Literacy Now

Be a Friend. Salina Yoon. 2016. Bloomsbury.

Ages 4–8

Summary

Be a Friend by Salina Yoon is a simple story of being different from the others around you and how that difference can make you special. The simple text has built in vocabulary opportunities and the soft illustrations add a second dimension to the story.

Dennis is a rather regular boy who enjoyed expressing himself in an unusual way. Even when all the other children responded a certain way, Dennis kept his own methods intact. For example, when other children spoke, Dennis acted out his answer. When other children climbed trees, Dennis “became” a tree. Dennis was called “Mime Boy” because of his choice to act out events. The delightful illustrations will help to explain the art of miming to the students.  Even though Dennis is content to be himself, he sometimes would become lonely—feeling invisible and isolated. All these feelings changed when he met Joy, who caught the invisible ball that Dennis kicked. Joy understood Dennis’s emotions and actions and accepted him for who he was. This pairing of friends drew the attention of the other children, who then became interested in the actions of miming and participating in the imaginary scenes Dennis created.

We often have children who move at their own pace or learn differently from the traditional student. Be a Friend takes a look at those differences and celebrates them by encouraging children to stay true to their passions and beliefs even when others don’t understand.

Cross-Curricular Connections

Art (drama), social studies, English, history

Ideas for Classroom Use

What Is a Mime?

This activity builds background knowledge prior to reading the story. Miming is not a common art form practiced today. Students may be unfamiliar with the process of mimes.

Have students brainstorm what they think the word mime means. Encourage and accept all student answers. Discuss prior knowledge and experiences for the word. If know students are familiar with the word, give a quick definition such as “acting things out without talking.” Ask about the game of charades. Create a K-W-L chart of what we know about charades/mimes and what we want to know, leaving a blank for what we learned.

Have students watch a video showing miming such as Mime Act of Balloon Seller by Moinul Haque (D’Source, 2011) to see a mime at work. Discuss the actions as the story is unfolding. With this background information in mind, read Be a Friend and talk about how miming could have made life difficult for Dennis. How does it make Dennis special?

Story Mimes

This activity takes the knowledge learned about mimes and Dennis and incorporates it into familiar stories. After showing the pictures of the different actions both Dennis and the professional mime made, encourage students to try miming on their own. As students feel comfortable, have them present their favorite activity, their favorite story, and so forth. 

Encourage students to wait until the mime is over before guessing what story or activity it is showing. As all students finish their attempts at miming, talk about how challenging it could be to tell a story without using verbal words. This can lead to an open discussion about how it can be difficult to be different within a classroom, family, or community. Refer to Dennis and the end of the story in which Joy helped him to connect with the other students. Use this opportunity to encourage all students to make new friends and accept people who may act differently from themselves.

I Like Me…

This activity encourages students to connect life experiences to Be a Friend in a meaningful way. Encourage students to draw themselves being different. When students talk about things they like to do, they may realize that all people have unique talents and abilities and that we can often find others with similar interests.

As a closing activity, have students write, or dictate with a teacher to facilitate and scribe, how they are different and why they like themselves. Create a story wall outside the classroom displaying how students can connect even though they are different. Perhaps two students like dancing, while two others like sports. Other students in the school can view this story wall and begin to have conversations about accepting differences.

Additional Resources

Mime Videos: This page contains 12 videos showing a variety of mimes, including cartoon mimes.

eVoc Strategies: 10 Ways to Use Technology to Build Vocabulary: This article designates 10 ways to use technology to help with vocabulary instruction. Be a Friend offers opportunities for expanding young readers’ vocabulary to include words such as extraordinary, mime, invisible, imaginary, and individuality. Building children’s vocabulary provides a key to comprehension.

Confessions of a Former Bully: This podcast from ReadWriteThink.org touches on both friendships that can be difficult and the topic of bullying. This podcast can be used to further the discussion of Be a Friend and move into the sensitive topic of bullying at the early elementary level.

Kathy Prater is a reading specialist working with students with dyslexia and an instructor with The Learning Center at Mississippi State University in Starkville, MS. She teaches reading and study skills courses to undergraduate students.

The following is a supplement to the article “Tomorrow’s Leaders,” which appeared in the March/April 2016 issue of Literacy Today. The play vignettes were scripts performed by students as part of the Teens for Literacy initiative between Armstrong State University and a local K–8 urban public school.

Play Vignette 1: Reviewing a Recipe Card

D’Ante: Hey Grandma, let’s make some gumbo for dinner.
Grandma: Ok, we can make it together.
D’Ante: I’ll give you the ingredients and you can cook it.
Grandma: I know all of the ingredients by heart, so I’ll tell you what I need and then you can hand me the ingredients.
They are all written down on the recipe card.
First, I need the soup.
D’Ante: Here you go, Grandma.
What do you need next?
Grandma: I will need corn, potatoes, tomatoes, seafood flavoring, and green beans.
(D’Ante hands grandma all of the ingredients she asked for.)
D’Ante: After we put all of those ingredients in to simmer, what do we do afterward?
Grandma: We are going to let the gumbo cook for 30 minutes and then we will fix the plates for dinner.
(Once the gumbo was done and dinner was served, everyone sat at the table and ate.)
D’Ante: This gumbo tastes so good; I feel like I’m in heaven!

Play Vignette 2: Star Study Tips

Narrator: Today we will be telling a story of three students telling how they are studying for an upcoming test.
Brandon: Hey, are you getting ready for the reading test?
Jah’meria: Yeah, I’ve been studying for that since the teacher told us about it.
Vanessa: What study tips have you guys been using?
Brandon: I’ve been using flashcards to study.
I write down a question on one side, say the answer to myself, and check to see if I am right when I turn the card over. I wrote the correct answer on the back of the card.
Jah’meria: Good idea!
I’ve been looking over all of my notes that I took during class.
I am reviewing them and saying them in my own words to make sure I understand them.
Vanessa: That’s smart. What about you, Brandon?
Brandon: Well, I’ve been testing myself.
Jah’meria: I’ve also been re-reading the text and going over all of the bold words.
The bold words are usually the important vocabulary words and ideas to remember.
Vanessa: Another really great way that I’ve been studying is to create songs or raps to help me remember big ideas.
Brandon: Wow, that sounds like fun.
Jah’meria: My teacher also told me that having a quiet spot to study without any distractions is important.
Make sure you have your supplies ready, like pencils, books, and your notebook.
Vanessa: Making a study schedule is also a great way to study.
Decide how to break up the material and study for a little bit of time each day.
Brandon: She also said that you should take detailed notes during class.
If the teacher writes something down on the board, it is important and you should know it for the test. You can also draw a picture while you are studying if it helps you remember your notes better.
Jah’meria: With all of these great study tips, I know how to prepare for any test now!

Play Vignette 3: “Top 10 Reasons to Read” Countdown

Renee: Presenting…the Top 10 Reasons to Read!
Tatyana: Number 1: Reading is used for other school subjects like social studies and math.
Renee: Number 2: It is used in your everyday life.
Tatyana: Number 3: Reading helps you learn different things and have new experiences.
Renee: Number 4: Reading is used to understand the world around us and travel to exciting places.
Tatyana: Number 5: Reading can improve your spelling and language skills.
Renee: Number 6: If you cannot read, you may be cheated out of something. You might not be able to understand an important contract.
Tatyana: Number 7: Reading helps a person follow directions.
Renee: Number 8: Reading is a major part of college.
Tatyana: Number 9: Reading is an important part of getting a good job.
Renee: Number 10: To be able to write well, you also need to be able to read.
Tatyana: So, be sure to read something today and every day!

Play Vignette 4: Reading Aloud to a Sibling and Researching Eric Carle

Petrice: Hey, Jakaila. Have you heard of the author and illustrator Eric Carle?
Jakailia: Yeah, I really enjoy reading them to my younger sister. She loves the illustrations and the stories.
Petrice: Do you read to your sister with lots of expression to make the story more exciting?
Petrice: I do. Did you know that Eric Carle has illustrated more than 70 books, most of which he also wrote?
Jakailia: Wow, I didn’t know that about him. That is really impressive!
Petrice: He is very talented at what he does. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? was actually the first book he illustrated. It has been translated into more than 30 languages around the world.
His artwork was created using the collage technique. He cuts and layers paper to create bright and cheerful images.
Jakailia: That’s so interesting. I never knew that about Eric Carle. I know that he also wrote The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Petrice: Some of my other favorites that he has written are The Tiny Seed and Draw me a Star. A lot of his books are about nature. You should all check out some books by Eric Carle soon.
Petrice and Jakailia: …AND check out the latest edition of the School Times! Extra, extra, read all about it…enjoy!

Anne Katz, an ILA member since 2003, is an assistant professor of reading in the College of Education at Armstrong State University in Georgia.

It’s late on a Friday afternoon and a dedicated teacher has gone into the bookroom in search of just the right book to pique the interest of a particular student. This book certainly has to meet the requirements of Common Core. Instinctively, the teacher knows she cannot rely merely on the color-coded stickers on the books. Lexiles are not enough to guide her. Luckily, her reading specialist had this situation in mind when she filled the bookroom with quality children’s literature.

The current trends in reading are driving school districts to purchase sets and programs they believe will support the needs of their students. Systems are marketed as being researched and evidence-based. However, when teachers are armed with the knowledge of best teaching practices, research shows that students learn best when using authentic quality books. Motivation increases and the love of reading grows when students are engaged in books that capture their imagination and challenge their thinking. Computer programs do not know which books connect to a student’s life, but teachers do.

Children’s literature is seen as deceptively simple by some. When used to its potential, children’s literature contains more than just endearing stories. It contains characters to which students can relate and a sequence of understandable and often predictable events. The language uses similes and metaphors that students can modify in their own writing. Authentic quality literature becomes a window to the world but also a map to students themselves. A good book allows students to understand and problem solve within the circumstances of a book that reflects pieces of their own lives.   

Now is the time to build book collections to support what teachers know about their students and best practices in reading. No canned program or system can compare to the expertise teachers bring when using authentic literature. Guided reading, comprehension focus groups, strategy groups, and RTI all can be developed to a richer level of success when done with fidelity using the best books teachers can find. Mindful reading means paying attention to the content we provide students so they grow in their thinking.

The elements of a successful bookroom stay the same whether teachers are selecting titles for an elementary or a secondary level bookroom. Do the characters in the books relate to the world they know? Do the books invite readers to question and learn, to make connections? Readers love books that they find are relevant to themselves and their lives.

The Five Essential Elements

1. Books that are authentic quality literature. Although publishing companies are quick to offer prepared programs for bookrooms, teachers can select books using various resources. Websites like The Nerdy Book Club and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center of University of Wisconsin-Madison offer recommendations beyond Newberry and Caldecott winners. Teachers can find mentor texts, picture books, and chapter books at every level to supplement their curriculum.
2. Books that are culturally relevant and accurate. What is your school population and how do the books chosen represent it? Diversity is fluid, and the titles in the bookroom should reflect how populations change. Although not all cultures are represented equally, teachers need to strive to find materials in which children can identify themselves. 
3. Books that inspire children to think and question. Across content areas, books can be found that support the curriculum in a way that challenge students to question, think, form opinions, and wonder. Pairing a biography about Neil Armstrong or with an informational text about the solar system gives students a chance to think about what it takes to explore space and debate the merits of such exploration. They can persuade or dissuade others to take up such a challenge.
4. Books that represent different times and truths/ideas. Books should cover different time periods and beliefs in history. There are many universal big idea themes that should be represented such as hopes and dreams, fears, challenges, opportunities, greed, ambition, family, and discovery. Also important are themes like slavery throughout the world (past and present), equality, fairness, freedom, and rights.
5. Books that align with the school’s curriculum. Every school district has its own requirements in addition to Common Core Standards. When adding to the bookroom, meeting the needs of classroom teachers who are looking for materials to supplement their curriculum is important. Reading specialists need to talk to all teachers to determine ways to support their teaching with literature from personal narratives to science.

Books are treasures that open the mind to new ideas and imagination. A bookroom should reflect the best in what literature has to offer children. Teachers have the skills to use these books in the many ways students need them presented. The most essential ingredient to a bookroom is the knowledge teachers bring to it when they search for the right book for that certain student late on a Friday afternoon. Mindful reading provides students with the authentic literature they need to be engaged in their learning.

Martha M. Fallis is a reading specialist/literacy coach in the Columbus School District in Wisconsin.

As teachers, one of our goals is for every student to read and comprehend at or above grade level. We want students to take ownership of their reading, monitoring themselves while they are reading and self-correcting when they need to. I have struggled with this as a teacher. Students look at the first letter or letters of a word, make a guess, and continue reading. They rarely go back and self-correct when the word does not make sense. When students are reading aloud to us we are able to draw their attention to their mistakes, but what happens when they are reading by themselves? Are the students self-correcting or are they just reading on? What effect is this having on their comprehension? To address this, I focus more instruction on students identifying the mistakes they have made while reading and reading accurately the first time.

One strategy is to have students record themselves reading into a computer or tablet. Students have a passage in front of them that is at their reading level. They record themselves and then go back and listen to their reading, marking any errors on their paper. If students are able, I have them mark what they said. They record the number of errors that they made and then repeat the process.

This took modeling and practice, but once students had the hang of it, I could set them up on the device and they could do it themselves. Hearing second and third graders talk about what errors they had made and how they could not believe they did not read the right word when they knew the word was amazing. This strategy brings students’ attention to how they were reading and what they needed to pay more attention to while reading.

Another strategy I use with students as early as first grade is to write down the misreads they make while they are reading. I then read it back to them and have them follow along. I will read what they said, not what the text actually says. They catch on quickly that what they said was not correct. They tell me that what I read was wrong. The students start to get their eyes on the word and read more carefully, paying extra attention to what they are reading.

Similar to the previous strategy, I write phrases and sentences on notecards from the lessons that we have already done. The students each get one notecard and read it aloud. If they read it correctly the first time, they get to keep the card. If they do not read it correctly, then I get the card. Their goal as a group is to get more cards than I do. This has made a huge difference in how much attention students pay to the whole word. They even have made improvements on identifying if the letter is a b or a d.

Many students have shown improvement in the number of words that they read correctly in a minute, but, of course, there are still some students who are making the same mistakes and are not paying attention to what they are reading. Our goal is to get students to pay more attention to what they are reading and to read accurately the first time. The more attention we can draw to students’ misreads and the more we can get students to see that they are not looking at the entire word, the fewer mistakes they will make and the better readers they will become.

Jennifer Johnson is a reading specialist working with children in grades kindergarten through fourth grade in Shenandoah Community Schools in Iowa. 

Many language arts teachers are not fully prepared for the type of collaboration expected of them in their first years of teaching. Though teacher education programs may have discussed collaboration or teachers may have encountered it during their student teaching, learning how to collaborate with an educator with whom instructional responsibilities are shared can be quite a process for novice language arts teachers. In this article, we, former coworkers and collaborators, share five tips for collaboration. We created these tips based on what we learned during one fantastic collaborative year in a co-taught inclusion sixth grade language arts classroom.

1. Get to know one another professionally. It can be intimidating or stressful to share a classroom with someone you do not know, but remember your coteacher might be just as intimidated as you are. Find time to sit down and talk before the year begins. Although knowing your coteacher on a personal level is ideal, you must develop a professional relationship with him or her. Share a little about yourselves and figure out teaching styles and preferred in-class and out-of-class communication methods. Remain open to continuing to develop a communicative, working relationship with your coteacher as the year progresses.
2. Look at students’ accommodations together. After getting to know your collaborator, it is important to take some time to examine and review students’ IEPs. This ensures both of you will be familiar with not only the specific accommodations but how they relate to the language arts content and the effect particular disabilities may have on students’ progress in the curriculum. Talk about how upcoming classroom activities or assignments can be adapted for student needs.
3. Plan together, with the end in mind, during weekly planning meetings. You and your coteacher should have shared responsibility for not only course planning but also its instructional design and implementation. Universal design or backward design of lessons and units helps both teachers meet all student needs and makes sure students are not left out. Both teachers’ formative assessments will allow for planning adjustments to be made. Be flexible with the instruction. Meeting at least once a week is vital to effective collaboration and student outcomes.
4. Share teaching responsibilities. You and your coteacher should both be responsible for portions of lesson delivery. What you and your coteacher will teach may be fixed or change from week to week based on teaching styles and strengths. Whereas shared planning helps embed accommodations naturally within lessons, shared teaching sends students the message they have two equal teachers who care about their success. When each teacher assumes the role of teacher, the collaborators and the students win. Each collaborator feels a shared responsibility for teaching, which allows for more effective discussions around planning and teaching. Students then receive accommodations in an organic way.
5. Think about how accommodations can help all students. Sometimes language arts teachers are not aware that accommodations can help students with and without exceptionalities. There is no rule against using the accommodations with any student in the classroom. They may be used to support, differentiate, and meet the needs of all students in the classroom. This is just another example of why planning and implementing instruction together as a team are important parts of co-teaching. Collaboration genuinely seeks to help and support all student learning. That’s the true magic of collaboration!

These tips can help your next collaborative teaching experience. Our experiences revealed that collaboration in the language arts classroom decreases the chance students—with or without IEPs—feel marginalized. Each of us felt a shared responsibility for the planning and teaching of our co-taught language arts course and grew as teachers because of this. But, more important, our students benefitted from our commitment to true collaboration in the language arts classroom.  

Beth Kelly is currently serving as Program/Compliance Specialist for Dare County Schools in North Carolina, and she continues to teach math part time to children with various degrees and types of disabilities in middle grades. Beth earned her Maed from East Carolina University in Learning Disabilities in 2005 and is certified as a National Board Exceptional Needs Specialist/Early Childhood through Young Adult. Kathryn Caprino is a clinical assistant professor in English education at the University of Florida. She teaches children’s literature and English education methods courses and observes student teachers. Kathryn was a middle and high school English teacher.