Hi May and Heather, Thanks so much for your terrific advice! This is what I needed to hear. Bless you both.
Kim ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ty Dartez" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 12:44 PM Subject: Re: [LIT] desperately need advice--how do I weave this together? > Hi Kim, > > I certainly don't have all the answers, but if I had the freedom (which > I don't) to plan my curriculum in a way that made sense to me, I would > use and modify Juli Kendall's units from the Middleweb listserve: > > http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWdownloads.html > > Scroll all the way down to Unit 1, Unit 2, etc. You will find lots of > helpful information. Also, to me it makes sense and is helpful for > writing to teach by genres. Immerse students in reading a genre and > analyzing samples before requiring them to write in that genre...they > probably could try a couple samples in each genre then and choose their > favorite one to revise, edit, and publish. > > As far as teaching grammar, remember that it is most effectively taught > through students' writing. i.e. If you need to have them write complex > sentences, have all students write a complex sentence that begins with > "while" or "unless" rather than using worksheets where they find > examples of complex sentences. That way what they learn in grammar will > actually apply to their writing. Another example would be for "commas > in a series." Have all students think of three friends and actually > write a sentence in which the three friends are listed. > > If you have time for spelling, I have found that certain rules (such as > i before e except after c) are useful before the state test. You might > want to have a "No Nonsense" list of words that all students are > required to spell correctly or they have to correct themselves before > you accept it....Leif Fearn has some great activities for teaching > spelling in his book Interactions: Teaching Writing and the Language > Arts....if you have time for spelling, you can also find some cheap > game-like practice materials on Amazon. In my district, we are > discouraged from teaching spelling in middle school, because it is not > a focus of our state test. For vocabulary, when time, I tend to focus > on roots, prefixes, context clues, etc. > > Good luck! It is hard to balance everything, but remember there is no > one "right" way to do it. You seem to be a very hard worker, and I'm > sure your students will get a great education in your classroom this > year:) > > May Dartez > Title 6-8 Language Arts Co-Teacher/GA > > > > On Oct 14, 2007, at 12:16 PM, ncteach wrote: > >> 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)? > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 _______________________________________________ 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
