I read it this afternoon, Kimberlee and Caroline, and I enjoyed it too. I agreed with so many things that they said (i.e. I've had experience with the pitfalls of independent reading) and I appreciate their solutions to them....what they are proposing is pretty similar to some things that Laura Robb's book, Teaching Reading in the Middle School, which recommends a strategic approach within a workshop setting....what I enjoyed about this approach and can't wait to try is the sharing time at the end, which sounds like a very productive use of time. Another thing I agreed with in this article is that so many times, it is not grades that motivate students, so we need to find another approach. I believe that the sharing time protocals that they use seems to be motivating for students. I also agree that the teacher should be conferring with students rather than reading herself, because that way she/he can be helping the readers who tend not to stick to a book, etc. Like the authors proposed, there are so many ways to show students that we are readers other than using time that we could be conferencing with students to read....and I always found it hard to concentrate on a book when I was in charge of a classroom, anyway!
Thanks for sharing this with us, Caroline. I am excited to bring this approach back to the teachers at my school next year! I am just trying to figure out how to fit it into the Four Blocks model (Big Blocks in Middle School) and our required curriculum frameworks. May Dartez 6-8 Title L.A. Georgia On Jul 9, 2007, at 5:44 PM, kimberlee hannan wrote: > I've read it. I thought it was a great article, actually. > _______________________________________________ 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
