Ellin, I would like your permission to use this email as a starting off spot for discussion with a group of new teachers I am co-teaching this year. My alter ego and I are hoping to use this class, which we are calling Todd County Thinks, to approach inquiry learning across math, reading and writing and using the Mosaic strategies as our 'core curriculum'. I think this would spark some interesting discussion.
On the subject of leveling books, I was helping a young, Teach For America teacher organize her classroom library (which is quite sad). She had been given so much advice about the need to level, level, level that she was in a quagmire and the books were not in the hands of her first grade students where they belong. I had her sort into fiction and nonfiction, building a few (very few, sadly) author tubs, a song and rhyme tub and some topic tubs for nonfiction. Then I was explaining Taberski's method, simple sorts into four piles with loose gradients in terms of difficulty. As I did so, we chatted. She thought it sounded overwhelming to search out a level for every book in her classroom. I assured her that working with texts in teaching situations would give her a sense of level, if she just trusted herself. Before long, she was confidently placing books in easiest, easy, medium and hard piles while we built a stack of books to teach from and through along side. I pointed out attributes of text which would support beginning readers and we never spoke an alphabet letter. Within an hour and a half, we had tubs of books to support her young readers in their learning processes. The books had color stickers which matched colored tubs. Meanwhile, an experienced and level driven teacher a few doors away was struggling to put a Reading Recovery level on everything she owned. We have gone level loony, in my opinion. As to read aloud, as a former plucker--oh, I need a read aloud and pluck--I think the difference is that we are making more strategic choices for read aloud, not setting aside entertainment or enjoyment, but being more mindful our teaching opportunties. Lori On 9/16/06 7:32 AM, "Ellin Keene" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I read the wonderful reflections and questions that Gina started in her > posting. I have had many of the same questions and the issue related to the > authenticity in direct instruction - what I think of as "thinking aloud" is > something I struggled with for a long time. I'm tackling that one in my new > book, To Understand which will be out in the spring, but I think it has > everything to do with what we tell kids about WHY we're doing the think > aloud - what will use of the strategy lead to? What are the outcomes of > using strategies? What is it to really understand? I find that kids are > fascinated by those conversations and can very easily identify what they > understand using a strategy that they wouldn't understand without it. > > > > On the question of whether all kids need all strategies - this one I feel > very strongly about - all kids do need (deserve?) all strategies IF they are > reading challenging enough text. Kids who are reading text with ideas that > aren't necessarily challenging or multi-faceted don't need strategies. > Think back to your own elementary through high school experience - if you > were like me, I spent a lot of time reading text that was in no way > challenging for me - until college and graduate school - where I met with a > big surprise and had to essentially teach myself the strategies without the > benefit of a language to define and describe them. > > > > I think all kids need all strategies IF they're in challenging enough text - > which may be a huge problem in our "level happy" culture right now. I think > leveled text is useful for kids who are practicing word identification > strategies and fluency - however, I worry that kids are not frequently > enough in challenging enough text. I don't mean that I want kids > consistently reading text that is too difficult for them, but that kids > should be in text in which the ideas, themes and topics are challenging to > them. In those types of texts kids need and will certainly benefit from > strategy instruction and application. I am always looking for texts that > have provocative, interesting themes but are readable for a wide range of > children. > > > > Hope that adds to the discussion - I find Gina's questions and the responses > very interesting. > > > > my best, > > ellin keene > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > -- Lori Jackson District Literacy Coach & Mentor Todd County School District Box 87 Mission SD 57555 http:www.tcsdk12.org ph. 605.856.2211 Literacies for All Summer Institute "Literate Lives: A Human Right" July 12-15, 2007 Louisville, Kentucky http://www.ncte.org/profdev/conv/wlu _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.
