Transcript
One of the first lessons that we do when we start Writer's Workshop is to show students a series of pictures, which of course ties in well to the using pictures to learn how to read framework that we discuss with the first few lessons of Daily 5. What we do, is we put the pictures up and then we just talk about them. What do you think the character's saying, what possibly could be happening? What story could we write from this? We have written, using pictures, whole group stories to begin a narrative, with that gradual release of responsibility. But it all starts with pictures at the beginning of the year. It's a lot of fun and they come in in the morning and they're looking to see what's the new picture is that's posted, and they get excited if their idea has gone up into one of the speech bubbles. And you can change the pictures regularly throughout the year, just generating different ideas for writing all the time. How using pictures also ties into reading is initially particularly with readers that are just beginning. We do do a book talk. It activates their prior knowledge, they can anticipate what they're expecting to read, it may provide them with some vocabulary that although they don't know how to read, it's not part of their reading vocabulary, it is part of their oral vocabulary. And as a consequence, they're able to figure out the word, decode it, based on picture. So this is an opportunity with pictures that you're tying in the reading and the writing.
Related References
The Daily Five-The Two Sisters: http://www.the2sisters.com/the_daily_5.html