Kimberlee writes: I teach seventh grade and have about 120 kids. I also use journals with my > kids, something like an interactive notebook. Everything is in one > notebook. But I am not so sure I will put everything in one notebook again > next year. We use the three subject notebooks with the plastic covers right > now. They keep a table of contents and have the pages numbered. I have > them tape in handouts and poems. I do most organizers in the notebooks, > too. I still find that it is very confusing to them to find things when > they need them. I have 49 minutes a day with each of them, so I can only do > Writer's Workshop three days a week and Reader's Workshop two days a week, > so they have to do their responses at home as well as a lot of their > reading. They have to haul the notebooks back and forth. They are also > really big for me to haul and grade. > > I think next year I am going to have them get three or four hardback > composition books. One for Reader's Workshop Notes and Responses, Writer's > Conventions and Word Work, and Writing Notebook. They can leave them in > crates in my room and take home only what they need for that evening. It > still sound cumbersome, but I haven't worked out the details yet. How do > you organize your kids' work? > > Do any of you teach in a middle school setting and use workshops to teach? > If you, I would like to talk time management with you. I hate the way my > weeks are laid out now. I have the week split into three days WW and two > days RW. I would like to try something else next year, but unsure what. > Pam finally gets around to reading email from 2 weeks ago & replies: I teach 6th grade & use workshops to teach. I've finally made things work most of the time. I start the year with reading workshop (first 5-6 weeks) and then move into writing workshop (where we spend 5-6 weeks). I then shift back & forth between reading workshop and writing workshop. I wasn't able to do the balance between reading & writing in the same week. Not only did it confuse the kids, it made me crazy (or maybe that's why it confused the kids - lol). The really neat thing is that I still have kids writing (we are just winding up a section of reading workshop & ready to shift back to writing workshop with a focus on poetry). I have kids bringing me stories they are working on, etc. I was so tickled to see them continue to write for their own enjoyment without the carrot/stick of a grade!! Same thing with reading. I think that the last 8 weeks of school will be a combo of reading/writing workshop (as if things aren't crazy enough). I think that my kids will be able to handle the bouncing back and forth and will have learned enough strategies to help them with balancing their work. Or at least that's what I'm hoping.
I also switched from the 3 subject spiral to 4 composition books this year. I LOVE THEM!! They are so much easier to handle and seem to be much less intimidating for the kids as well. In fact, my entire team tried the interactive notebook this year using composition notebooks and we've agreed that we are going to order 300 before school starts to be able to sell to the kids at cost (since they seem to get quite pricey around this time of year and hard to find too). Pam Tempest Team Neon-6th Gr. ELA Hudson Middle School http://nlcommunities.com/communities/tempest "The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn." John Lubbock ************************************** AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com. _______________________________________________ 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. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
