Beckie, My last district had similar expectations for GR and centers. Here's how I kept the literacy block filled with reading/writing and not busy crossword puzzles and word searches. I had 6 centers: Journal Writing - to build writing fluency (There were few guidelines here, they could write notes back and forth to each other or to me, they could write in any genre, about their day, their weekend etc.), Library (buddy reading from our classroom library), Poetry Binders (binders of poems and songs from shared reading), Computer (online stories to read or listen to, word study games, or writing in MS Word), Word Study (word sorts, making words, magnetic letters) Bookbag Reading (reading/responding to books in their "just right" collection) Children visited 3 centers each day with about 3-4 kids working at a center together.
Many years I found many of my chidlren could not work independently for too long, so I did signal when it was time to switch stations - usually about every 20 minutes. Many of the "centers" were simply baskets of books placed on a table or group of desks, so there was very little work in preparing materials. Cara From: "Will and Beckie Spears" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2006 23:42:56 -0400 Subject: [MOSAIC] Question: How do you squeeze it all in? My district, however, mandates that every k-2 teacher would teach guided reading groups (with leveled books) each day for 90+ minutes (meeting with groups for around 30 minutes). The district wants us to use literacy stations as the work students do when not in GR groups. I've got the guided reading piece in practice, but I'm not yet sold on the effectiveness of the literacy stations (which seem labor intensive). "...It doesn't cost a thing to smile. You don't have to pay to laugh..." India.Arie --------------------------------- Stay in the know. Pulse on the new Yahoo.com. Check it out. _______________________________________________ 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.
