Rivet

Guided Reading The Four Blocks Way Book pages 70-74 

Rivet is an activity created by one of us (Pat) one day while she was sitting in the back of a classroom watching a student teacher try to introduce some vocabulary words to her students. The vocabulary the student teacher was introducing was important to the story, and many of the students needed to focus on these words and their meanings. The student teacher was diligently writing the words on the board and having students use them in sentences and trying to help the students access meanings and relate them to each other. Unfortunately, the students were not particularly interested in the words, and their attention was marginal at best. After the words had been introduced and the students began to read the selection, many of the struggling readers couldn’t decode them, much less associate meaning with them. Rivet was conceived that day and has since saved many a student teacher from the dreaded experience of having taught some words that no one seemed to have learned!  

Activating children’s prior knowledge and getting them to make predictions before they read is one sure way to increase the involvement and comprehension of most children. Rivet is an activity designed to accomplish this critical goal. To prepare for a Rivet text introduction, read the selection and pick six to eight important words—with a particular emphasis on big and important words. Include names of characters if they are interesting or going to be difficult to decode. An important two-word phrase can also be included. 

Rivet can be done to introduce vocabulary and help children make predictions for informational text, but is more fun to do with stories. This Rivet activity was based on the book Arturo’s Baton by Syd Hoff (~~). Begin the activity by writing numbers and drawing lines on the board to indicate how many letters each word has. (Some teachers have the students draw the same number of lines on a piece of scratch paper and fill in letters as they are filled in on the board.) Your board at the beginning of this rivet activity would look like this:

1. — — — — — — — — —

2. — — — — — — — — —

3. — — — — — — — — —

4. — — — — — —

5. — — — — —

6. — — — — — — — — —

13. — — — — — — —
13. — — — — — —

Fill in the letters to the first word one at a time, as the students watch. Stop after each letter and see if anyone can guess the word. Students are not guessing letters but are trying to guess each word as soon as they think they know what it is. Most students could not guess the word when the board looks like this: 

Make all examples handwritten with letters written on lines 
 

1. c o n — — — — — —

2. — — — — — — — — —

3. — — — — — — — — —

4. — — — — — —

5. — — — — —

6. — — — — — — — — —

7. — — — — — — —

8. — — — — — —

But many will guess with a few more letters:

1. c o n d u c — — —

2. — — — — — — — — —

3. — — — — — — — — —

4. — — — — — —

5. — — — — —

6. — — — — — — — — —

7. — — — — — — —
8. — — — — — —

Once someone has guessed the correct word, ask him or her to help you finish spelling it and write it on the board. Begin writing the letters of the second word, pausing for a second after writing each letter to see if anyone can guess the word.  

1. c o n d u c t o r

2. o r c h — — — — —

3. — — — — — — — — —

4. — — — — — —

5. — — — — —

6. — — — — — — — — —

7. — — — — — — —

8. — — — — — —

The attention of all the students is generally riveted (thus the name Rivet) to each added letter and with a few more letters many students will guess the word. 

1. c o n d u c t o r

2. o r c h e s t r a

3. — — — — — — — — —

4. — — — — — —

5. — — — — —

6. — — — — — — — — —

7. — — — — — — —

8. — — — — — —

If they are right, have them help you finish spelling it. If they give you an incorrect guess, just continue writing letters until someone guesses the correct word. Continue in this fashion until all the words have been completely written and correctly guessed. Here is what the board would look like when all words were introduced:

1. c o n d u c t o r

2. o r c h e s t r a

3. T o s c a n i n i

4. A r t u r o

5. b a t o n

6. w o r l d t o u r

7. p a j a m a s

8. c a n c e l 

So, far this looks like a word-identification activity, not a comprehension activity. But, the second step of Rivet is where comprehension and, specifically, predicting come into play. Once the students have figured out the big, important words you chose, have them use these words to predict some of the events in the story. Here are some of their predictions based on these eight important words: 

Arturo Toscanini was the conductor of the orchestra.

They had to cancel the concert because the orchestra wore their pajamas.

Toscanini wore his pajamas when he took the orchestra on a world tour.

If children fail to use some of the words in their predictions, prompt them to think about how those words might fit into the story. After asking them how the baton fits into the story, you might get these predictions: 

Toscanini needed the baton to conduct the orchestra.

Toscanini got mad and threw the baton at the orchestra so they had to cancel the show.

Children generally enjoy trying to combine the important words and make predictions—some serious and some silly. The important thing is not how serious the predictions are or whether or not the predictions are right. What matters is that students are using the key vocabulary and anticipating how these words might come together to make a story.

When you have some predictions—6-8 is plenty—have students read the selection to see if any of the predictions were true. After the students have read the selection, have them once again use the key words to write some true things that happened in the story. Their sentences after reading might include. 

Arturo wanted to cancel the concert because he lost his baton.

Toscanini was Arturo’s dog and he found the baton.

Arturo decided he didn’t need a baton and he went off on a world tour.