Agreed--there isn't a lot of brand new stuff in this article, but i like the way the authors reaffirm that kids need to read. it's so tempting to lecture, teach the kids something, but having them read independently with guidance is actually wnat they need.
in this ere of testing, it's hard to relax and let the students read, but that's exactly what they need. and i like the point the authors make about exposing students to a wide variety of genres. my students always go for the novel, the fiction novel at that. i'm looking for interesting articles for them to read together next year. scholastic has some wonderful author interviews. then, you can go to time for kids and copy some interesting news articles, articles conducive to teaching various strategies. i'm going to include at least 25 min. of independent reading each day. we'll start out with holes, then i'll choose several different novels and let the students choose which they will read. i've got to work in some projects, and everyone's ideas really helped me develop assessments and rubrics. but i've got to decide when to use them. also, i'm going to have students create interactive notebooks, but, once again, i've got to be able to manage it and decide how i'm going to assess them. does anyone have any ideas on assessing student work? with over 100 students, how in the world do you keep up with student work? since you guys have been indispensible in my planning for next year, i might as well ask how you keep up with grading, or, should i say, decide on what gets a grade and how you decide this. i've also been reading the book mentioned on the list serve, the one you can go to the web and read., strategies that work. i've been reading the entire thing. have you all seen this yet? the authors recommend teaching comprehension monitoring first and then moving on to the others, but they recommend teaching the strategies all at once, embedding them in the teaching. caroline _______________________________________________ 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
