It’s in the Bag
By Maribelle H. Betterton and Lynne C. Ensworth

A new idea – literacy bags tailored to different themes – turns into a multi-age, interdisciplinary project.

Sometimes classroom teachers try out a new idea and rejoice in its effectiveness. So it was with the thematic literacy bags we created one spring. The idea was that a collection of thematic literacy bags would help us integrate language arts across the curriculum, promoting differentiated instruction while taking into account various learning styles and multiple intelligences. This idea became a reality when we were awarded a local grant to develop innovative educational experiences for public school students. With the $1,000 award, 35 bags were constructed, five for each of the seven themes (community, wellness, Australia, Africa, ocean, pond, ecology) covered in our first and second grade classrooms.

The project goes school-wide. With the assistance of a high school consumer science class, the younger students were able to sew the canvas bags on sewing machines housed in the high school wing. We also invited students in grades one through five to paint illustrations on the bags. As the project began to unfold, we found we had not only given birth to the construction of thematic literacy bags, but we had also launched an interdisciplinary school-wide project. Our "older" partners shared our enthusiasm, particularly since most of them had studied these very themes while in our classrooms.

Packing the bags. Next, a book relating to the theme was selected for each individual bag. An activity relating to each book/theme was then developed. Some of the activities were designed for visual learners, others for auditory learners and still others for tactile learners. For example, using the book Today I Feel Silly & Other Moods That Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis (Joanna Cotler Books, 1998), visual learners use a feelings wheel to actually see the faces that display facial emotions. Using the book A Book About Your Skeleton by Ruth Belov Gross (Scholastic, 1978), auditory learners listen to the cassette tape of the story. While reading Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina (HarperCollins, 1968) tactile learners held a stuffed monkey while reading the book or listening to the tape, then used laminated cutouts of different colored hats to sequence them in the order told in the story.

We encouraged children to use different modalities as they explored the thematic literacy bag. For example, we wanted to provide puppets or miniature objects for retelling stories. We knew some children would prefer listening to a tape recording of a story. In short, we wanted to create an attitude that reading is enjoyable and it can be shared with others who may be at different reading levels. We also wanted our students to view themselves as readers.

…and unpacking them. These literacy bags were planned for use during a 30-minute daily center time. Students would be naturally scaffolding knowledge during center time, building meaning and knowledge for themselves based on their personal interactions with the book and its activities. Students' learning would be further enhanced through conversations with their peers, by sharing points of view and personal experience. We hoped to encourage inquiry-based learning during center time. Students would be free to ask questions of themselves and of each other. At the same time we teachers would be able to observe these students making meaningful connections to other curricular areas.

As the thematic literacy bags were prepared and centers were readied for that initial implementation, our hopes were high for positive learning. The thematic literacy bags were organized, inviting novice readers to open and enjoy them. We wondered what would happen.

Implementation and reflection. We introduced the thematic literacy bags with a celebration. During this time the high school students joined the first and second grades to interact with the bags and their contents. This was the first time the younger students had seen the completed bags filled with its book and activities. High school students were observed reading the story to the younger students and then demonstrating how to use the activity that accompanied the book. We also observed the younger readers reading to their older friends and showing them how to use the activities. Since there was no right or wrong way to interact with the books and activities, everyone felt free to take risks and simply enjoy the literacy time together.

Children were observed being simply delighted by the idea of free choice. If they liked music, they gravitated toward the bags with the story on tape set to music. If they weren't quite reading yet, they also liked the story to be read to them on tape. One child was observed retelling the story Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother. Too? by Eric Carle (HarperCollins, 2000) using a kangaroo puppet to "tell" the story. He wasn't afraid of telling it wrong because he wasn't telling it, the kangaroo was. He instructed the kangaroo to look carefully at the words as he read. He also told the kangaroo that he could look at the pictures to help him if he needed to. Reading skills taught earlier in the day were being informally reinforced.

We saw no competition over the bags. When two students wanted the same thematic literacy bag, they simply chose to work with it together. We also had no discipline problems. We attribute this to the appealing books and the engaging activities. Cooperation skills were practiced and enhanced as students queried each other or read together.

Overall, the success of our themed literacy bag project was evident to us when it appeared that our students were choosing stories that interested them or were at their specific reading level, which enabled them to enjoy the reading process and experience success.

Maribelle H. Betterton is an assistant professor and Lynne C. Ensworth is an instructor at the College of Education at the University of Northern Iowa.

April 2006, Vol.36, No.7