That is very interesting! Does everyone hit all the genres? For example, we have to teach expository, persuasive, narrative, and poetry. Do you get all of those in? And how? Do you have strugglers in your class? Are you self contained or block scheduling? How do you teach specific strategies to the class? Do you do it individually or in small groups?
I'm just trying to see how this could work in my class. :) On 9/10/06, Bill IVEY <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > "A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." > <[email protected]> on Sunday, September 10, 2006 at 8:31 am -0500 > wrote: > >For example, the personality unit sounds like a very relevant one for > >middle schoolers. Yet, how do you guide them to the point where they > >are choosing themes like this? Do you choose some and then give them > >choices, or do you use a completely different process? I am fascinated > >and would love to hear more about this. > > Hi! > > The way I did it last year, I simply had them write down a minimum of 15 > questions they would be interested in learning about. I cut-and-pasted > them all into a rather large (!) document. They then worked in small > groups over a couple of days to group questions together. They were asked > to give a title to each group of questions that expressed what the > questions had in common (i.e, a theme). We looked at everyone's ideas > together, and settled on a final grouping. They then voted on which themes > they wanted to study. > > This year, I got the idea from James Beane's book "A Reason to Teach" to > give them some focusing questions before they start - "What do I want to > know about myself?" and "What do I want to know about the world?" We'll go > through the questioning, grouping, theming process pretty much as we did > last year. This year, I'm adding in two twists. One is that I am requiring > certain "areas of inquiry" such as history or world cultures, and they > will need to make sure they have units which fit those areas of inquiry. > This is ensure they understand that despite the amount of control they > have over what they learn, they also understand they are learning things > in traditional fields (many worry they won't be prepared for eighth grade > since "everyone else is learning real stuff."). Secondly, I am requiring > they work in different genres, and we will have discussions to match > genres to units - e.g. if they choose to do a unit on the fall elections, > they could do a persuasive speech as a culminating activity. > > That's the thumbnail version. I hope it's clear! > > Take care, > Bill Ivey > Stoneleigh-Burnham > > > > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > -- - Heather "The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out; new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again and yet live on. Still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead." --Clarence Day "While the rhetoric is highly effective, remarkably little good evidence exists that there's any educational substance behind the accountability and testing movement." —Peter Sacks, Standardized Minds "When our children fail competency tests the schools lose funding. When our missiles fail tests, we increase funding. " —Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Presidential Candidate _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org.
