Read and Write the Room

Reading and writing the room are two easy-to-set-up centers.

Read the room involves giving a child some kind of pointer and allowing them the opportunity to read any printed matter you have in your classroom (we sometimes read the hall or even the whole school!). The child will be familiar with the names of his classmates which are posted on cubbies, etc., classroom rules charts, poems, interactive writing pieces, and any other environmental print you have placed in your classroom. They can point and read alone or in pairs.

Write the room is somewhat the same. Students are supplied with a clipboard or other writing table and a pencil and paper. They choose a piece of print from your room and write it on their paper. Kids in my classroom often copy our interactive writing pieces or poems that we've read together and hung on the walls. They want to take them home to read to a parent.

These are two centers that any teacher can run with minimal preparation and expense.

This year I bought two hand shaped back scratchers from a dollar store to use as pointers. One bright orange and one bright yellow. I hung these on the wall next to the word wall which is low enough this year for my students to reach. I was just starting to introduce the use of these by having the children review the word wall words using the pointers. I kept an evelope on the wall with flashcards of the words we covered. Once or twice a week I'd call up each student to find three words that I choose randomly using the flashcards. If they couldn't find it after a few seconds I'd show them the word on the flashcard and then have them read the card and then look for the "same" word. After Christmas I had planned to allow this to be a station (centre) on its own. The children could partner up and divided the flashcards. Taking turns to find the words using the pointers.

For writing around the room I had 6 clipboards with several sheets of foolscap cut in half. During this station (15-20 minutes) the students walk around the room and print any words they want. I never mark this but sometimes I have date stamped it and placed it in portfolios to show growth in printing and increased writing.

Here is a pic of a few of my pointers.
My students use them for Read and Write The Room.
They also use them when they are reading Big Books.
When using the huge world wall map, they locate places with the pointers as well.


Rebecca

I change my "write the room" task each week. I have clipboards in a basket and the students look for words depending on the task I have for the week. It could be to find all the words that: have the "a" sound like in name, or have a silent "e", or have the "o" sound like in box, or have double vowels, double consonants, or end in "ing", etc. etc. Whatever the students are looking for that week I reinforce during class time. I also have write the room for categories like plurals, past tense, verbs, nouns, and adjectives for second grade.

A station (centre) that I use is called writing around the room. For the 10-20 minute block each child (4-6) has a clipbaord and a piece of paper and a pencil. I give them a half sheet of paper. They have to walk around and write down words. They often print their names and the names of others they can read. They get these off desks, charts and our word wall. They also copy the word wall words and even poems, songs or pieces of them. Others copy the alphabet or the numbers off charts. It all depends where they are. Some just try and copy what another student is doing (the "leader" is often a fast printer.) They just are at a different place I don't actually call them the leader but you can tell who's in charge of the group.

When they are done or two minutes before have them count up their words if you like. Date the work and hole punch it. Every few weeks save it in a portfolio to show changes over time. Other times just let them take it home and show it (Read it) to someone they love.

sdwl

PS: I have a few who revert back to drawing so if I saw pictures I told them they had to print a word and then do a simple sketch but the word has to come first.

I do not do this with every class, but I have taken a small cheap cassette player and earphones. Taped the actual directions and read the poems.charts aloud on the tape..ex. "Go to the monthly chart...listen to me read it and then read it with me..(you read the poem into the recorder and then reread it slowly, then allow time for the child to read it to themselves) Now go to the "???" chart. Point to all of the words with the letter s. Say the words. leave time...Did you say "said, see, and sky?" etc
My kids loved walking around the room or a personal tour, using a pointer of their choice and listening to the directions on the tape. Served several purposes, including "listening and following directions!"

I teach First Grade. Each week or two we do centers based on themes. Sometimes we have Read and Write the room and sometimes we don't. The tasks (or hunts) are based on the theme or some skills that we are learning.

Here are some that we have done:

words that begin with specific sounds (Beginning Sound HUnt)
Words that begin with specific beginning blends
Words that have certain chunks in them (Find and record words that have the "at" chunk)
Hunt for words that end with a certain sound
Hunt for the week's sight words around the room and record it down every time you find itThese are just some of the ones we've done so far. This is my first time doing this center. I've done other versions of this sort of thing but not exactly this.

I have used backscratchers (souvenir), long twisty straws (Dollar Store), batons with glittery tassles (Dollar Store), paint stirrers, a wand with a star on the end (You might find these around Halloween or in Oriental Trading), a pitchfork(plastic for Halloween), a baton like thing that made a noise as you turned it up and down (Dollar Tree), Pencil toppers (party favors/Dollar Tree/Wal-Mart), small pompons on a stick, oversized sunglasses, clear "reading" glasses round and heart shaped (Dollar Store),
wire rim glasses -no lense....I know all of thes are not toppers but my first graders loved the glasses too!!!

At a local building supply store I found dowels about the thickness of a pencil. They were 3 feet long but the store cut each in 3 for me. I bought eraser tops from the stationers and put them on the ends. Voila - a short, cheap, colorful pointer for each child! From a dollar store I've also purchased pointers sold as flyswatters shaped like a bee, a frog, a duck, a ladybug and a hand. When Halloween costumes come out it's fun to get a fairy wand with streamers, a giant toothbrush, a light sabre and a witches green hand with long plum colored fingernails, pointing. Dollar stores also have neat shapes of glasses frames to wear for "read the room".

In my kindergarten room the kids always ask to do the "Read & Write the Room" center!

My kids use "special" glasses (sunglasses with the lenses popped out) and "magic" wands to find special words. Lakeshore Learning Store has some neat sight word pointer sticks - they're kind of expensive though so I just made my own. I used paint stir sticks, glued a wooden star to the top & spray painted them gold. Then I wrote our sight words on the stars. When kids have to look for a specific sight word, I'll give them the sight word stick to use.

My kids also use clip boards to walk around with and write the target words (may be word family words, color words, shape words, sight words, theme-related words, calendar words, "b" words, etc.) Their goal is to write 3-5 words they can read to me. They can draw pictures to illustrate if they want (when applicable) but only after they've written the words & read them to an adult.