I teach 6-8th grade students who have scored non-proficient on the Wisconsin exam.
In my 7th and 8th grade class, we begin with SSR time. They respond to their reading either on post-it notes or in their reflective reading journal. They are responsible for dating and noting each day. On Fridays, they reflect on their reflections...what did they notice about how they read this week? The kids are often honest with themselves on their reflection. They hand in their post-its on a piece of paper with their reflection written on the back or their reading journal with their reflection written in a different color pen at the end of their last note. I write back a small note. I will often use their reflection for an informal conference on Monday with each student as well. Part of their participation grade is their ability to stay S and S during SSR time. They also get points for handing in their written reflections. I read aloud in class as well. I have the kids respond in various ways. Sometimes they draw pictures about what is being read, sometimes they write a prediction, sometimes they question the author, sometimes they summarize. We share a few of these each day and keep them on a huge piece of paper for us to cross check and reflect upon as we read. I involve the parents for the outside reading. I allow the kids to read virtually anything at home...magazines, hypertext, website text, some video games, books, instructions, manuals, textbooks, picture books to younger siblings, or anything else the parents can come up with. I ask them to read 20 minutes 5 days a week. The parents are required to note what was read and sign off on the log. These logs are worth some points, but not a huge amount of points because I don't want to force parents to lie for their kids. What I like about this is that the parents and the kids are talking about literacy at home. I also love the phone calls regarding "what I count as reading". We've had some fantastic conversations about the amount of reading some video games require and excellent discussions about how much reading happens at computers. Often, the kids will ask to share something that they read outside of class. We have an active bulletin board that we use to note the forms of literacy that we have read over the week. One boy last year brought in a greeting card that he didn't "get" because he didn't understand the humor. He brought in a fantastic "on the fly" lesson about humor and use of language. It was great! For the 6th grade students, I am in their House classrooms during Literacy, but they come to me during lunch for book club twice a week. We choose a book to read that is at our reading levels. Then, the media specialist gets us all the book and we assign pages or chapters to read. During lunch we talk about what we read. I require the kids to make notes about what they read on post-its. They use these to help with the discussions during lunch. The kids get invited to this book club (based upon a nonproficient Wisconsin test score or upon teacher recommendation) and feel honored to be there, so they keep up with the reading. It's actually REALLY fun, and they tell me it's the first time they felt like real readers. I hope this helps. Patricia Sankey Reading Specialist Templeton Middle School >>> "Lucinda Marcello" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 08/09/07 7:38 PM >>> I am curious what ways you are encouraging your students to read in and outside of class. It seems more and more that reading competes with Xbox, text messaging, Myspace, etc. Do you keep them accountable? Do you grade their effort? Do you use reading logs? SSR? If so, how do you manage it to make reading effective? Share what works for you, please. As a newer teacher, I am all ears! Thank you. Lucinda Secrist M.S. Tucson, Az. _______________________________________________ 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 This email was Scanned for Virus & Malware prior to entering or leaving the Hamilton School District network. If you have questions please e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was Scanned for Virus & Malware prior to entering or leaving the Hamilton School District network. If you have questions please e-mail [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
