"Reading the room" with pointers: make the most of your print-rich classroom with playful pointers that motivate students to practice important literacy skills.WHY USE POINTERS? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1 INCREASE MOTIVATION Students love pointers. They often come up with innovative uses for them--and, therefore, new reasons to read. 2 BUILD PRINT AWARENESS Print awareness refers to a child's understanding of the nature and uses of print. A child's print awareness is closely associated with his or her word awareness or the ability to recognize words as distinct elements of oral and written communication. When children are asked to find words with certain characteristics, they begin to notice word and print features (capital letters, spaces between words). 3 HELP READERS FOCUS When a child points to guide a class read alound, students often focus, decode, and read with greater fluency. Magic Wand a wand used by a magician in performing feats of magic. See also: Magic Always the right choice for fairy tales This is a list of fairy tales, the dates of their earliest known printed version, the author and, if known, the collection of tales in which it was published. It should be noted, however, that not all stories listed below would be categorized as fairy tales by a strict definition , magic wands are a fun way to play with reading words. We also use light sabers and flashlights for word "I Spy I spy is a guessing game usually played in families with young children, partly to assist in both observation and in alphabet familiarity. I spy is often played as a car game. ." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fly Swatter This pointer allows the children to focus in on a particular letter or sound while masking the rest of the word. For example, I ask, "Can you find a letter in your name? A lowercase letter? An uppercase letter?" Frame pointer We slide in a word strip and hold it up to make compound words or leave it empty to frame and emphasize specific words. Drumstick drumstick /drum·stick/ (-stik) a nuclear lobule attached by a slender strand to the nucleus of some polymorphonuclear leukocytes of normal females but not of normal males. We use the drumstick to keep the beat in songs, chants, and poems. It is helpful for teaching syllabication syl·lab·i·fy or syl·lab·i·cate tr.v. syl·lab·i·fied or syl·lab·i·cat·ed, syl·lab·i·fy·ing or syl·lab·i·cat·ing, syl·lab·i·fies or syl·lab·i·cates To form or divide into syllables. . Underliner The children use this pointer to underline specific words. It is also useful for encouraging left to right progression, as it slides along easily under the words in a sentence. Pointing Glove My students use this pointer to touch specific letters, calendar numbers, or parts of words. For example, I ask, "Who can find the letter that starts the word house?" Wooden Spoons My students make their own wooden spoon pointers with the face of a favorite story character. We use them with our big books. |
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