After 6 weeks students were asked to pick one of the books, illustrate a scene from it, and using the illustration as a prop, tell the story to their classmates. In this way they planted and nurtured the seed of reading, a seed which began to germinate early. The children began to ask to take home books which they had read, as well as other books in the class library. Another strategy Hayes and Bahruth employed early on was the use of dialogue journals. The students wrote on any topic they chose.
Teachers read the journal entries and responded.
The teachers neither criticize the content nor edited it in any way. With time, the students improved, often dramatically, in their use of the English language. While most of the children were still below their age grade level, it must be remembered that they were tested on a test normed with a native speaker population. Their tremendous achievement is certainly apparent. But perhaps even more important, these children learned that they could learn, and they were very proud of what they accomplished.