Joshua White - Viva Frida

1. Yuyi Morales - Viva Frida

2. https://www.amazon.com/Viva-Frida-Morales-Yuyi/dp/1596436034
3. Kindergarten
4. 2015
5. The first step in Gordons five-step structure involves identifying a skill to teach and, for Viva
Frida, the book perfectly aligns itself with the CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in
which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts). So, in this preparatory
phase, I would develop questions to go along with the relatively simple narrative structure of this
book. Each page consists of a single phrase in English and Spanish like I see/veo and I
play/juego, and so, my questions would ask students to dig deep into each illustration and how
it relates to the written word on the page.
6. The second step involves reading the text, asking a question, answering the question, citing
the evidence [and finally] verbally following the reasoning process used to acquire the
answer (Heilman, 2002, p. 404). In the case of Viva Frida I would do all of these steps and then
my modeling of the reasoning process would involve me verbally analyzing the illustration and
pointing out different things that I see that align with the word on the page
7. The third step involves all of the above, only this time the students cite the evidence to answer
the questions. So here, I would read the words on the page, ask and answer a question like, Here
Frida says I feel/siento. Looking at the illustration I can tell that she is feeling empathy for
another living creature. What in the illustration tells me this? Due to these students being
kindergarteners, they would not be taking notes during this step, but perhaps they could do a turn
and talk and recite the evidence instead. I would then use the evidence from the illustration to
explain the reasoning for my particular answer.
8. The fourth step involves getting the students to actually answer the question. So I would read
the text again, only this time I would simply ask, Here Friday says I feel/siento. What does
she feel? I would let the students answer this question, and then I would explore the illustration
and cite the evidence for the answer, i.e., Fridas facial expression, her action of pulling an arrow
out of a deers foot, etc., and then use these aspects of the illustration to explain my reasoning.
9. The fifth step involves shifting most of the responsibility on to the students. Here, I would
read the text, show the illustration and ask a question, but the students would do the rest.
10. Heilman (2002) states that this works best with more complex texts or storybooks, but I think
this method could also be very effective for kindergartners. This process has helped me think
about the reading process on the micro scale, and I think that this method would benefit the
students in a number of ways. As we reread this text the students would begin to be able read
some of these words on sight. As we read and reread, the students would also be bridging
between English and Spanish (something that is very important at the dual language school
where I work). Also, in so much as Gordons steps are concerned, I have seen parts of this in
action, but I think beginning by modeling everything and then slowly relinquishing responsibility
to the students would be very effective. Viva Frida is so light on text that I think it would fit in
nicely with this model. As students took on more and more of the responsibility during each step,
I think that they would make more and more connections on the relationship between the
illustrations and the text, and this is something that is very important for emergent readers.
Finally, I also think that this text would open itself up to higher levels of comprehension as the
students went through each step of the process.