Wordless+Wonders!


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 * Strategy Name**: Wordless Wonder


 * Strategy Description**: To introduce non-fiction texts, I will either cover up the words or copy the text without the words. This helps students to focus on the pictures as a reading strategy and apply what they know about the topic already.


 * Description/Name of the class in which you used the strategy**: I have used this with whole class first grade and small group guided reading groups.


 * Rationale**: I wanted the students to really draw upon their previous knowledge as well as the picture clues to enable their reading.


 * Procedure**: I copied the story “Ways People Live”, by Emily Neye (in our reading series). This story involves text about different climates in the world, and how people adapt to the weather. I covered the text when I copied the story, so my group of 4 first grade readers (lowest in my class) had to draw out their background knowledge and utilize the pictures clues to make connections and predictions to the text before actually reading it. While they made these connections, I wrote down key words they said that I knew were in the text as well. This helped them make better connections and decoding when they read stating, “Hey! I said that earlier!” or “I knew that word would be there!”


 * Diverse Learners:**
 * I felt this lesson went well, and forced my students to make connections before reading. This tuned their thinking processes into the topic of the story. So many times, when they would do a picture walk, they would focus on trying to read the words, and not get a full sense of what the story is about. This did not allow them to do that.
 * I think that because this text was somewhat challenging, not seeing the amount of complexity of the text allowed my struggling readers to have less anxiety about the text. A picture book is not nearly as intimidating as the text could have been. I think they also made better connections with the story as they had to work harder to figure out what was going on and what the author was trying to tell them with the pictures. Their predictions were very detailed and they had a lot more questions about the text, which I think peaked their interest even more.
 * Potential Issues:**
 * If students do not have the background knowledge necessary for the text, then taking away the words will not necessarily help them to make predictions or connections. Be sure to prep them and their background knowledge!


 * Implementation Suggestions:**
 * I would like to add a writing component to this lesson as well. If the students could take their predictions and create their own text before even viewing the book’s actual words, I think it would be interesting for them to compare the two.
 * For non-fiction texts, you may want to give your students a list of the main vocabulary words that relate to the content, or they could generate one with you as a pre-writing strategy.
 * I think this strategy’s main focus is background knowledge connections and predictions, which allows it be used for any content area. Students in higher grades may not encounter books with such strong pictorial clues, but they could still take pictures out of their textbooks and perhaps predict what the captions would say, or write their own!
 * Picture books are more complex than they used to be, so higher grade students can still use their writing to create their own story based on the pictures.
 * Readingatoz.com has the option of printing a majority of their stories as wordless books. The lines are included but the text is left out. This is a great writing center!
 * Resources:**
 * Neye, E. (2007) //Ways People Live.// In Storytown. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Publishers, Inc.
 * Holl, B. //Wordless.// February 16, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2009, from www.readingatoz.com. ||