• County set/copy of the books with activities---to be checked out/shared by all teachers in the county
• Teachers select their favorite theme--create the mini lessons and share with others in one central location

Book Symbols to support reading

Presentation by Lisa Mann and Amy Scott- Guided Reading

Passages for Reading Comprehension http://www.readworks.org/

Before

• Build or access students' prior knowledge
• Help students make connections to personal experiences
• Develop vocabulary needed for comprehension
• Take a "picture walk" through the book
• Make predictions about what the book might be about
• Set a purpose for reading.   "Read this so you can..."
• Create a KWL chart
• Begin a graphic organizer for informational text 

During

• Choral reading-works best with poetry, refrains and books with a lot of conversation.  The whole class can read together or groups of students can alternate reading lines of the text.  Great for rereading favorites.
• Echo reading-Teacher reads first and the students become the echo, reading the line back to her.
• Shared reading-Great opportunity when using predictable books--with repeated patterns of refrains, pictures or rhymes.
• Partner reading-Two levels of readers paired together.  Stronger reader reads to certain word/phrase that the second reader is familar with and chimes in when they get to that part of the text.
• Small/Flexible grouping-teacher meets with small group to coach them as they are reading.  Reminding them to use learned strategies to figure out words they don't know.   
• Stick note reading-Students use sticky notes to mark places in the text where they found information about the prediction, words they don't know or information to add to the graphic organizer 
• Everyone read to (ERT)-Teacher asks students to read to themselves a particular part of a passage to "find out" (information is directly on the page) or "figure out"(make inferences) something.
• Book club groups-Teacher selects three or four books have the author, theme, genre or topic in common.  The class reads the first chapter or several pages of each book, then the students choose which book they would like to read.  The teacher puts the students in book groups based on various criteria. 

After--brief discussion

• Follow-up on predictions
• Complete KWL chart
• Discuss text and connect knew knowledge to prior knowledge
• Act out the story 

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

Below are some ideas for the teacher to use when reading this book with his/her students.  Before, during and after activities are listed and can be used across the course of a week when reading this book.

Literacy Cubes can be used in multiple ways.  During this block use the cube to encourage communication among a small group of students.  Attached are some visual supports that can be attached to each side of the block with Velcro.

Literacy Cube questions