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4 Literacy Place for the Early Years—Grade Two © 2014 Scholastic Canada Ltd.

The Grade Two classroom offers a vital social context for developing young children’s oral language skills. As the basis of oral communication and literacy development, it is important that children’s language is stimulated and enriched. Children need to listen carefully and make meaning from oral language, as well as develop skills in knowing what to say and how to say it in different social settings. As experienced language users, we can scaffold learning environments and activities to promote children’s continuous language growth. For a comprehensive description of early years’ language development and how to scaffold positive language learning experiences, see Literacy Place for the Early Years K−3 Planning Guide, pages 36−45.

• The Literacy Place for the Early Years Grade Two Conversation Kit provides interactive and engaging lessons, activities, and materials for developing, enriching, and refining young children’s language development.

• The lessons and materials are planned to:

- use a developmentally appropriate approach to language learning by weaving in playful, hands-on activities

- focus on developing children’s language for social communication, inquiry, and problem solving

- build a dynamic foundation for literacy learning and all other curriculum areas

- stimulate the use of thinking strategies such as Self-Monitoring, Comparing, Making Connections, Inferring, Predicting, Synthesizing, and Evaluating.

- emphasize the growth of children’s use of appropriate language structures (e.g., sentence complexity, grammar, vocabulary, clear articulation)

- highlight positive language strategies that teachers can use to promote the development of extended listening and talking

• The materials, lessons, and activities in the Grade Two Conversation Kit can be used for whole-class or small-group teaching. Choose the groupings that meet the needs of your students.

Oral Language Development Continuum

The Literacy Place for the Early Years Oral Language Continuum outlines developmental expectations for grade two-aged students. It clusters these expectations within three areas:

1. Language for Social Relationships focuses on the ability to listen, converse, discuss, inquire, and problem solve with others.

Purpose

Monitoring Progress

Introduction and Assessment

© 2014 Scholastic Canada Ltd. Literacy Place for the Early Years—Grade Two 5

2. Language for Learning emphasizes listening and speaking expectations when using language to engage in literacy learning and other curriculum areas.

Note: If some of your students still need assistance in Phonological and Phonemic Awareness, consult the expectations in the Working with Words Continuum in the Literacy Place for the Early Years K−3 Planning Guide, page 76.

3. Language Structures describes the student’s ability to use developmentally appropriate grammatical structures and clear articulation for the expression of ideas.

For more information on these developmental expectations, see the Oral Language Development Continuum in the Literacy Place for the Early Years K−3 Planning Guide, pages 60−63.

Using Observations

Informal but planned and purposeful observations and assessments are most appropriate for young students. Document your observations of students, for example, as they discuss texts in a small-group book club, prepare to present a Readers’ Theatre scene, retell a story with puppets, plan an inquiry, negotiate a resolution to a problem, play a game together, ask and answer questions in class, and turn and talk to a partner about a poem read in Shared Reading. Listen to their language and ask yourself how these students communicate. Do they make a social connection with a partner and in a small group? Do they take turns in a discussion? Do they offer opinions and ask on-topic questions? Do they disagree without being strident? Can they retell a story? Can they use new information to support their ideas? Can they understand each other?

Examples of other questions you might ask yourself include:

• In what situations does Rowan feel comfortable enough to express his ideas? Whole class, small group, or partners? (Language for Social Relationships and Language for Learning)

• Are Sam’s articulation errors consistent with developmental expectations, or does he need more support? (Language Structures)

• Does Seung listen and piggyback on other people’s ideas? (Language for Social Relationships and Language for Learning)

Note: These questions can emerge from the Grade Two Oral Language Assessment Scale.

This assessment tool is based on the Oral Language Development Continuum. It allows you to monitor student progress over the course of the year.

You may record your observations on sticky notes or other anecdotal record sheets and use them to check off oral language behaviours on the Grade Two Oral Language Assessment Scale (see pages 30−31).

The Oral Language Assessment Scale

http://www.scholastic.ca/education/lpeyx_teaching_support_grade2/pdfs/conversation_pdfs/gr2_orallang_assessment.pdf

http://www.scholastic.ca/education/lpeyx_teaching_support_grade2/pdfs/conversation_pdfs/gr2_orallang_assessment.pdf

6 Literacy Place for the Early Years—Grade Two © 2014 Scholastic Canada Ltd.TABLE OF CONTENTS

You could use this scale two or three times a year for each student, using different coloured pens to indicate the time of the year (e.g., purple for the beginning of the year, red for mid-year, and green for the end of the year).

Alternatively, you could focus on particular areas or behaviours and monitor selected items when activities focus on them (dating your observations). For example, during a small-group discussion you may focus on observing “Takes turns appropriately in

discussions” (Language for Social Relationships). When discussing the video “Oh Brother!,” monitor for the understanding of cause-and-effect relationships by offering a prompt such as “I’m wondering why the little sister went inside at that point…,” and listen to the responses (Language for Learning). It’s a good time to monitor retelling story events in sequence when students use stick puppets to reconstruct a tale from a wordless book such as Where’s Walrus? (Language for Learning). You might observe if students retain and use vocabulary that has cropped up in lessons, for example, “devoured” in the poem “Don’t Forget to Share.” During a Shared Writing session you could say, “I’m thinking that a word we sang yesterday in “Don’t Forget to Share” would fit in beautifully here as the tiger is so hungry and thinking of eating the snake” (Language Structures: vocabulary).

This observational approach is highly recommended as you can use your classroom observations regularly to monitor needs and to initiate appropriate teaching.

• Grade Two classrooms develop a climate and a social context that support language learning through discussions, story reading, Readers’ Theatre, inquiry, doing experiments, problem solving, playing games, and other activities that promote listening and talking. The following Oral Language Teaching Strategies, emphasized in the program, can be used during whole-class, small-group, or individual communications and can be woven into conversations and discussions during any activity.

Note: Each of the following strategies is intended to stimulate, expand, or refine aspects of language development, including the non-verbal aspects of social communication (e.g., making eye contact with the speaker).

If you have at-risk language learners who have special needs, you may wish to use the Grade One Oral Language Assessment Scale. (See pages 22–23 in the Grade One Oral Language Guide.)

Teaching Tip:

Oral Language Teaching Strategies

http://www.scholastic.ca/education/lpeyx_teaching_support_grade2/pdfs/conversation_pdfs/gr1-assessmentscale_BLM.pdf


Oral Language Teaching Strategies

1. USE OPEN-ENDED PROMPTS TO PROMOTE DISCUSSION

The majority of your prompts should be open-ended to promote enriched discussion. Closed prompts result in “Yes” or “No” and other short or single-word responses. Open-ended prompts often result in deeper and more extended responses which reveal more about a student’s thinking. For example,

Avoid: “Did you like the book?”

Consider: “I’m wondering what you enjoyed in the book?”

OR

Avoid: “Did you find out lots of new information from reading this magazine?”

Consider: “Tell me about the new information you learned from reading this magazine.”

2. FOCUS ON POSITIVE LISTENING

Students take their cues from you, so it’s important that you model what an attentive, alert listener does and then notice and provide positive feedback when you observe those behaviours being used in the classroom. Link good listening to comprehension. For example,

Teacher: “I noticed Tenisha moved her body around so that she could really listen to what Rachel was saying. People who are listening well look at the speaker and make sure they really attend to, and think about, what the speaker is saying.”

OR

Teacher: “Rodney, what a great job you did responding to Jaden’s question. You must have been really listening to what he was saying. When we listen closely to what others say, it helps us to form our own questions and opinions.”

3. ENCOURAGE PARTNER LISTENING AND TALKING (e.g., Turn and Talk or Think-Pair-Share)

Students benefit from opportunities to practise their listening and speaking skills with a partner before they share ideas with a group. Language performance is less of an issue with a partner, and some students talk more with one peer than they do in a large group. Build partner talk into many lessons, and encourage students to use some of the strategies you have taught them. Highlight a strategy to preface partner-talk sessions. For example,

Teacher: “When you talk to your partner, I want you to look at him or her and explain your ideas using a clear speaking voice.”

OR

Teacher: “Listen to what your partner is saying, and then retell his or her ideas.”


Oral Language Teaching Strategies (continued)

4. USE A PAUSE AND THINK STRATEGY

Encourage students to pause and think before responding, especially when a more complicated issue is raised. This technique encourages students to take a few seconds to consider their views and the evidence they have to support them. For example,

Teacher: “Kerry raised the question, ‘How do I know if I’m active enough to stay healthy?’ That’s a big question. Pause and think. Ask yourself, ‘How active am I?’ and ‘Is that enough? How do I know?’”

OR

Teacher: “We have just heard a lot of information about sharks. I want you to close your eyes and think about the information you have heard. Was there a fact that you found amazing?”

5. ASSIST STUDENTS TO INITIATE A DISCUSSION

Students often need help to initiate group discussions as some may be reluctant to join in, or some may dominate the initial “air time.”

Provide some starters for beginning a discussion. Build a starter list and add to this list over time. Take ideas from students when you observe an effective new starter being used. Starters might include:

• I’m thinking… because…

• I wondered about…

• I was puzzled about…

• This reminded me of…

• I didn’t agree with… because…

• I really enjoyed… because…

• I didn’t know…

• I liked your idea about… because…

• My idea is similar to yours. I also think…

• I was amazed at…

• Something I would like to know more about is…

Teach students to initiate a discussion in an open way that encourages further talk. For example,

Teacher: “Let’s read our list of starters together. (Choral read the list). Pause and think, ‘Which starter would I like to use to start our discussion on…?’ (Pause) Turn to your partner and share your idea. Why did you choose that starter?”



6. HELP STUDENTS TO BREAK INTO A DISCUSSION-IN-PROGRESS

Joining a discussion-in-progress can be tricky, and we need to teach some strategies to ensure that all students are heard and feel comfortable. The following approaches may be helpful:

• Teach students to listen for a small break in the discussion and then put forward their idea. A signal could be used initially to indicate that a student wishes to say something, for example, a hand signal or a small speaking stick (made from a craft stick).

• Ask students to check with their group to see if someone wants to add ideas. This puts the responsibility on the group as well as the new participant.

• Encourage a new speaker to piggyback on an idea expressed previously. Model this strategy. For example,

Teacher: “You could say, ‘Sunil said… and I’m thinking…’”

• Suggest that students may wish to use the starter chart and an “I” expression to break into discussions.

Teacher: “You might say, ‘I’m wondering about…’ or ‘I’m puzzled about…’”

• Teach students how to hold onto their idea until someone has finished speaking. They can put their idea in the palm of their hand and show others they are ready to contribute to the discussion.

7. MODEL INVITING OTHERS TO GIVE OPINIONS

We want all students to feel at ease during discussions, and you can assist by modelling an invitational stance when you ask questions or invite opinions. For example,

Teacher: “I’m wondering what you were thinking when we finished the story.”

OR

Teacher: “I’m sure there was some interesting information that you heard about… that was new learning for you that you might like to share.”

Encourage students to invite other class members to join in discussions by using a friendly tone and helping them by adding, “What are you thinking?” (or a similar invitation) at the conclusion of their own ideas. For example,

Teacher: “People are going to join in when they feel welcome. When you’ve talked about your ideas, you can invite others to talk by saying, ‘What are you thinking?’ or ‘Do you have any ideas to add?’ Say it in a friendly way so that people know that you are interested in what they have to say.”



8. HIGHLIGHT ROLE-PLAY: EXPLORING OTHER PEOPLE’S VIEWPOINTS

Encourage role-playing to help students develop understanding of, and empathy for, other people’s viewpoints. For example,

Teacher: “Let’s pretend to be the boy in this video. He’s explaining to his mom how the accident happened. How do you think he feels? What do you think he’ll say?”

AND

Teacher: “Now let’s pretend to be the mom. How do you think she feels? How do you think she will react?”

9. FOCUS ON DISAGREEING AGREEABLY

Help students to cope with disagreements in social situations. For example,

Teacher: “You were arguing about who should get the glue and then pushing to reach it first. (Identify the issue). How else could you have handled that? (Provide an opportunity for student problem solving). Let’s practise and try that again.” (You may need to model if students do not suggest better strategies, e.g., “You could have said…”)

Help students to disagree in discussions, too. It’s a good idea to model a few disagreement openers. For example,

Teacher: “If you have a different opinion, you could say, ‘You think… but I think…’ or ‘I’m thinking something different…’ It’s fine to have a different opinion. Just make sure you respect other people’s opinions and talk about yours in a calm voice.”

10. OFFER STRUCTURE TO RELUCTANT TALKERS

Help students who are shy or reluctant to talk by giving them more time in which to respond and by offering low-key prompts. For example,

Teacher: “Tell me how you made that, Raven? You can show me, too.”

OR

Teacher: “You could draw what you think it would look like and tell me about it.”

OR

Teacher: “If I started an idea could you finish it? I enjoyed that video and the part I liked best was…”

Teaching Tips:

• Showing and then talking may be easier for the reluctant talker.

• If a student needs extra time to organize his or her ideas, you could consider saying, “I’ll ask you to tell me about it in a minute, Paavan.”

• Talking with partners before being asked to contribute to group discussions will be less threatening.

• Using puppets sometimes helps reluctant talkers to share their thoughts.



11. EXTEND LANGUAGE

Although some students are able talkers, they still need to expand their language use and incorporate more specific, varied, and academic vocabulary into their repertoires. Take opportunities to stretch language use. You may make semantic webs of vocabulary to show alternatives for words. For example,

Teacher: “You say you are going to ‘look’ at the eggs every day until the chicks break the shells. You could say you are going to ‘observe’ to see what happens. Are there any other words you could use for ‘look’? Let’s jot them down. When might you use ‘peep’ or ‘stare’?”

Encourage students to use different transitional words to stretch their language. For example,

Teacher: “Kelvin just said, ‘After that the steam rises.’ There are lots of other words we could use instead of ‘after that.’ I can think of one. We could say ‘before long the steam rises.’ Let’s make a list of other words we could use.”

12. PURPOSEFULLY SEARCH DEEPER INTO IDEASUsing open-ended questions enables you and your students to delve deeper into another person’s ideas. Questioning also enables listeners to clarify ideas when they do not understand what a speaker is trying to communicate. Questions can ensure that students make connections between prior knowledge and new learning. Model different types of questions and their purposes so students see how questioning propels a conversation forward. Questions might include:

• Why do you think that happened?

• Can you show me evidence of your line of thinking?

• What do you notice?

• So you think…?

• I think I understand, but can you tell me your idea again?

• What do you think might happen if…?

• What does this make you wonder about…?

• I wonder why…

• Can you explain that again for me?

• I see your point, but what about…?

• Did they look like something…?

• What does that remind you of?


Materials in the Grade Two Conversation Kit are intended to promote a wide range of oral language development.

Each item (e.g., a wordless book, a poem, a video) has an accompanying teaching plan. Each teaching plan includes a suggestion for an Oral Language Teaching Strategy to highlight during the session. Puppet and mask templates accompany several lessons.

The materials are clustered in six main areas:

1. Puppet and Mask Templates

2. Big Book of Poems

3. Conversation Videos and Conversation Cards

4. Wordless Books

5. Readers’ Theatre Scripts

6. Oral Language Games

1. Puppet and Mask Templates

Puppet and mask templates are provided for a variety of characters and some props in the Conversation Kit.

Purposes:

• to support oral story retellings

• to assist in enactments of poems and songs

• for dramatic emphasis in Readers’ Theatre

• to identify characters in Readers’ Theatre

• to support role-playing

• to help reluctant talkers who may feel more comfortable when adopting a role rather than verbalizing as themselves

Instructional Tips:

There are numerous ways that these templates can be used:

• Stick Puppets: Run off the templates you need on stiff paper or very thin card and ask students to colour and cut out the outlines. Mount each puppet on a craft stick or a tongue depressor.

• Headbands: Photocopy the puppet templates you need (regular photocopy paper should work) and ask students to colour them and cut them out. Mount on a cardboard strip formed into a simple headband.

Conversation Kit Materials


• Necklaces: Photocopy (on regular photocopy paper) the puppet templates you need and ask students to colour them and cut them out. Use a hole punch to make two holes and string or wool to make the necklace.

• Badges: Photocopy (on regular photocopy paper) the puppets you need and ask students to colour them and cut them out. Use safety pins to pin them to the student.

• Masks: Photocopy the masks on stiff paper or thin card, or print the mask on regular photocopy paper then glue onto cardboard to make it stiff. Ask students to colour the templates and cut them out. Use a hole punch to make two holes and wool to make the ties. Alternatively, students could tape one edge of their mask to a tongue depressor and hold it up to their faces when needed.

Puppets and masks can be stored in plastic bags. Students may wish to put their names on the back of each in case they want to use their own puppet or mask later, or take it home.

ELL Note: Puppet and Mask Templates

Puppet play is a powerful strategy to encourage oral communication with English Language Learners (ELLs). When using puppets, ELLs have the freedom to become a different character for a brief time, which can lessen the feelings of self-consciousness or shyness inherent in learning to speak a new language.

ELLs can first use the puppets to demonstrate their comprehension of a story by acting out the story while it is being read to them. When they are ready, they can move on to performing a simple dialogue using the puppets, and to inventing their own dramatic play.

Use puppets to help ELLs learn basic conversational vocabulary. At your direction, students can make their puppets eat, drink, run, jump, sit, sleep, dance, read, and perform a host of other actions. You can facilitate learning of all kinds of vocabulary by directing students to have their puppets manipulate objects, point at colours and shapes, and so on.

Prepare word cards for a variety of different feelings such as happy, sad, angry, surprised, and so on. Choose a sentence from a familiar text, and in character students can say the sentence in different ways to illustrate the various feelings.

Ask ELLs to describe the physical features of their puppets, and compare and contrast the different ways their puppets look, recording the information on a chart or Venn diagram.

With animal puppets, encourage students in their native languages to share the sounds that those animals make, and to appreciate the wide variety of noises animals can make in different languages.

2. Between Friends Big Book of Poems with an accompanying Audio CD of fluent readings, songs, and music

Between Friends contains nine poems, six of which have been made into songs. These can be read chorally in Shared Reading or sung together. Two of the poems are poems for two voices (“The Bear” and “The Lion and the Mouse”) and can be read with half


the class, or group, reading one character’s part and the other half reading the second part. These two poems can also be used as scripts for Readers’ Theatre and enacted with masks. Templates for the masks are provided for “The Bear” and “The Lion and the Mouse,” in to addition to puppet templates for “Don’t Forget to Share,” another poem that lends itself to dramatization.

The Between Friends Audio CD features songs that students can listen to and join in with, as well as several music-only tracks, allowing students to create their own versions of the songs. Fluent readings of all the poems are also provided for use in the Listening Centre.

Each poem has an accompanying lesson plan that includes an Oral Language Teaching Strategy.

Purposes:

• to stimulate continuous growth in students’ awareness of the rhythms and sounds of language and to engage them in joining in with rhythmic language

• to focus on language comprehension and careful listening

• to develop vocabulary and the ability to interpret the visual images poems and songs provide

• to interpret language by reconstructing poems through acting them out, or creating their own versions based on the original poem

Instructional Tips:

• Lesson plans are arranged in a Before, During, and After Reading (or Singing and Reading) format.

• Lessons offer suggestions for initial and further lessons, and provide ideas for focusing students on playful language activities, the expansion of language comprehension and careful listening, vocabulary development, interpreting the visual images in poems, and in reconstructing poems through acting. Creating new versions of poems is also promoted.

• Suggestions for extending with follow-up activities are also provided.

• The songs and poems are engaging and students will want to revisit them over the course of the year. Over time, they will build a repertoire of familiar favourites and even memorize them. Having a bank of memorized poems and songs forms a literary resource bank to draw on for enjoyment, future writing ideas (e.g., “I’ll write a poem about a shooting star, too!”), and sharing communal experiences (e.g., “Do you remember that poem that starts…?).

ELL Note: Big Book and Songs

The big book format provides an excellent framework for sharing texts with English Language Learners (ELLs). Introduce each poem in the big book Between Friends with a picture-walk to activate your students’ background knowledge and acquaint them with important vocabulary in the poem.


Recite a familiar action-based rhyme or poem with the class such as “The Wheels on the Bus,” “Head and Shoulders,” or “Five Little Monkeys” as a way to tap into children’s experience of English rhymes. Ask students if they know any rhymes or poems in their native languages and encourage them to share with the class.

Read the poem out loud to students in a clear, natural voice. Talk about the rhyming words, rhythms, and special word structures contained in the poem. Incorporate actions, gestures, and props to increase comprehension of the poem. Use hand claps, finger snaps, or tapping or drumming to illustrate the rhythms.

Choral reading of the poem is a good starting point for ELLs to recite the poem themselves. When students are ready, they can recite the poems to a partner, and practise them at home.

Encourage ELLs to listen to the fluent readings of the poems and the song versions of the poems on the Between Friends Audio CD at the classroom Listening Centre. Use the music-only tracks on the audio CD to stage a “karaoke café” where students can perform their renditions of songs in small groups.

3. Conversation Videos and Conversation Cards

There are five Conversation Videos and 10 Conversation Cards (with 20 items) provided with the Grade Two Conversation Kit. They can be used for large or small groups to promote language development.

Note: These Conversation Cards are also provided on CD for use with an interactive whiteboard.

• The Conversation Cards are intended for display as cards you can hold on your lap, or place on an easel or ledge.

• Each item has an individual teaching plan that emphasizes a particular Oral Language Teaching Strategy. The teaching plans follow the following format:

1. Focusing on the Video or Picture (looking at the overall visual display and thinking about what is happening)

2. Going Deeper (interpreting the visual information)

3. Connecting (linking personal experiences and other information with the visual information)

4. Predicting (asking what will happen next or before, predicting feelings and conversations)

• Brief lesson extensions are provided with each teaching plan if you wish to connect the lesson to other oral language activities or reading and writing sessions.

• Suggestions for follow-up activities are also provided in each teaching plan. You may wish to revisit the video or picture later in the year, or at centres.


Purposes:

• to promote oral participation, conversation, and discussions

• to encourage social problem solving and understanding of others’ viewpoints through oral means

• to ask students to view situations from different perspectives

• to encourage the use of appropriate social communication behaviours

• to focus on active listening and turn-taking in conversations and discussions

• to extend and enrich language contributions and to provide models for more complex language structures

• to develop understanding of non-verbal forms of communication (e.g., gestures and facial expressions)

• to use language to describe, explain, inquire, compare, question, make connections, sequence, analyze, predict, infer, synthesize, and evaluate

Descriptions of the Conversation Videos

There are five Conversation Videos and all focus on different areas of social communication and problem solving. “Oh Brother!” and “He Shoots” are virtually silent videos so students need to provide the words. The other three videos feature verbal youngsters eager to tell you about their sport or pets.

Instructional Tips:

• Preview each video before you teach the lesson to ensure that you can follow the teaching plan and also make the most of the visual, or visual and verbal, information.

Title of Video Areas of Social Communication Synopses

Don’t Sit Still Participating in sports to stay healthy and active

Rachel and Eden share their passion for speed skating and they ask us how we keep active.

Get Moving Participating in sports to stay healthy and active

Rayshon demonstrates her expertise in Taekwondo and asks us what kind of sport we participate in.

Meet My Pet Keeping a pet healthy and happy Adlai introduces us to his pet rats, PJ and Wicket, and demonstrates their strengths, and how he cares for them. Adlai asks us what pets we have.

Oh Brother! - Getting Along

- Sibling Interactions

- Dealing with Bullying

A sister is continually being harassed by her brother, but when an outsider bullies her, big brother is quick to protect his sibling.

He Shoots Dealing with personal frustration and problem solving

A boy has no success in getting the puck in the net in hockey, so he looks at his strengths and tries another sport.


• Show each video through completely at least once. On subsequent showings, you will want to pause the video at key discussion points.

• When you use a video for the first time with students, talk about the differences between print pictures and digital images. Some of these include:

• To increase awareness of video watching, occasionally ask students to draw on their personal experiences of viewing videos and ask them:

- What kinds of videos do you enjoy watching? Why?

- Are your favourite videos fact or fantasy. How do you know?

- Think of your favourite video. What is the purpose of the video? How do you know? Who else would enjoy it? (Intended audience)

- How does watching a video compare with reading a book or magazine?

• Discuss why videos are made (e.g., to tell a story, to inform, to describe, to persuade or advertise, to instruct). Ask students to notice who they think is the intended audience for each video.

• The teaching plans will show how to make the most of each video but also use them for role-playing and Readers’ Theatre. For example, the lesson plan, Creating Student-Made Scripts About Problem Solving (see pages 45–48), demonstrates using “Oh Brother!” for Readers’ Theatre.

• Use the videos over the course of the year at points where you think your students could benefit from their underlying messages and from discussion related to those messages. Replay them too to revisit the themes and messages.

Descriptions of the Conversation Cards

WILD WEATHER

Weather can have a major impact on our lives, and these three photographs show the impact of a snowstorm, a wildfire after a lightning strike, and a flood caused by heavy rainfall. Students can react to these powerful visuals, and make connections with their own experiences or what they have heard from family and friends or the media.

Print Pictures Videos

Picture stays still Pictures and scenes are always moving

Shows one scene Shows many scenes

Has no sound Has sounds such as speech, music, and sound effects

Have to look at the picture for a long time, trying to find out more details

Need to watch a video several times to get more details

http://www.scholastic.ca/education/lpeyx_teaching_support_grade2/images/pdfs/conversation_pdfs/readerstheatrelessons/createstudentmade.pdf


Instructional Tips:

• Space the use of these cards out over the course of the year. There is a seasonal element to them with the snowstorm clearly more relevant in winter, wildfires caused by lightning in summer, and floods in late spring through to Fall.

• Preview the cards carefully prior to teaching to ensure that you make the most out of the visual information.

• With the increase in wild weather incidents in recent years, students will undoubtedly make connections with these photographs. Encourage them to dig deeper and evaluate weather’s impact on people’s lives. The teaching plans will help you do this. At the same time, you will need to be sensitive to the emotional needs of children who may have personally experienced a flood or fire.

• Use the ideas in the teaching plans and adapt them to fit discussion on other weather-related pictures or video snippets you may bring into the classroom.

DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS

Three cards demonstrate different people’s perspectives on particular situations. Seeing another person’s point of view is an important part of social communication and in the development of empathy.

x

Note: The Truth Is Out There (Card # 19 and Card # 20) is a story that could be used successfully to look at other perspectives. This story has been described in the Wordless Comic Strips section.

Cards Photographs Synopses

1 Natural Disaster: Snowstorm Two young people dig out the family’s car after it is almost completely buried by a heavy snowstorm.

2 Natural Disaster: Wildfire Lightning strikes and a wildfire results. Firefighters bravely face the fire to stop it spreading into villages and towns nearby.

3 Natural Disaster: Flood Heavy and prolonged rain overwhelms the city’s drainage system and the roads flood, leaving people stranded in their vehicles. Two people help each other escape from the water.

Cards Illustrations Synopses

4 Speed Racers Three medalists are standing on a podium. The first-place winner is thinking about the moment she won, the second-place winner is thinking how upset she is that she tripped, and the third-place winner is happy she actually made the podium this time. A fourth child, amidst the spectators, is wearing a cast and she’s upset she didn’t get a chance to race.

5 The Doctor’s Office A doctor is preparing to give an injection to a girl. The girl is obviously nervous and her mother is comforting her.

6 The Vet’s Office The family’s dog needs a checkup but isn’t too keen on the idea! The little boy is interested by the sounds he can hear through the stethoscope and the vet explains procedures.


Instructional Tips:

• Preview each card before the lesson so that you can spot the visual subtleties (e.g., facial expressions and other body language).

• Extend the concept of looking at different viewpoints to other lessons and activities, and encourage students to notice alternate perspectives in Read Alouds and Shared, Guided, and Independent Reading. “Whose point of view are we hearing?” and “Could there be another point of view?” are important questions to ask.

• Students could use these cards for Readers’ Theatre, making up the scripts for spontaneous oral role-playing or even writing the scripts themselves.

COMPARISONS

Three sets of two cards focus students on comparing and contrasting visual information.

The intent of the Comparisons cards is to offer students the opportunity to compare orally. In the two fine art cards, students will orally compare two wilderness settings in Canada—the skies, the trees, the differing techniques of the artists, and their personal preferences for one picture or another. The menu comparisons take the students’ comparisons into the everyday world of eating in restaurants and making some choices. Which restaurant and which meal looks best? There will be a variety of different responses for different reasons! The third example asks students to compare book covers. Book covers often influence us when we make book choices, and students are asked to compare the two options and consider the intended audience of each book cover. Students are also asked to decide on their preference, recognizing of course that back covers and looking through the book will also be part of their decision making in choosing a book.

Note: The Doctor’s Office (Card # 5) and The Vet’s Office (Card # 6) can also be used for comparisons. Discussion can focus on comparing and contrasting medical visits for people and for animals.

Cards Paintings, Illustrations, and Photos

Synopses

7 Art Card: Western Forest

Emily Carr painted this picture of a West Coast forest with light edging its way through the heavy canopy of branches.

8 Art Card: Above Lake Superior

This Lawren Harris painting shows a winter scene with the bare tree trunks framing a wilderness area of forests and hills.

9 Menu: Yummy Café

Kid’s menu options are listed and illustrated. Build your own meal from the options! Check the price for value!

10 Menu: The Food Factory

In this kid’s menu, whole meals can be selected. Check the price for value!

11 Book Cover: The Big Book of Space

This book cover illustrates a satellite, a space shuttle, a space walker, and a planet-like form against a background of night sky and stars.

12 Book Cover: The Big Book of Space

This photo offers the same book title but with an entirely different front cover. A space walker and the Canadarm are featured against the backdrop of a distant Earth.


Instructional Tips:

• Spread out the card options over the course of the year so that you offer several opportunities for verbal comparisons.

• Preview the cards carefully before you teach the lessons as they contain a lot of information you may wish to highlight, in addition to the suggestions offered in the teaching plans.

• Comparisons are not always easy for young children. Weave in signal words such as same, the same as, different, alike, on the other hand, although, and both share into your modelling and prompts.

REAL WORLD TEXTS

These cards offer information that you may find in the everyday world of home and the community. You will find a TV schedule on the TV at home (TV Time), a map of a wildlife park in the community (Pine Valley Wildlife Centre), a frog’s life cycle in a nature centre or on a classroom wall (Frog Life Cycle), a movie poster at the local theatre (How Anansi Outsmarted Snake), and menus in neighbourhood restaurants (Yummy Café and The Food Factory). These cards provide opportunities for students to talk about the functional texts they may encounter in their lives.

Note: You may choose to use the menu cards (Card # 9 and Card # 10) as Real World Texts. They are found in the Comparisons section.

Instructional Tips:

• These cards offer opportunities for students to make connections to their everyday lives, although we want to stretch their world of community functional texts a little and offer a variety of formats, such as a diagram and a map in addition to a more common movie poster and TV schedule. Preview these texts before teaching as their formats are entirely different, and you will want to think about the kinds of challenges they may offer to your students. The teaching

Cards Illustrations Synopses

13 Map: Pine Valley Wildlife Centre

Visit a wildlife rescue centre, where injured animals are dropped off by people, and treated by trained veterinarians and staff. Follow the map and work out its key as you find the visitor’s centre which shows you local wildlife and plants, and the flight centre where treated birds practise their first flights before they are released into the wild.

14 Pictorial Diagram: Frog Life Cycle

The frog is shown developing in a four-stage life cycle from spawn, to tadpole, to froglet, and then to a full-sized amphibian.

15 Movie Poster: How Anansi Outsmarted Snake

This poster is an ad for a 3D movie about Anansi, a spider who finds his special gifts by outwitting the clever snake. (This folk tale is a Shared Reading text in the You Can Do It! book club.)

16 TV Schedule: TV Time This schedule shows six station options with 21 shows for children on a time schedule that spans from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Make your choices!


plans will offer many helpful suggestions, but you will need to adapt them to meet the needs of your class in dealing with the varied layouts.

• You can have discussions about the movie poster (How Anansi Outsmarted Snake) without having read the big book in the Grade Two You Can Do It! book club. The National Film Board of Canada offers an alternate version of the story online that you might like to show to the class after they have talked about the poster. It can be found at the following website address: http://www.nfb.ca/film/magic_of_anansi/.

• Increase awareness about functional texts in the real world by talking about such texts in the school and community throughout the school year. You may encourage students to bring samples in for small-group or whole-class discussions.

WORDLESS COMIC STRIPS

Two wordless comic strips tell visual stories for students to interpret. They also provide opportunities for students to supply their own words for the characters. Sequencing is a key strategy in this activity as students need to interpret the events in the frames and the links between them.

Instructional Tips:

• Study the comic strip carefully before you teach the lesson to ensure you get the most out of the visual information and storyline.

• The teaching plans offer helpful teaching strategies, and these story cards can also be used to create Readers’ Theatre scripts.

• Key signal words such as then, next, after, before, finally, and last should be woven into your modelling and prompts as they indicate the sequence of events.

ELL Note: Conversation Videos and Conversation Cards

The Conversation Videos and Conversation Cards included in the Conversation Kit provide a springboard for children to engage in conversation about a variety of topics, and to learn to use a variety of language forms for different social purposes.

Ensure that English Language Learners (ELLs) have opportunities to activate and build their background knowledge about the situations depicted on the cards and in the videos. For example, for Card # 4 Speed Racers, ask students if they have ever participated in a race and what they can share about it.

Cards Comic Strips Synopses

17−18 The Show Must Go On It is the dress rehearsal of the class play and everyone is dressed in their costumes. A cast member trips and spills glue on the princess’s dress. The dress seems ruined. However, another student suggests sticking a star over the sticky mess and all is well!

19−20 The Truth Is Out There A girl interested in space, and an alien interested in Earth see the same shooting star. The alien thinks it is a spaceship from Earth and the girl thinks it is a flying saucer from another planet.

http://www.nfb.ca/film/magic_of_anansi/

http://www.nfb.ca/film/magic_of_anansi/


Record key vocabulary items for the card or video in a word web or on a chart and post in the classroom for students to refer to later.

Some of the cards and videos present situations where children need to use language to deal with social situations such as taking turns, listening carefully to others, comparing, and problem solving. As the class discusses appropriate language and expressions students can use to deal with these various situations, record them on a chart and post prominently in the classroom for future reference. Continue to add to the charts during the year and to refer students to them when relevant situations arise in the classroom.

The situations on the Conversations Cards and in the Conversation Videos also make a good jumping-off point for creating group language experience stories with ELLs. Putting together a dramatic tableau is another good way for students to consolidate their understanding of the depictions in the cards and videos.

4. Wordless Books

Two wordless (or nearly wordless) picture books are provided in the Conversation Kit, Beaver Is Lost by Elisha Cooper and Where’s Walrus? by Stephen Savage. They are both narratives and can be used for oral storytelling. Templates for making stick puppets (or one of the adaptations suggested on pages 12–13) and masks are provided for retelling these two stories.

Teaching plans accompany the wordless books, with each plan emphasizing a different Oral Language Teaching Strategy.

Purposes:

• to model oral storytelling as well as appropriate vocabulary and language structures

• to encourage students to participate and develop storytelling abilities

• to encourage active listening

• to promote extended language contributions

• to continue to develop understanding of story structure (e.g., characters, setting, problem, events and actions, climax, and resolution)

• to link to other areas of Language Arts and develop Readers’ Theatre scripts in Shared or Guided/Independent Writing

Instructional Tips:

• Always “read” the text several times before you engage in storytelling so that you are familiar with the story, characters, visual features, and occasional print (e.g., in Beaver Is Lost, signs saying “Beaver is lost,” “zoo,” and “Beavers” and text saying “Home”).

• Read through the teaching plan to see if there is any other preparation required. Hands-on manipulatives that have been included in the kit may be needed.


• Check on the Oral Language Teaching Strategy featured in the lesson so that you can weave it into your storytelling and interactions with students.

• In your introduction to the lesson, help students to make connections with the content, set a purpose for listening, and introduce the idea that storytelling is different from reading them a story. In Read Aloud stories, the words are written on the page and are the same each time the story is read. In oral storytelling with wordless picture books, there are no (or few) words on the page and you make up the story to match the pictures each time you tell the story. Your words will change a bit with each narration.

• Teaching plans promote uninterrupted storytelling as you expose students to the narrative. This helps to engage students and allows you to focus on the dramatic storytelling, including maintaining consistent voices for each character. Your storytelling provides a model for students’ own storytelling.

• At the conclusion of the first lesson, start discussions by referring to the purpose for the listening prompt you provided at the beginning of the lesson, and then extend comprehension to cover other areas of content and to encourage students to interpret information by using a range of comprehension strategies.

• During the second lesson, encourage students to participate in the storytelling. You may use manipulatives to assist them. Your role is to ensure they all get opportunities to retell orally, to offer structure to enable them to be successful, and to give positive modelling and feedback to help them to refine and modify their language use.

• Teaching plans provide suggestions for further retellings. These expand and deepen the students’ experiences with oral storytelling.

• Suggestions for follow-up activities are provided to encourage extended language use through social play, art with oral sharing, and drama. Wordless books make excellent vehicles for creating Readers’ Theatre scripts and informal retellings with puppets or masks.

Other Wordless Books

• Other wordless books, or books with brief texts, can be used for oral storytelling. For example:

- One Frog Too Many by Mercer Mayer and Marianna Mayer

- The Line by Paula Bossio

- A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka

- Chalk by Bill Thomson

- The Secret Box by Barbara Lehman

- The Red Book by Barbara Lehman

- The Bored Book by David Michael Slater

- Four Hungry Kittens by Emily Arnold McCully

- Ben’s Bunny Trouble by Daniel Wakeman and Dirk van Stralen


• Encourage students to make their own stick puppets or face masks to retell the stories. Check through the templates provided with the Conversation Kit as some would work with other wordless books.

• You may wish to put together a few simple props to support the storytelling. These could be toy props (e.g., a small fishing net for the zookeeper, various hats, and a medal on a ribbon for the walrus in Where’s Walrus?), or they could be drawn, coloured, and cut out to be mounted on sticks like the puppets.

ELL Note: Wordless Books

Wordless books are an especially rich literacy teaching tool for English Language Learners (ELLs). They can be used for repeated retellings of a story, with a language focus that can be differentiated depending on the levels and needs of various students.

When sharing a wordless book with ELLs, first invite students to go on a picture-walk through the book, tapping into students’ background knowledge and previewing important vocabulary. Ask plenty of open-ended questions about the story to encourage students to talk about the pictures.

Next, tell the story of the wordless book, gearing your language to the proficiency level of your particular learners. Students can then retell the story as a group, in pairs, or individually. A group language experience story can also be created from the wordless picture book to be used for further language work.

Use sticky notes to write labels, patterned language, or simple sentences for the pictures in a wordless book and affix them to the pages. Simple dialogue bubbles can also be added with sticky notes.

ELLs can create their own wordless books based on ones they have used in the classroom, using their own illustrations, pictures from newspapers and magazines, or digital images. Students can then tell the story to their classmates, and even share a few key words from their native languages for important items in the story.

Sharing wordless books with ELLs provides an engaging home literacy experience for family members and caregivers. There is no assumption that anyone at home has to read English in order to share and enjoy the book with the child. Family members can tell the child a story based on the wordless book in their own language, and use the pictures as the basis for rich interaction about the visuals. Stories can even be recorded and stored in a multi-language classroom Listening Centre.

5. Readers’ Theatre

The Grade Two Conversation Kit offers opportunities for students to use language to retell stories, create stories, and problem solve socially. Drama is a key aspect in language learning as it connects with children’s imaginations and allows them to take on roles and see others’ viewpoints.


Purposes:

• to stimulate imaginative play and oral language

• to retell

• to use language flexibly and creatively

• to build confidence in oral expression

• to see others’ perspectives (role-playing)

• to promote active listening and turn-taking

• to increase vocabulary and to enhance the use of appropriate language structures

• to expand language contributions

• to increase problem solving and co-operation with the use of language

We suggest three kinds of Readers’ Theatre:

SPONTANEOUS VERBAL THEATRE

Students use wordless books, books they have heard, picture books, or life experiences to create verbal scripts that they act out in a small group or with a partner. They can support their verbal enactments with stick puppets or masks. No written scripts are involved.

Instructional Tips:

• Encourage students to make up their own plays by retelling a wordless book in their own words. Provide a selection of wordless books and picture books that the students can use for this purpose. Add some of the books you have read aloud to the class as they will have familiar stories.

• If you base Readers’ Theatre lessons on materials from the Conversation Kit, make sure they are familiar to students.

• Model how you can role-play to problem solve, and encourage students to role-play with a partner or a small group. For example, you may consider this after showing students “Oh Brother!” (video on getting along/sibling disputes). Students could pick a scenario from the video and act out how they would problem solve if they were in a similar situation to the little sister. In addition, you could use everyday class incidents and suggest that students act out a solution to a problem, e.g., how to share a class soccer ball, how to make up after an argument with a friend, or how to handle a bully.

• The oral scripts can be part of oral communicative play and left at that, or some could be performed for a group or the class. Of course, wording will vary during performances as the scripts are entirely oral.

• Provide a selection of templates for stick puppets and masks so that children can use these if they desire. Suggest the possibility of props, too. You may wish to keep


a treasure chest of small props that students can use. If students use stick puppets, they could draw, colour, and cut out props they need and mount them on sticks.

THEATRE WITH READY-MADE SCRIPTS

Students use premade scripts and read aloud the lines, as well as act out the story. The scripts provided may be used for whole-class use, but they are largely intended for independent use by small groups. The scripts are quite easy to read for most Grade Two students.

The ready-made scripts provided with the Conversation Kit include the following:

Title Number of Characters Synopses

The Bear (in Between Friends big book)

2 Two children talk about one of their little brothers who claims he met a bear. Was it imagination or real?

The Lion and the Mouse (in Between Friends big book)

2 The traditional fable of the mouse who was spared by the lion and given the opportunity to repay the favour.

Time for Fall 2 Two leaves take a risk and “jump” to the ground in Fall.

A Monster Meal

3 The monster kids want to eat healthy food but Mom tries to make them try monsters’ traditional food like shoes and tin cans!

The Little Red Hen

4 The traditional tale of the hardworking hen and three lazy animals who won’t help her plant, tend, and reap the wheat.

Four in a Storm 4 (Potentially there are 16 characters but each student can take several parts (e.g., one student can be Wind 1, Rain 1, Lightning 1, Thunder 1, another student can be Wind 2, Rain 2, etc.)

Wind, rain, lightning, and thunder tell us about their roles in a thunderstorm. Their comments are highlighted by words that imitate the sounds they make (onomatopoeia).

Chicken Tricks 5 Ellie plays tricks on all the other chickens, but nearly gets caught by a fox when nobody believes her cries of fear, thinking she’s playing yet another trick.

There’s No Place Like Home

5 (Potentially there are 15 characters, but each student can take several parts ( e.g., one stu-dent can be Bee 1, Bear 1, Ant 1, Beaver 1, and Bird 1, and another student Bee 2, Bear 2, etc.)

Students learn the homes of five common woodland creatures.

Hide and Go Seek

7 Woodland animals play hide and seek.


Note: Other plays in Grade Two Literacy Place for the Early Years are How Anansi Outsmarted Snake (big book) and Goldilocks and the Three Bears (overheads), both Shared Reading texts.

Instructional Tips:

• You may decide to use one or two of the scripts for whole-class Shared Reading. It is important that more than one person reads each part so that all readers are supported. For example, a small group can read a part chorally in a whole-class Shared Reading session.

• If small groups use a ready-made script that hasn’t been read in whole-class Shared Reading, encourage that group to read the parts chorally together at first as you will have some students who need the support.

• It is anticipated that the plays will mainly be used by small groups, possibly in centre time. The student group can read all the parts together first, and then each student can take a part. Plays can be practised and performed for the class. It may be possible in your classroom for students to video their plays.

• Encourage students to use expressive voices and sound effects if desired. Props can be made if needed.

• Advise students how to divide up the parts in their group. For example, a script may have a large number of parts but students could take two or more parts.

• Show students how to colour highlight their parts on the script so that they can quickly identify when they are speaking.

STUDENT-MADE SCRIPTS

Students use wordless books, picture books, stories they have heard, or their own imaginations to write their own scripts to perform.

Instructional Tips:

• Students can create their own scripts after they have had several experiences with ready-made scripts. They will learn a great deal about the format for script writing from the models these scripts provide. The first script they create should also be prefaced by teacher modelling on how to write a script. It would be a good idea to write a whole-class script in Shared Writing.

• Stories could be tried out orally first in small groups and then adjusted through oral retellings. After these try-outs, a written script could be created by each group, partners, or individuals.

• Students can usually read their own scripts with independence but, if they are working in small groups with students of varied reading abilities, it’s a good idea to do one or two Shared readings of the script so that all readers have support.

• Provide a selection of stick puppet and mask templates and a prop box for student use.


• Students can perform their scripts for other small groups or for the class.

A wide range of templates and masks are provided with the Conversation Kit for use in any of the three types of Readers’ Theatre.

ELL Note: Readers’ Theatre Scripts

Readers’ Theatre is a strategy that provides English Language Learners (ELLs) with a reason for focused repetition of the text of a story. Students need multiple rehearsals to prepare a script for presentation to the class, providing ELLs with many opportunities to increase their comprehension of the story and to practise language forms, as well as to improve their pronunciation and oral expressive skills.

Scripts, or parts of scripts, can be adapted to various English proficiency levels. You can also use a group-created language experience story as the basis for a Readers’ Theatre script. Poems from the Between Friends big book can also be presented in a Readers’ Theatre format.

Assign roles that are less linguistically complex to ELLs. Several ELLs could also speak one role together as a chorus which may help to give them more confidence. Include plenty of gestures, props, clothing, scenery items, and even music to help all students get the most out of the dramatic presentation.

Allow time for multiple run-throughs of the script for all students, and especially for ELLs. Pair an English-speaking student with an ELL. The English-speaking student can model the language for the ELL during rehearsals.

Readers’ Theatre can even be used to help students review non-fiction texts. You can prepare a brief script about a concept from the Science or Social Studies curriculum. ELLs can practise and present these short dramatic scripts, providing them the opportunity to focus on English language development while integrating content knowledge and crucial academic vocabulary into the activity.

6. Oral Language Games

Games are a perfect way to provide practice applying basic skills in real-life situations. Since all games require students to interact and speak with each other, they are a powerful language learning tool.

Purposes:

• to listen and respond to others

• to discuss, describe, and ask questions for information and clarification

• to develop social self-regulation through co-operating, practising fair play, and tolerating others’ viewpoints

See alternate ways of using the puppet templates on pages 12–13.

Teaching Tip:


• to enhance cognitive/language skills through problem solving, sequencing, and critical thinking

Instructional Tips:

• The games have been designed to promote different types of oral language. Choose the types of oral language games to use in your classroom depending on your goals and the needs of your students.

• These games can be played in a whole-class setting, or in pairs or small groups during centre time.

• To ensure success for young learners, introduce and demonstrate how to play each game prior to asking students to play independently.

• Model the types of language and behaviour that are acceptable and reinforces strategies for resolving conflicts.

ELL Note: Oral Language Games

Games offer students the opportunity to practise and develop oral language while having fun. When you introduce a game, display the words and structures needed for that game on a chart. Incorporate these items repeatedly in your talk to students while playing the game.

Give clear instructions for playing each game, model the actions and language required for the game, and check that all students understand how to play. Have students review the instructions for the game together in small groups. Compile a group list of written instructions for playing the game and post.

Partner an English Language Learner (ELL) with an English-speaking student. The pair can observe the game together and the English speaker can provide explanation about what is happening as the game is being played. If the partner speaks the same native language as the ELL, an explanation can be provided in the native language.

Place ELLs near the beginning of the circle or chain in games which call for remembering a growing story or list of items. This will alleviate some of the pressure on ELLs to recall a long story or list.

Play a variation of a barrier game with ELLs, incorporating classroom or everyday objects for vocabulary practice.

Encourage family and community participation in the classroom through language games. A family member or other volunteer can visit the classroom to teach the children a game from another country or language background.

Model supportive behaviour and communicate your expectation that all English speakers in the classroom will support those who are learning English.

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