Hi Mary,
I'm in Jersey, too!? It's like playing a game without knowing the rules... or that the rules change without any warning.:) In my district, we have 3 writing units: feature article, persuasive writing, and literary essay.? We are also expected to do quite a bit with test prep, though it can be embedded rather than a specific unit.? All this plus reading in a 50 minute period. Karen Onyx Carusi Middle School -----Original Message----- From: Mary Dovey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades. <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:30 am Subject: Re: [LIT] New member looking for help Hello, everyone. I haven't posted in ages so I doubt anyone will recognize my name, but I could use your help. After teaching 7th and 8th grade reading and writing for 7 years and fairly successfully instituting workshop teaching, I was asked to become the instructional literacy coach. It's quite a challenge, particularly getting my colleagues to evolve as writing teachers. One thing I'm trying to do is introduce the idea that they need to teach units of study in writing and the craft lessons specific to that genre. Our state tests in NJ are changing, but this year they are testing kids in narrative writing (they give them a "speculative" prompt and 25 minutes to compose....I think it's a travesty, but that's a different rant....) and persuasive writing, even as young as 5th grade. Unfortunately, a few teachers think that's all they need to teach. I did a workshop for the teachers last week on persuasive writing, and mentioned that successful persuasives often were built on the writing techniques of other genres, particularly narrative and feature writing. I saw a light bulb go on in a few eyes, and I'd like to capitalize on this enthusiasm by getting teachers to begin adding these other genres of writing to their curriculum. I'd always taught these units: poetry, memoir, narrative, persuasive, informational. What units do you folks teach? Thanks, Mary On 2/22/08 4:29 PM, "Jenny Ovadia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I also just finished a feature article unit--you've already got some great > suggestions for reading models, but I'd like to add another resource. The > magazine *Muse* has high-interest feature articles for adolescent readers, > and they have a lot of graphic features like sidebars and diagrams. > > I wrote a feature article along with my students, and seeing me write in > front of them (or discuss what I wrote the night before) really makes the > process more concrete for them. I know they get it when they start to > suggest revisions for my draft! > > At the end of the unit, I had the students find connections among their > articles and form their own groups to create magazines (they didn't know > they were going to do this when they picked their topics). They had to make > the connections among their topics, define characteristics of readers who > would be interested in these topics, and create a magazine. They designed > covers and bound their articles together. It was a nice way to end the unit > creatively with a lot of higher order thinking. > > This is only my second year teaching, but the feature article unit has been > my favorite so far. I hope you enjoy it too! > _______________________________________________ > 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 ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.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
