Maggie wrote:
My district has a curriculum, sure, but it is based on comprehension tests and book reports and all that icky stuff that I don't want to do. It's also based around genres, and I am just not sure about that. *So, everyone, if you can't find the time to respond to my whole email, can you at least tell me*: *Do you base your curriculum on genres (Sept = fiction, Oct = poetry...) or strategies (Sept = making connections, Oct = synthesizing...)?* I have been thinking about this for so long, and I just can't decide. Pam writes: First, I'd consider breaking your curriculum up by genres as this is the direction your district expects.? It isn't too hard.? I do a combination of both (genre and strategies). I block my year with genres and then teach strategies within the genres.? We spend time at the beginning of the genre with reading and move into writing in that genre. I usually start the year with memoirs. I immerse the kids in reading memoirs and conduct mini-lessons on reading strategies they can use/recognize in a memoir and then we move into mini-lessons on writing memoirs.?We finally conclude the unit by writing a memoir. This usually takes about 6 weeks (as we are also introducing reading/writing workshop and getting to know procedures). What genre follows next previously depended on my kids, their interests, my mood - I'm not sure if my district is going to go to a timeline within the curriculum maps or not.?If they do, I expect I'll follow it (unless it is ridiculous) as they have been pretty good about mapping out the required curriculum within the state standards and leaving the actual lessons to the teacher to determine.?The thing that has me spinning in a circle (and I know it's probably some silly mental block on my part) is integrating the 6 Traits within genre & strategies.?I think that I've decided this year to treat the 6 Traits as a strategy. Anyone out there have a clear, succinct way to describe how they've integrated the 6 Traits of writing into their workshop? ;o) Pam/6th Gr./FL ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at 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
