React to this statement: "We may need to move away from prescribing
activities and groupings that may or may not meet students needs and move toward maximizing the time students have to be apprentices to more proficient readers and writers, to practice their skills and strategies, and to receive individualized guidance in their learning." I bought To Understand this summer and began reading it in July. I only got through the first two chapters and I was so overwhelmed with how deep all of this is. It was very much how I felt after reading Mosaic of Thought. After being in the classroom for 11 years, I decided to take a position as reading coach. I only stayed in the position for two years before I returned to the classroom as a 6th grade reading teacher at another school. I won't lie and say that my time as a reading coach was easy because it was not. However it was a position that really forced me to test my thinking about reading instruction K-up. It was very interesting to get to see how reading instruction works and sometimes doesn't work when you can see it happening from Kindergarten up. One of the areas of instruction I was constantly "called on the carpet" about as a reading coach was the amount of time students spent at centers. When I read the statement above it really made me pause and consider why some teachers feel so frustrated and are seeing very little results because they are so focused on "doing" reading workshop instead of teaching. It makes me wonder how much of this we as teachers bring on ourselves. When I went back into the classroom last year as a 6th grade reading teacher, I made a decision to really try and set up my reading time so that as many minutes as I could spare were spent in "real" reading. This meant that I didn't use centers with my children at all. 2-3 days a week I did whole group lessons in which I modeled a strategy and then students practiced this with their own reading. I felt it was the most successful year I've ever had as a teacher. In fact I feel that I'm struggling this year because I am being forced to use a new basal series that was purchased for K-6. I guess I said everything above to say this-Ellin is really making me think HARD about why I do what I do with the students I have. I know that sometimes I tend to want to give in to what is "expected" instead of doing what's right for my students. I'm really looking forward to getting further into the book. I'm especially interested in the Literacy Studio model. Angie Kelley Anniston, AL [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list Understand@literacyworkshop.org http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
