Best Literature lesson this year >From Nanci Atwell's *The Reading Zone* I had the best time discussing books this year. I discarded most of the requirements from the past such as a reading journal and log and replaced it with booktalking, conferencing one-on-one and small group, and reading time...Students still recorded books read, attempted and abandoned and were accountable through reviews written and booktalking. With my struggling readers I did not push genre as much as choice, ( Of course I suspected I could get them hooked with certain books and thereby made them readily available!) One such student admitted he had always hated to read, could just not get into books and was bored by reading. His lexile level didn't seem right to me either ( too low). I introduced him to Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. Not great literature but a good read. After grumbling a bit but hearing from an older classmate that the books were "way cool." he gave it a try! Soon he was in the Zone ( reading time during class) and purchased the remainder of the series on his own. Did I make him change genre? heck no...AND his reading scores showed excellent growth and more suited to where I felt he should score. Love the Zone!
-- Tena _______________________________________________ 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
