Hi! We have a password-protected blog site (through literacyworkshop.org!) where the kids blog about their independent reading books weekly, and sometimes comment on each other's blogs as well. I write responses to each entry - it's sort of like the "Readers Reponse Journal" Nancie Atwell mentioned in the first edition of "In the Middle," if I remember correctly.
Homework in my class has five components. 1. the above-mentioned RRJ blogs 2. independently-generated vocabulary lists and weekly quizzes 3. independent writing 4. project work on student-designed units 5. group novel reading for student-designed unit It all adds up to about 30 minutes a night out of class, with some in-class "choice time" given every day for me to touch base with them as they do various bits of homework. When they get behind, I send them reminders, send them reminders with copies to their advisors, send them reminders with copies to their parents (if this has been pre-arranged), talk to them, sit them down and make them write, etc. My sister-in-law keeps kids after school on Thursdays, when the late bus can take them home, if they have some certain cutoff percentage of work they owe her. Take care, Bill Ivey Stoneleigh-Burnham School _______________________________________________ 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
