After Jee Young’s hype (which is totally legit) about reading and writing workshop conferences, I thought I would share a literacy activity. This is an activity I normally do near the beginning of the year, but it can work all year round, and you can differentiate it for many grade levels.

For a read-aloud one day try reading Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts. I don’t know what it’s like at other international schools around the world (please share!), but when I read this book I have to explain most of the story in detail. My students do not know what it is like to not be able to afford… well, anything. That is why I am thankful for books like this (another book I love is A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams)  to help give my students insight into the lives of students in other parts of the world, or even their own backyard (okay, no one in Seoul has a backyard, but you know what I mean…).

After you’ve read the story and talked about it, the students get to write their own story about an experience they’ve had with shoes. It isn’t supposed to be a long story, so I only have them write one draft, and then after they’ve show me that draft they get this shoe template:

Shoe Template (yes, this link is appropriately named)

After they write their stories I encourage them to color their shoe, and then I laminate them so that their shoes can be stepping across the classroom all year long.