Resources for Educators

While research has shown that sustained silent reading can be just as effective in achieving student reading fluency, oral reading is still an important tool. (See the February 2009 Illinois Reading Council Communicator, pg. 14-15.) And often times, it's a lot more fun!

If you are looking for opportunities to utilize oral reading in your classroom, use Shanté Keys as a Reader's Theater! Having the students read as the different characters will keep them engaged in the story while giving them fluency training. I've reworked the script to identify the speaking parts, added narrators to make smoother transitions, and added some lines to fill out the parts. All of this should make it easy for you to perform in the classroom. Click for the Reader's Theater script. (You can also download the entire Activity Guide for the book, which includes the Reader's Theater script.)

Classroom Activity Guide
 
What else can you do with the book? Plenty! Since Shanté Keys and the New Year's Peas is a picture book about New Year's food traditions, the sky is the limit! Just think about it--it's a multicultural book about food and family. That covers a wealth of topics! To help you explore ideas to use the book, I've written a free resource guide that shows the many subject matters in which the book can be integrated. And to top it off, the activities correspond to the State of Illinois teaching standards for: