First, have a listen to this engaging, highly predictable text.:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear is available as a big book, a student sized book, and in many online formats. The vocabulary includes many useful sight words that are used in a meaningful context The story is well supported by Eric Carle’s beautiful illustrations. The structure of the book is built around a question-answer format that leads the reader from the beginning to the end and back to the beginning.

Brown Bear is short enough to be easily reproduced on chart paper or in electronic format in both English and Home language. If you don’t share the students’ Home language, invite a parent or community member with knowledge of the Home language to translate the book for you.

In the set of lesson ideas that follow, Brown Bear is the anchor text for a variety of comprehension, grammar, and word work lessons. As children interact with both versions of the text, they “notice cognates, make educated inferences based on phrases and words they already know, access nuanced ideas, and navigate complex grammar and vocabulary from the start.” (Pillars 2017) 

1. Read Aloud: As an introduction to the story, read Brown Bear to the students. Read it first in the Home language and then in English. Use the illustrations and colour blocks to link the animal names and colour words of two languages.
2. Shared Reading: After the read aloud, encourage the students to read along with both versions as they feel comfortable. Point out animal names and colour words. Demonstrate the natural phrasing of each language.
3. Create an “Our Languages Word Wall” to build a bilingual vocabulary. This word wall uses a double entry model. Words chosen for the word wall are presented in Home language and in English. Pictures supplement the words. For example, in the “L” section of the word wall, write the words lous* / bear and include an illustration. In the “B” section, write and illustrate word bear / lous. Note: After an example or two, break the class into small groups and assign two animals and two colour words for each group to illustrate and add to the word wall. (*lous is Haitian Creole for bear)
4. Develop fluency with Readers’ Theater: To begin, create your own English and Home language Readers Theatre. The English version is available at mohiteachers.files.wordpress.com/
5. Sight Word Vocabulary: Brown Bear repeats several useful sight words (I, you, see, what, do, etc.), all presented in meaningful context. These words can be located by students and added to Home language / English double entry word walls or personal dictionaries.
6. Phonological Awareness and Phonics: Teaching rhyme, segmenting, blending as well as letter sounds and blends is only meaningful when the student understands the word, so plan word work lessons that start with the known vocabulary of the Home language and then link that knowledge to English.
7. Linking oral language and art:  Art activities provide lots of opportunities for oral language development. In Brown Bear, Eric Carle’s masterful tissue paper collages provide lots of opportunity for contrasting the Home language and English vocabulary of colour, shading, and shape.
8. Linking Reading and Writing: The repetitive pattern of Brown Bear provides lots of support for students to write another question-answer book, perhaps using the names of their classmates.

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