October 2004 — Web/Net
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The Software Picture Book: The Complexities of Teaching Informational Text to Elementary School Children
In 2003, the International Reading Association released a report on how preservice teachers are trained to teach literacy in elementary schools. The report explained that preservice teachers who are exposed to a variety of approaches in literacy instruction will provide similar effective experiences to their students. In an effort to support this position, our teacher education program tries to expose preservice teachers to numerous and varied approaches to teaching literacy. In addition, these preservice teachers are exposed to a variety of appropriate instructional software in their training. In order to facilitate the use of technology, most classes are scheduled in computer labs. This immediate access to computers gives preservice teachers the opportunity to use instructional software to help design, create and implement lessons that might someday be used in their classrooms.
The Software Application Methods Enrichment (S.A.M.E.) Project described below is an effort to combine the use of technology with literacy instruction.
Overview of the S.A.M.E. Project
Participants in the project were preservice teachers enrolled in a methods course in literacy instruction for childhood education (grades K-5). The course outline included the following topics:
- Ongoing assessment and evaluation
- Phonemic awareness
- Picture books and emergent literacy
- Systematic phonics instruction
- High-frequency words
- Word study
- Shared reading and writing
- Comprehension strategies
- Strategy lessons
- Informational Texts
- Literary elements
- Technology in literacy instruction
- Home-school connection
The topics identified above are crucial in the training for preservice childhood educators (Calkins 2001 and Cunningham 2000). Although on the surface they appear to be unrelated, they are not: each one deals with language development (Gunning 2003). The S.A.M.E. Project was explained to the class and they decided that we should create picture books because they help primary-grade children develop language skills. Cullinan and Galda (1998) explain that picture books combine words and illustrations to tell a story or convey information. Furthermore, they describe how illustrations support the meaning conveyed in the text and help inexperienced readers develop and understand the simple text found in picture books.
The class only met once a week for three hours, with the last six classes devoted to the completion of the picture books. While the first part of the class dealt with the craft of writing a picture book and learning HyperStudio 4.0, during the last part of the class participants worked in groups to design and create their own picture books. Class time was structured using the workshop process identified by Calkins (2001). It consisted of the following elements:
