and-talk to a neighbor to activate any prior knowledge of the term they have. As Mrs. Oliver read aloud, she read small chunks from the passage twice so that students could listen and then sketch their interpretation of the word on their paper. Students were asked to create a visualization in their head before they sketched it on their paper.

students: “The words ‘gardener’ and ‘tractor’ could be put into a group, because the gardener may use a tractor to work in her garden. Now we need to see if we have other words that could go in this group too.”With the guidance of Miss Brown, students continued to sort words, glue them down on large paper, and determine a label to summarize each group. For example, the group of words containing “gardener” and “tractor,”may be labeled as “gardening.” Once the small group has finished their sort, using the words they have predicted, each group must come up with a word that they believe no other group predicted, an unique word, and a word that they believe every group predicted, a common word. One of the small groups decided their unique word was ‘angel,’ and their common word was ‘orange.’ Miss Brown wrote these words on a sentence strip for students to share later. After literacy centers, the class comes together and Miss Brown leads a discussion on the sorts and special words chosen by each group. As the sorts are shared, the members of the group come forward and help Miss Brown discuss their work. Students choose a word and justify why they chose it. After sharing their predicted words, Miss Brown reads The Pumpkin Book aloud to the class, confirming

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Mrs. Oliver modeled this strategy for her students using the first chunk of information, focusing on the term ‘beach’ for understanding: “You can find African penguins in an even hotter place. They live on sunny, sandy beaches along the southern tip of Africa” (Ebersole, 2014, p. 8). Mrs. Oliver drew the outline of sand and shells beside the ocean, which is indicated

Figure. 1. An example of using the Preview-Predict-Confirm vocabulary strategy in kindergarten. PREVIEW: Flip through the images

some predictions as the text is read. Following the read-aloud, the class compared and contrasted their word selections with the author’s use of words, writing down additional vocabulary words students did not predict. Groups were given the opportunity to draw pictures next to words on their sorts, to make identification easier. These were

RESULTS OF STUDENTS’SORTING garden plants colors farmer seed green garden flowers orange shovel weeds rake leaves tractor corn digging apples pumpkins Common Word: pumpkins Unique Word: rake

of the informational text, The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons.

PREDICT: Write down on blank cards the words students predict the author used in the text. STUDENTS’ LIST OF PREDICTEDWORDS farmer flowers corn

seed weeds pumpkins apples leaves digging garden orange green shovel rakes tractor

CONFIRM: Allow groups to share their sorts, their common word, and unique word. After reading the book discuss whether the predictions were correct or incorrect.

then displayed in the classroom as a reference throughout the thematic unit (See Figure 1). Listen Sketch Label Listen Sketch Label (Herrera, Holmes, & Kavimandan, 2011) is a strategy that taps into the students’ existing schema and harnesses the use of visualization to make meaning. Students are asked to use what they already know and make connections to vocabulary used in the informational text. Critical to the Listen Sketch Label strategy is the idea that students enhance their understanding of the text through repeated exposure to vocabulary words and concepts, and make sensory connections as they do so. Components of the Listen Sketch Label strategy are: (a) activation of prior knowledge; (b) connecting the known and unknown by interacting with others; and (c) affirmation of what we know. Listen Sketch Label in the classroom. Mrs. Oliver, a first grade teacher, used the Listen Sketch Label strategy with “Penguin Power” an article from the National

by the waves. As Mrs. Oliver talked, she thought aloud for students to understand why she is making this connection: “I went to the beach before with my family, and like the article says, it was sandy and sunny there. I remember stepping on seashells and kicking my feet in the ocean. So I should draw shells and the water, with big waves. The ocean had big waves that knocked me down.” Mrs. Oliver also labeled the picture with the words, ‘ocean,’‘sand,’ and ‘seashells.’ As Mrs. Oliver continued to read, she asked students to listen to how the vocabulary word was used, then to sketch their understanding of the word as she reread the information. Students had the option of writing sentences, phrases, or words that elaborated on their understanding of the vocabulary. Mrs. Oliver finished reading the section and asked students to sit in a rectangle along the edge of the carpet. Students were given one minute to turn, talk with a partner, and share the information they wrote and sketched on their paper. As a whole group, the students and Mrs. Oliver came to a consensus about the meaning of the words. She then reread the entire passage to the group, emphasizing the three vocabulary words (see Figure 2).

Reading Matters | Volume 16 • Winter 2016 | scira.org | 49 |

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