Has anyone attended Teachers College (Lucy Calkins, etc)? I was reading posts on another site, indicating the recommendation by trainers at TC to streamline your mini lessons by setting a time for 7 minutes, then when the timer goes off, use about 3 min. to wrap up or debrief and pick up where you left off on the mini lesson for as many days as needed, using the timer to keep minis down to 7-10 min.
The rationale is for students to spend most RW and WW time actually reading or writing or in conferences or book clubs, etc. Thoughts, anyone? Thanks! Melinda "If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) Melinda Hawkins 5th Grade LA/SS McCulloch Intermediate School Highland Park ISD (214) 780-2325 [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> Mary Dovey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 9/7/2008 10:00 pm >>> Wow! I've been trying all weekend to decide if I want to remain in my current coaching position or return to the classroom. Your post made me remember all the "aha" moments of teaching that I've been missing! Thanks, Mary On 9/7/08 8:14 PM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Have you ever encountered a teachable moment and had it swarm on you? I know > all us literacy teachers on this list would like to hear about it. Here‚s > what happened to me last > week. My teachable moment has turned into a unit of several days‚ duration > and > I can actually align it with LA standards! > > Realizing last week that the lack of ability to say the Pledge each day among > my > 8th grade English class (kids whose achievement levels are too low to qualify > for Read 180 or the America‚s Choice Ramp-up classes, resource kids, and > nonfluent ESL kids) was due to their not knowing the pledge, rather than to > lethargy, I presented a mini-lesson on the pledge and its background. I had > asked them to write the pledge beforehand, so I quickly learned that they > didn‚t > know the words („A legion, a legen, invisible, agents, etc), couldn't > punctuate it, and > made no cognitive meaning with it. The pledge was a meaning-free list of > words. > > I used the Elmo to share a little picture book illustrating phrases of the > pledge with pictures from around the US, then had them copy the pledge, > chunked so that they „got‰ the phrasing. (now, the old hippy, > Vietnam-protesting me was agog, but you know all us hippies > were patriotic, despite popular opinion) They seemed to enjoy modeling how to > say the pledge, and willingly practiced phrasing and expression. > > I tried to remain nonjudgemental, explaining that I wanted them to know the > pledge so they understood what it means to make a pledge and that it > represents > a commitment to some kind of behavior, etc. They bought in. We did a little > grammar with the pledge, too˜prepositional phrases, then nouns of various > types, > then clauses and punctuation. The pledge is going to be one of our anchor > pieces this year. > > I plan to recommend the principal ask students from my class to lead the > pledge > on the intercom˜why should pre-AP kids be the only ones to do that? > > Next, we discussed the meaning of the flags design˜the symbols and the colors. > That seemed to catch their interests, perhaps because they are beginning to be > able to make the intellectual leap into abstract and metaphorical thinking. > > Since they were intrigued by the fact that the USA flag represents ideas and > qualities, I asked each student to make a personal flag, using three colors > and > 2 to 4 symbols, that would represent his/her personality. 90% of them are > constitutionally unable to complete homework and probably didn‚t have colored > pencils or markers or crayons at home, so we finished the flags in class the > next day. Very, very clever symbolic thinking˜The Hispanic and Chinese kids > incorporated quite a bit of their former countries. All were engaged in > creating their flags for about 40 minutes. So much for making sure to change > activities every 20 minutes, as we‚re mandated to do. > > Finally, I asked them to explain how their flags represented their > personalities˜why they chose the colors and symbols they used. Once again, I > failed to build some background. They had no concepts of color symbolism! > I‚ve > created a couple of handouts on meanings of colors and found this perky > website on the meaning of colors: > http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/colors/Colors.html > The little movies are very clever and the explanations of the color symbolism > will be understandable to the kids, with some scaffolding from my inclusion > coteacher and me. We're going to readdress colors and symbols tomorrow, and I > envision > that some of the kids will want to redo their flags. > > Later in the week, I'll ask the library clerk to laminate the flags and we'll > post them and the kids' explanations for parent open house. > > So, from a desire to make sure the kids could say the pledge (and I explained > why i don‚t say „under God,‰ since when I memorized the pledge, those words > weren‚t included), quite a bit of learning ensued. The kids are proud they > can > say the pledge, and are now hip to the concept of pledging˜they realize they > are > making a public commitment to be loyal to the concepts represented by the > flag. > My coteacher asked them what other pledges people make, sometimes without > thinking of the fact they are making a promise to „do‰ something. They knew > about pledging to tell the truth in court, etc˜but were shocked to learn that > getting married involves a pledge. My coteacher suggested that was because > they > had never been to wedding and their parents were not married. Do you think? > > -- > Bev in Little Rock, obviously inspired by Tena in Maine! > -- > "Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world." Lily Tomlin > _______________________________________________ > 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 _______________________________________________ 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
