It seems to be the new "thing" to think that middle schoolers should be reading OUTside of school, and not in school. I do not agree. I do think it's important to monitor and confer - like you are doing. Some students will pretend read, but I know when I was in the classroom, I could spot these kids and I tried to help them pick a book they would like. I think as long as you have something to show - conference records, logs for lit circles, etc., then he really can't say anything.
On 10/21/07, Sarah Mulhern <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hello everyone! > > Recently I was observed by our new school principal. > Just my like, I was his first observation of the year! > However, I felt the lesson went well and wasn't too > worried. I met with him last week and was a little > unhappy. You see, he was present for our independent > reading. I have been following Atwell's reading > workshop model for the past two years and just this > year really focused on the independent reading > portion. I am THRILLED with the results! My students > are reading, recommending books to each other, and > completely focused on their books. Well, in our > meeting the principal told me that "while it is > perfectly acceptable for 6th grade students to read > independently for 20 minutes each day, they should be > doing something then". In other words, he thinks the > reading time is an excuse for me to sit around and do > nothing. I explained that I conference with the > students while they read (and he was there to see me > do this!), will eventually pull small literature > circles with them, and otherwise meet with my > students. He wasn't convinced that this was a > valuable use of instructional time. Thank goodness I > didn't tell him that on some days I read, too! > Modelling is just as important, in my opinion. > > I left the meeting irritated but not too upset because > he won't observe me again until next year. My vp and > supervisor will, but that's fine. However, just a few > days later we had a district meeting with my > supervisor who spent a good portion of the time > telling us that middle school students can not and > will not read for sustained amount of time. We were > told these students are just pretending to read while > pulling the wool over their eyes. I didn't want to > start an argument by telling her that my students can > and do read for up to 45 minutes at a time, > independently! While I'm sure they sometimes zone out > or focus on their own thoughts, I do conference with > them and have not found this to be a widespread > problem. > > Ok, after all that rambling, I guess I am asking if > anyone else deals with this. Do your administrators > support independent reading time?? > > sarah > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.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 > -- - 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
