the planning department: School-Wide Literacy Events

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This is the second in a three part series about organizing school-wide literacy events. The first article is available in pdf format at www.CanadianTeacherMagazine.com.

In the last issue of Canadian Teacher Magazine, I outlined some of the school-wide events that have been held at our school in the last few years. All were easy for a committee to organize and did not take too much classroom time. In this issue I will describe a more complex event that not only encouraged collaboration among the teachers of common grade levels at our school, but also facilitated conversation across the grades.

Last year the focus of our school literacy committee was to support our teachers to implement practices that would increase student success. One of our objectives was to develop some common language around literacy for grades K – 7. As part of the initiative, we invited the staff to try some “Before, During and After Reading” strategies that might eventually become standard practice in all classrooms. We began by publishing the strategies in our staff newsletter. This was a good start, but it wasn’t until we invited Shelley Beleznay, a District Literacy Resource Teacher, to facilitate our February Pro-D day that the Maple Moon project came about. At our initial meeting we decided to look for just one title to use as the focus for the workshop. It was then that we realized that the workshop itself could be used as a planning time for launching Maple Moon as a school-wide project.

So many good books—how do you choose?

This was actually the hardest part. Many great books came to mind, but not all were suited to our purposes. The story needed to have a strong appeal for the younger children but also enough substance to engage the older ones in thoughtful literacy strategies. We chose Maple Moon because it addressed the learning outcomes for almost all areas of the curriculum and for multiple grade levels.

Maple Moon Summary
Rides the Wind was a young Mississauga boy who lived, a long time ago, in a clearing in the heart of a great forest. When he was a baby, he had injured his left leg and it had not healed properly. Because of his limp, the boy was unable to join in the children’s games. Sometimes one mean boy, Fast as Lightning, would taunt, “Limping Leg, come and play!”

The year the boy turned eight, the snows came early. The drifts were high and the lake was frozen solid. Day after day the hunters came home with no meat to feed their people.

One day, deer tracks were sighted and the hunters set off. As the children danced around the fire in anticipation of a feast, Rides the Wind limped into the forest. Quietly watching a squirrel drink sap from a maple tree, he decided to sample some of the “sweet water” for himself. The sap he collected later ended up in the cooking pot. The elders realized that this was a renewable source of food, and Rides the Wind was honoured for his discovery and renamed Wise Little Raven.

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What resources were needed?

Materials
• multiple copies of Maple Moon by Connie Brummel Crook (ISBN 0-7737-6098-9)
• lesson plans and instructional materials developed by the staff in grade groups

People
• Shelley as the facilitator of the workshop
• grade group planning teams

What was the sequence of events?

February Pro-D Day: The morning was spent with Shelley modeling a number of “Before, During and After Reading” strategies that were possible with this book. We tried out variations on these strategies for Primary and Intermediate students. During the afternoon we met in grade groups to plan a sequence of lessons specific to the grade we were teaching.

March Staff Meeting: After several weeks of discussion and planning, we were all able to report out to our staff that our plans were ready and we were set to go.

April: Each class completed their sequence of lessons during this month. Many hallway bulletin boards were used to display the students’ work related to the story.

May Pro-D Day: Staff members shared student work samples and successes from the project.

May Student Assembly: With the help of our amazing music teacher, Debbie Lambert, two grade three classes presented Maple Moon at an assembly. The story was read in three sections. Before, between and after the sections, the children sang, played Orff instruments and performed a traditional celebration dance. The entire school participated in singing the opening song “Maple Sugar Time.”

What really worked well?

Staff: Staff collaboration is common at each grade level at our school, but this project really opened up communication across the grades.

Students: It was interesting to note the connections that were being made through their common experience. For example, as a primary class was traveling down the hallway to their older buddies’ class, they recognized some of the displays on the bulletin boards as being generated by the story Maple Moon. They were quite excited to realize that they had all read the same story. Another example was when a grade two class visited the local museum, a display of baskets reminded them of the story. Finally, the assembly connected the whole school in a celebration of the shared experience.
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Literacy strategies that work with this book

The following strategies can be adjusted to most grade levels.

Before Reading

Hidden Picture

Materials: a copy of Maple Moon, drawing paper

Process
• Concealing the cover of the book (holding the book inside a file folder works well) give a detailed description of the cover illustration.
• Each child draws an image of the book cover as it is described.
• After the description is finished, invite the children to ask questions that might lead to a more complete drawing.
• Show the cover picture to the class.
• The students share with a partner or with the whole group what is the same/different about their drawings and the book cover.
• Ask the students to predict what the story will be about.

During Reading

T Chart

Materials: a copy of Maple Moon, chart paper

Process
• Divide the story into three or four logical sections.
• Ask the students to listen carefully for details in the story that tell how Rides the Wind is feeling.
• Read the story aloud, stopping to allow the students to examine the pictures. At the end of each section, ask the students to talk to a partner about the details that they saw or heard that tell how Rides the Wind is feeling. The partner reports out to the larger group.
• Record the observations on a T chart (on chart paper or the chalk board). On the left, record the emotion or feeling. On the right record the evidence of the feelings.

After Reading

Triptych (Thanks to my teaching partner Jennifer Jellema)

Materials: one copy of the worksheet for each student

Process
• Each child writes a description of the main character’s feeling when he is addressed as Rides the Wind, Limping Leg and Wise Little Raven.
• The students share their drawings and read their text to a partner.
• These assignments could be taken to a published copy for display.

Across the Curriculum
The diversity of the Maple Moon activities across our school was truly amazing! From a study of the maple tree and maple syrup industry to the writing and presentation of legends, the school was busy for weeks. Some of us did taste testing and graphing of the various brands of maple syrup—and yes, we ate pancakes! The following is a recipe for maple candy that was taste tested by several classes. You can adjust the quantities as needed.

Ingredients
• ½ cup maple syrup
• water
• small baking pan

Process
• Fill the baking pan ¾ full of water and freeze.
• Boil the syrup for 8 minutes.
• Pour the syrup over the ice.
• Allow the syrup to harden.
• Scrape the candy off the ice and eat!

Brenda is the Literacy Resource Teacher at her school. This .2 position allows her to plan fun literacy events when she isn’t busy in her own classroom.