Besides the great advice you've already received, you should look into training for Write Traits (6 Trait writing). The program from Great Source is excellent and you said that you already have some books. The language skills are incorporated throughout and you use literature as models for each trait.
Ellen Bollman 8th Grade Language Arts, FL -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 12:00 PM To: [email protected] Subject: lit Digest, Vol 24, Issue 13 Send lit mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/lit_literacyworkshop.org or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can reach the person managing the list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of lit digest..." Today's Topics: 1. desperately need advice--how do I weave this together? (ncteach) 2. Re: desperately need advice--how do I weave this together? (ncteach) 3. Re: desperately need advice--how do I weave this together? (Ty Dartez) 4. Re: desperately need advice--how do I weave this together? (Heather Poland) 5. Re: desperately need advice--how do I weave this together? (ncteach) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 12:16:11 -0400 From: "ncteach" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [LIT] desperately need advice--how do I weave this together? To: "A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="utf-8"; reply-type=original 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 ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 12:19:51 -0400 From: "ncteach" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIT] desperately need advice--how do I weave this together? To: "A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Sheesh. Please excuse the typos. I meant "teach social studies for a few years." Kim ----- Original Message ----- From: "ncteach" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 12:16 PM Subject: [LIT] desperately need advice--how do I weave this together? > 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 ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 12:44:44 -0400 From: Ty Dartez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIT] desperately need advice--how do I weave this together? To: "A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed 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)? ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:00:38 -0700 From: "Heather Poland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIT] desperately need advice--how do I weave this together? To: "A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252 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 ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:45:10 -0400 From: "ncteach" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIT] desperately need advice--how do I weave this together? To: "A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original 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. End of lit Digest, Vol 24, Issue 13 *********************************** _______________________________________________ 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
