Discussion Board

My favorite literacy activity is to bring a book to life by making characters from the book life-size really get the children’s attention

This is one that I have done with my own kids at home, but we try to find a book series that has also been made into a movie. After we read one of the books, we watch the correlating movie and we compare and contrast each. As I read to my kids while they were cleaning their rooms, it was a double bonus! Bedrooms were cleaned and we all had fun with story time!

Here are two literacy activities that I’ve done with my students. 

1.After introducing the lesson, I divide students into cooperative learning groups where I give each group probing questions as they read an article or a passage (usually a short one).  Each group member has a role and the group will use the questions to spark the discussion.  At the end of this timed activity, they would role play (like a mime) their understanding of the passage or article.  The other group members will have to try and interpret what the performing group is saying.

2. Vocabulary activity - To help my students understand vocabulary words from a passage or article, I have them play the game “bag words”. I prepare words and place them in a bag.  Again students work in groups or pairs.  Students then have a short article or passage to read.  They will then use the context of the passage to act out the meaning of the words that are in their bags.  I usually do not add too many words to a bag and each group gets different words.

When I taught 6th grade, I had students with reading levels from 3rd grade all the way up to 8th grade.I put them onto 4 different literacy groups. I enlisted the help of the librarian from our 6th grade building to help me find interesting chapter books for the students to read. She enlisted the librarian from the middle school to help her. Between them they came up with a choice of 3 books each that I could let my four different groups choose so that they were reading something that was interesting to them. The students had to read so much each night and respond to a few questions, When they meet as groups the next day, they discussed what they read with the help of the responses from their questions. I would go and sit with each group for a little bit to listen to their discussions as I was reading all of these books too. My students loved this!

Lori McPeek

As a 5th grader, our teacher assigned us a topic to write on each Monday to be completed by Friday.  Topics varied and were open-ended.  I believe they had to be one page, but it was creative writing.  Our papers were posted on a bulletin board each week.  This is where I developed my love of writing.  I could freely express myself, but had the advantage of a topic to guide me.  I am 58 years old and still remember some of the topics.

Share your favorite literacy activity that you’ve done with students. We are all always looking for a new fabulous idea!