Teaching Strategy: Mystery Reader
First grade teacher Mary Dolan created an innovative way to involve families in her classroom community. She invites her students' family members to participate in her Mystery Reader program. This easy-to-implement program provides an opportunity for a member from each student's family to visit the classroom and read a book to the class.
Follow the steps below to initiate this program in your classroom:
- At the beginning of the year determine a weekly day and time for the mystery reader to visit. Mary's readers visit each Friday afternoon about 20 minutes before dismissal.
- Send home a note to your families (see sample below).
- Schedule your mystery readers and send home confirmation letters.
- On mystery reader day write simple clues about the reader. For example: She is a mom. She has 2 children. She is a super reader.
- Share the clues with your students and keep them guessing all day long.
- At the appointed time announce that the mystery reader has arrived and give them a big round of applause.
- The student who belongs to the mystery reader can sit by their special person and enjoy the story with the rest of the class.
- Remember to have students send a simple thank-you card to the reader!
Dear First Grade Parents,
We are excited to invite you to be a "Mystery Reader" in our first grade classroom! If you are interested in being one of our readers, please complete the bottom portion of this note and return it to school on ________________. The "Mystery Readers" will surprise the children throughout the year on Fridays at 3:10. Readers will bring an appropriate first grade picture book (no more than 10 minutes long) to share. If you need assistance in selecting a book, please let me know. If you are unable to participate, please extend this invitation to members of your family or special friends.
Please circle three possible dates that you are available. A confirmation sheet will be sent home to you and remember . . . this is a secret!!
(At the bottom of the letter list the possible dates.)
Teaching Strategy: Scavenger Hunts
In their book Reaching Readers: Flexible and Innovative Strategies for Guided Reading (2001) Michael Opitz and Michael Ford share a clever tactic to keep readers engaged in the read the room center. They suggest creating scavenger hunts to encourage students to examine the print in the room carefully and search for specific elements. Scavenger hunts can be easily created with varying degrees of difficulty to meet the need of the diverse range of students in your classroom. Below you will find a sample scavenger hunt created by Katherine Phillips and Maria Walther for use in their first grade classrooms:
| Read the Room: Scavenger Hunt | | Find 3 words with 4 letters: | | __________________ | ______________________ | _____________________ | (10 points) | | Find 3 words with 5 letters: | | ___________________ | _______________________ | _____________________ | (10 points) | | Find 3 words with 6 letters: | | ___________________ | _______________________ | _____________________ | (10 points) | | **Find a word with 12 letters: | _____________________ | (20 points) | | Find 3 words with 1 syllable (clap): | | ___________________ | _______________________ | _____________________ | (10 points) | | Find 3 words with 2 syllables (clap, clap): | | ___________________ | _______________________ | _____________________ | (10 points) | | **Find a word with 4 syllables: | _____________________ | (20 points) | | Find 3 short vowel words: | | ___________________ | _______________________ | _____________________ | (10 points) | | Find 3 long vowel/silent 3 words: | | ___________________ | _______________________ | _____________________ | (10 points) | | How many points did you earn: | | Total points: | _____________________ |
Reference: Opitz, M. F. & Ford, M. P. (2001). Reaching readers: Flexible and innovative strategies for guided reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. |
2004 McGraw-Hill Higher Education