I taught my units around genres. For example, my units were: nonfiction (expository) nonfiction (persuasive) narrative (fiction) narrative (nonfiction)
I would have a reading and writing piece to both. In the narrative fiction unit, we would do a Response to Literature piece of writing, and that would also be the main focus of my reading lessons. So, we would start out by just reading in the genre, making charts about the structure of the genre, etc. Then we would get into writing, so the week would be part reading and part writing. Gradually I would build the writing so by the end, we would just be writing. Vocabulary came from whatever text we were reading. I did do a warmup every day - Root of the Day that didn't exactly match what we were doing, but it taught them the roots. I had no formal spelling instruction. If I had a longer block of time, I would do spelling the way my writinng professor taught us - and it really works, I used it when I tutored a student one-to-one. Basically, you have a list of words, they do not see before hand. They take the spelling test. You read the words back to them in chunks of 2-3 letters because that is how they learn to spell the words. Then, you chart how many got 0 correct, 1 correct, etc. Then immediately, they take the test again and chart the results. Everyone will go up. Anyone who gets them all correct does not have to take the test again. Then, on another day they take the test again. I didn't do this since I only had 50 min. I did have a word wall and any words they didn't know how to spell went up on the wall. They also HAD to spell those words correctly since they were up. I know many teachers are fond of teaching by themes, and sometimes I do do this, but for me, I find it easier to teach by genre because I often have struggling readers in my classes and I want them to learn the structure of each genre. On 10/14/07, ncteach <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi All, > > A bit of background: I taught language arts (for one year) and reading > (for > 5 years). I then went on to teach social studies for a some time. I am now > back in language arts (6th grade). > > Problem: How do I weave all that I am supposed to do together in a > logical, > coherent fashion? I am so stessed out trying to figure it out! (Literally > sick to my stomach.) > > Questions: How do you bring together reading, writing, grammar, and > vocabulary in a way that makes sense? How do you "do" vocabulary? How do > you > teach spelling (if at all)? > > Here are the tools that I have: Language of Literature textbook; grammar > book; Stephanie Harvey's Comprehension Toolkit (I bought this last week); > Learning Focused material (we are supposed to use this as our framework); > lots of trade books (which I bought); 6+1 Trait books (which I bought). > > I feel as if all I have are bits and pieces. How do I bring them all > together? Do you teach using themes or by genre? > > Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated! > Kim > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > -- - Heather "The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out; new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again and yet live on. Still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead." --Clarence Day "While the rhetoric is highly effective, remarkably little good evidence exists that there's any educational substance behind the accountability and testing movement." —Peter Sacks, Standardized Minds "When our children fail competency tests the schools lose funding. When our missiles fail tests, we increase funding. " —Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Presidential Candidate _______________________________________________ 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
