Hi Cami, It sounds like you've gotten a lot of great advice lately! I also teach first and will only be starting my first comprehension study in October and will begin with connections. We spent a couple weeks in August and all of September on procedures, expectations, and sharing the "amazing" ideas they had during reader's workshop. Maybe since you are ahead of the game with comprehension you could switch gears for about 2 weeks and re-visit the introduction to reader's workshop for those that are struggling. Could you give the struggling readers wordless picture books just for a couple weeks to get them into the fun and delight of books? I think a 2 week detour would be well worth the change in attitudes about reading. Brag about the smart things you see them doing to the other students so that they are the envy of the class, they are soooo smart! (even if you have to teach them to do something in a conference and then brag to the class about the great idea they had and let them share the specific thing you taught) I also LOVE the metaphor of how books are like a bike ride (from The Art of Teaching Reading). Describe how it feels to go uphill on your bike, some books feel like this, we have to work VERY hard on them. Describe how it feels to go downhill, some books feel like this, we zoom through them without much thinking. Finally talk about riding a bike on a flat road, you have to pedal, but you aren't exhausted. You also run into stones, bumps, and such but you can learn to go around them or over them without falling off. This is how a "smooth-ride" book feels. Our brains grow the fastest if we read books that make us think and give us a few bumps, but we aren't exhaused by them. I hope this helps, I am sure you will figure it out and in no time it will be hard to remember what a tricky time you were having at the beginning! Below are the steps that worked for me in introducing books this year if you are interested. ~niki I began the year with wordless picture books. I told my students that we were going to spend some time figuring out what the stories were about. They were in tubs at the tables and they read independently for about 4 minutes to start. Then they had 4-5 minutes to "partner read" so that they could talk about their books. My conferencing was a lot of "wow! look how suzie and tommie put the book between them as they read together... that is so smart! I wonder who else is doing that?" during partner time. And during the whole 4 minutes of individual time I asked them what they discovered in their books. >From there I started introducing the library (but didn't let them touch >anything in it for about 2 weeks. I wanted to tempt them with it and then I >started giving them tours of how it was set up and the types of books, and >told them that maybe on Monday (of the following week) I think they'd be ready >to pick ANY book they wanted to look at during morning time. And then I >replaced most of the wordless books in the tubs with picture books and did >lessons about figuring out who the reader inside of us was...what did we like? Just before I introduced the leveled books I talked to them about books as a bike ride. Then I did one or two lessons on just a couple ideas of what to do with tricky words. (identify the tricky words...know how to find them - so they don't just miscue over them; THINK about what would make sense; use beginning letter(s) and pictures as helpers) Finally I started bringing about 4 kiddos over to the leveled buckets at a time and (it took a week to get everyone done) introducing them to book baskets that I thought might make them feel strong as a reader. I showed them how to browse the book and keep it if it was a "smooth ride" and put it back if it didn't make us feel strong as a reader. “When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.” ~Desiderius Erasmus
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 21:24:24 -0400> To: > [email protected]> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] readers workshop help > needed> > HI> > I wrote earlier this summer about being very excited to start > readers > workshop this year (first grade). No one else in my school does > it and my classroom > is supposed to be a "model classroom" for the school. > I know it takes a > while to get things running smoothly but I'm having a > little more trouble than I > anticipated and I need some help.> > First of > all, my class is extremely chatty and fidgety. They have a very > tough > time paying attention and staying on task. I know thats not very unusual > > for first graders but they are definitely one of the chattiest classes I have > > had. Last year, I was very lucky to have a great class of kids that > were > very excited about learning. This year, the kids really don't seem too > > interested. I'm having a very tough time holding their attention during > read-alouds > and mini-lessons. I try to use all that great Debbie Miller > talk to get > them excited about their thinking but it's just not happening. > Also, many > children are not staying on task during independent reading > time. I have done > many lessons on rules and routines and rituals but it's > still a real challenge.> > Also, I have 4 kids who are not reading at all > (below A on the DRA). They > are the ones who are having the most trouble > staying focused. I have provided > them with books at their level and have > confered with them about using the > illustrations to read their books but > they aren't getting it. I know I need to > do small group work or guided > reading with them but how much time should I be > doing that. Should they > still be doing independent reading? Should I have > them using the > listening center instead? I can't meet with them all the > time because I > obviously need to confer with other students as well.> > I was so sad the > other day because a parent told me that her son was crying > about coming to > school because of readers workshop. He says independent > reading is so > boring because he doesn't know how to read. He's really a very nice> , > sweet boy who is very well behaved. I felt so bad. That's exactly the > > opposite of what was supposed to happen. I was ready for readers workshop > to > be exciting and motivating.> > One more thing, I'm having trouble > figuring out the balance between decoding > minilessons and comprehension > minilessons. So far we've spent most of our time > on comprehension (schema > and t-s connections) We have just touched upon > decoding strategies. I'm > wondering if I should be spending more time on > decoding.> > I know I'm > asking for a loot but would appreciate any feedback.> > Thanks,> Cami> > _______________________________________________> Mosaic mailing list> > [email protected]> To unsubscribe or modify your membership please > go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.> > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > _________________________________________________________________ Stay connected with the news, people, places and online services that matter to you on Live.com http://www.live.com/getstarted.aspx?icid=T001MSN30A0701 _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
