Well, it's a long story. About five years ago when the New York City Board of Education was reorganized, we were all mandated to do "balanced literacy." Personally, this was excellent for me because I was a district wide staff developer (Teacher College trained, a writer as well) and attempting (with great difficulty) to bring reading and writing workshop in to elementary and middle schools. While elementary schools were suited up with providers (Aussies and Teachers College) the middle schools were not given much support but, if possible, were guided by Americas Choice. I transfered from the district to become a building based literacy coach. We began to institute block scheduling and between 8 and 10 periods of ELA. Reading workshop was separated from writing workshop and the hard work began. At this point we are doing an amalgam of workshop ELA with a hefty dose of data analysis (running records three times a year and I'm about to launch a writing record of sorts using the 6 Traits rubric) and because I'm an acolyte of brain-based learning (Marzano, Garmston, Bocchino, Wolfe) (and an assistant principal) we've been examining how lessons are put together and how unit plans develop over time. We have our own pacing calendars and this year we are attempting to insert a grammar pacing calendar with in the units.
This also means that students are expected to read four books a unit. This may be done in literature circles, book clubs, partnerships, a series of equivalents (number of short stories, articles etc) and there may be one class text to launch a unit and the teacher transitions the class into book groups. We have about 8 units a year. A summer assignment is required and this summer is is three books -- which can count toward their 25. The books don't have to be of a certain lenght but because we do running records and implement the Fountas and Pinnell levels we have an idea of what students ought to be reading to challenge themselves. This of course brings up another issue because technically many of our seventh graders in the spring and certainly, many of our eighth graders in the fall are comfortably at "Z" (the level they need to be at if they are to "meet the standards" on the state ELA test). We might be shifting to lexile levels so that I can get a measure readers beyond Z. So, a page number requirement is not part of the equation, really. There are books recommended with each unit. For example, the sixth grades does a "socail action" in fiction unit and texts are matched to readers as best as possible. They also do author study (reading at least four books by any one author). All of these are New York State standards based (four book on one theme, by any one author) and so a list of books tends to emerge. I'm not sure if this was of interest to anyone or if it answered your question Connie! Maureen On 7/14/08, Connie Fletcher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Marueen, > > Unlike NYS, Washington State doesn't have a minimum standard for number of > books read in a year. Is reading handled as a separate class, and do the > books have to be a certain length? Also, is there a recommended book list > for each grade level? > > In response to your note below I might explain that this year was a return > to the workshop approach after trying out SpringBoard the year > before--and the students only averaged only 8 books for the year, compared > to 20 this year, so it was a move in the right direction, but still some > work to do. Luckily our district has decided that SB is supplemental > instead > of core curriculum. > > Thanks in advance, > Connie Fletcher > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: "Maureen Robins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." < > [email protected]> > Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:07:57 -0400 > Subject: Re: [LIT] Summer Book Studies, Atwell > > > > > > > ...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 > _______________________________________________ > 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
