I've used the Atwell Lessons and I really think they are too low level for some of my seventh graders and my eighth graders. As a middle school person I'm often dismayed to see "middle school" stuff that's really targeted to sixth grade. What's nice about the Atwell, however, is the binder piece where she has samples of student work that you can use for minilessons and other modeling tools. I am still lacking, though, good student essays. I have started collecting them at my school.
Ill be interested to see what Womeli writes and thinks because my concern at my school is that all seventeen teachers are creating 17 different rubrics and looking at student work according to non-standards based benchmarks. I'm trying to do some pd on the 6 traits rubrics and to use the 6 traits rubrics for writing as Running Records diagnose and assess students for reading. Does anyone have any experience with that? Or any ideas? I feel it will help teachers establish more consistent grade level benchmarks and help them with the year long planning according to what students need. Any thoughts on this? On the reading piece: I don't believe 20 books is enough. NYS stardards require 25 books and the teachers in my building who manage to cajole kids to read 50 tend to be able to have students score on the meets or exceeds the standards. Maureen Robins On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 1:39 PM, Connie Fletcher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Everyone! > > I'm definitely interested in Wormeli's book as well as Atwell's, and I have > the Book Thief. I like the idea of discussing the books on a blog... > > With regard to Atwell's workshop approach (Hi Jan!) I use it and although > it's still a work in progress, I can truly say my students have responded > well to choosing their topics and genres for reading and writing. The > workshop approach definitely helps with keeping students motivated to read > and write and in developing their skills. One of my biggest successes last > year was the volume of independent reading. The 8th graders read an average > of 20 books/student. The 7th graders were lower, but there was a > huge increase the second half of the year--they finally got into the > "zone," > after coming from a 6th grade classroom where the teacher totally > controlled > who read which books in lit circles--that really backfired in my opinon. I > don't think the power of student choice can be over emphasized when it > comes > to motivating kids (or adults!) to read and write. > > Connie Fletcher > _______________________________________________ > 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
