Hello. I have several questions for all of you. Some background: I moved from elementary to middle school. Next year, I am teaching both ELA and SS through a piloted laptop program, keeping the kids two periods. My goal is to turn the history portion into a Reader's Workshop, focusing on the reading strategies, both in the literature and history textbooks and in trade books, using the theme of conflict and resolution as an overall year theme. I figured that theme would be a good umbrella to connect and compare to today. I want to focus my booktalks, lit. studies, and read alouds on historical non-fiction, historical fiction, and good meaty teen fiction. The history we do is world history after Ancient Egypt.
The ELA part of the day will be geared toward a Writier's Workshop, again focusing on writing as a way of learning, as well as research, responses, and probably webquests, again, built on the same theme as RW. I am very familiar with younger children's literature and authors (4-6th grade), which is good for many, but I need more. Especially stuff designed with the more mature, efficient young teen in mind. The questions: What good picture books would you all recommend for read alouds that might tie into the theme? Where do you get list or suggestions for books to buy for your classroom? Where are the cheapest books found (I do yard sales and eBay, but eBay hasn't had much higher level stuff lately)? How do you deal with kids checking out books for take home? Thank you for taking the time to share with me. Kim -- Kimberlee Hannan Department Chair Sequoia Middle School Fresno, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ 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
