Photo of the Week Picture Prompts: Daily ELA Warm-Ups & Bell Ringers | Vol 2

Building comprehension skills with struggling readers can be challenging. While close reading is a great way to get students to dig deeper into text, many readers struggle with decoding and fluency. This makes it impossible to get the most out of text-based close reading activities. However, photos allow these students to build higher-level comprehension skills like inferring, main idea, and summary.

Since many struggling readers also struggle with writing, each week also includes a picture-based writing prompt. This helps students become comfortable with different genres of writing - including personal narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive writing. Embedded checklists for revising and editing help create a seamless way to build writing skills without overwhelming reluctant learners.

This product was designed as a whole class warm-up, small-group Tier 1 intervention, or literacy station.

Your download includes:

• 20 weeks of double-sided language arts warm-ups (2 options for lines)
• Visual Table of Contents with Cross-Curricular Connections
• Teachers Guide with half-page versions of photos for display (pdf)

Weekly Routine:

❑ Monday: Observe the photo & record details

❑ Tuesday: Generate questions based on the photo

❑ Wednesday: Generate inferences based on observation

❑ Thursday: Write a main idea to title the picture

❑ Friday: Write and edit a short composition based on a given prompt.

Reading & Writing Skills Addressed:

✔Main idea & summary

✔Inferring & drawing conclusions

✔Activating prior knowledge

✔Vocabulary development

✔Connections

✔Questioning

✔Identifying key details

✔Supporting details

✔Understanding the writing process

✔Writing for a variety of purposes

✔Generating ideas for writing

✔Drafting, editing, and revising with purpose

✔Personal narratives

✔Expository writing

✔Persuasive/Opinion writing

✔Descriptive writing

✔Letter writing

Benefits of Using Weekly Photo Activities

• Approachable and engaging for all learners
• Avoids the barriers often faced by students learning English or those with disabilities
• Quick and easy to implement without taking up much instructional time
• Format is easy-to-follow and focused on essential language arts skills
• Encourages conversations and higher-level thinking

Prefer the digital version? Get it here: Digital Read & Write Photo Prompts