Partner Power!

Earlier this week, Spiderman brought us another Super Reading Power - Partner Power!  He included a game with his letter about how important it is to get help sometimes.  The game included a card for each student.  On each card was one half of a famous pairing: peanut butter or jelly, Batman or Robin, cookie or milk, Spongebob or Patrick, Snoopy or Charlie Brown, Pumbaa or Timon, etc.  One pair was left without a match.  A student got a baseball, but no bat or glove.  Another student got a toothbrush, but no toothpaste. 

Students had to find their match, and then we had a discussion about how much our partners can help us.  Having two students without a proper match made this discussion a lot more productive.  Obviously you can still throw a baseball up in the air without a glove or a bat, but it's way more fun when you have something that goes with it.   In a pinch, you could brush your teeth without toothpaste, but if you always did that, you'd certainly get cavities because one isn't as effective without the other.

When we finished our discussion, we made an anchor chart of Partner Prompts, or ways our partner can help us when we get stuck reading.  

Sometimes kids think they're failing if their partner has to help them.  On the other end of the spectrum, some kids only let their partner do all of the work.  This was an important lesson to show how you have to work at both giving and receiving help to really become the best readers possible.

Don't forget, you can find a scanned copy of all the Spiderman letters I use in this unit by clicking HERE!