A Creative Activity for Reluctant Third Grade ReadersAuthor(s): Raymond J. DuquetteSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Nov., 1972), pp. 142-144Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20193161 .

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A creative

activity for reluctant third

grade readers

RAYMOND J. DUQUETTE

Since ghost stories are a

favorite with children, Duquette told a "scary story" to

stimulate interest and creativity,

employing the language experience approach. Associate

professor at California State

College, Bakersfield, the author relates this exciting lesson.

'TpHIS school year was not like

* the previous one for Mrs. Eliz

abeth Coryell. Last year her forty two third graders were reading on

their own, writing and illustrating stories, corresponding with favo

rite authors plus doing many other

exciting independent activities.

Friday morning sharing time al

ways brought some new idea like

writing to the Chamber of Com merce of a certain city which was

the setting of a favorite book.

The present school year was

totally different. The children couldn't read as well as last year's

group. They were not as mature

nor as independent as the present fourth graders had been in the third grade. Mrs. Coryell was re

luctant to initiate an individual ized reading program this year.

"The students are not independent enough."

This gifted teacher had been in

several of the author's graduate classes. Her individualized read

ing program was initiated as a

project in one of them. She had

been excited about individualized

reading, had been successful with

it, and now had returned to a

three group reading program.

Eight weeks after school began she found herself totally dissatis

fied with the reading program. "After four weeks of school I'm

bored stiff! What can I do to get these third graders to work inde

pendently?" She felt she had to

get more exciting things going; the children were too dependent

upon her. "If they could experi ence a successful independent ac

142 The Reading Teacher November 1972

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tivity once, they surely would be easier to coax to further inde

pendence."

As a result, the author was in

vited into her classroom to work with the eleven "poorest" readers

in the room?according to results

of tests administered at the end of the second grade.

Motivation using a trade book

Having previously read A Ghost

Story, by Bill Martin, to many children and having noticed chil

dren's attentiveness during the tell

ing of the story, the author de

cided to use it to create interest.

To set the mood of the story, the dark woods were first described.

With a low soft voice the children were brought into the dark, dark

house, down the stairs, also dark,

through the dark cellar to the dark

cupboard where the ghost is

trapped in a corked bottle. As the

author's hands guided the chil

dren's eyes, the ghost came out of the bottle through the dark areas

previously mentioned, right into their pockets. "He's got you!"

First startled, then rocking with

laughter, the pupils showed their enthusiasm for the wonderfully scary story. An immediate request

was sent to the school library for as many copies of A Ghost Story as could be spared; each of the eleven children wanted to read it.

Recording creative writing "Can you tell a scary story? Can

you make one up that would be so

fantastic and scary that it might even frighten your own teacher?"

"Yes," came from the eleven third

graders whose eyes gave them

away as being ready to do some

thing really exciting. The following story was then

dictated by this "slow" group and

recorded on the chalkboard. The

title was omitted as each was to

write his own and the group would

then vote for the best one.

In the dark, dark woods, there's a

ghost. The scary ghost lives in a scary

house.

There's a scary, scary man who

lives with the scary ghost.

Some kids set a trap to get the

ghost. The ghost came out and got in the

trap.

They dug a hole and buried the

ghost.

The ghost got out and came to

haunt them.

The kids ran into the house, shut

the door, and hid in the bedroom.

The ghost went through the wall,

set a trap, got them, and buried

them.

And the other kids were too afraid

to ever go back to the haunted

house.

Followup phonics lesson

This language experience story can be an exciting way to teach

phonics. It is intrinsically motivat

ing, and is easily read by the stu

dents, for it is their own talk written down. The following phon ics lesson was easily incorporated and took no more than five min utes of class time.

Word Recognition and

Vocabulary Development Find two words that mean the same as scary, (afraid, haunted)

Phonetic Analysis Find a word that begins with the same sound as the word

dog. (dark, dug) Find a word that rhymes with

most, (ghost)

DUQUETTE: A creative activity 143

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Structural Analysis What letter tells us that there is more than one? (s) Find two words in the story that

mean more than one. (woods,

kids) What word is made up of two

other words? We call that kind

of word a compound word.

(bedroom)

Syllabication Watch me clap my hands for

each syllable of a word. Who can find the words that need

more than one clap to say them?

These are words with more

than one syllable, (scary, bur

ied, into, bedroom, afraid, ever,

haunted)

Independent activities

The pupils were so enthusiastic

about their story that they copied it with no help or even encour

agement from the teacher. Pen

manship was noteworthy; the ac

complishment was such that each shared his copy of the story with

nearby friends. Motivation was

indeed intrinsic and students be

gan drawing a favorite scene of the story.

Not to be overlooked in such an

exciting reading lesson, the re

maining twenty-one children of the third grade class asked for the Martin story to be told to them. With twenty-one youngsters drawn to the storyteller, the pu pils sat motionless waiting for the

story to unfold. The end of the

story found the children eager to write and eager to illustrate origi nal stories.

Occasionally a pupil would raise a hand to get help to spell

a word. One boy asked the writer to help him spell dungeon.

How many syllables in the word? (two) What consonant suggests the

beginning sound of the first

syllable? (d) What consonant is heard at the end sound of the first syllable? (n)

What vowel represents the vowel sound of the first sylla ble? (u)

Now let's look at the second

syllable, (gon was his comment) When g is followed by an o, is

it hard or soft? (hard) Good, to have a soft g it must be followed by e, i, or y. (geon)

So, a boy just a month or so in the third grade had an experience in spelling a word when he need ed to spell it for an independent creative writing activity. Such in dividualized writing lessons in

spelling will help to make him an

independent speller. In a short forty-five minute ses

sion, thirty-two third graders were launched on independent and cre ative activities. With pupils eag erly pursuing an intrinsically in

spired writing and illustrating les

son, the teacher was free to work

individually with her charges. Need mention be made as to how

many of them will silently read A Ghost Story? Will they look for other exciting books by the same author or by other authors? Hope fully, the pupils are now on their

way to being independent readers and hopefully, too, Mrs. Coryell is on her way to being the mentor of thirty-two pupils eagerly pur suing the activities that make school exciting.

144 The Reading Teacher November 1972

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