I have mixed feelings about "sacred texts" but mostly I have to relay a story about something that came up for us in the late 90s that is the opposite of what people are talking about here. At that time, we had what were called "grade level required reading" texts (do these still exist?) and one of the third grade texts was Stone Fox (John Gardiner?). All the third grade teachers did a whole unit on this book, we did big discussions about the story, etc. Maybe we spent a few weeks on this story. Then one year, after the adoption of a new reading series, one of the fourth grade teachers came to us and asked us if we could please NOT read Stone Fox with our third graders because there was a one chapter excerpt..... let me repeat, an EXCERPT.... in the fourth grade basal reader and all the fourth graders had already read it in third grade and that was a problem for the fourth grade teachers.
Just wanted to share. :-) Renee On Jan 13, 2007, at 6:36 AM, tammy goodwin wrote: > Our district has incorporated many(not all) of the strategies in our > curriculum. We are given a "Roadmap" Every six weeks we give a > pretest and then a post test. But the roadmap is what we have to > follow to teach the skills. Some of them are the same. But most of > the teachers use their reading series to teach the skills/strategies. > I have noticed this year, I looped from 2-3 that I am reteaching some > of the strategies and so I have had to find new materials to teach > them, since I had this group last year. I think sometimes teachers > are afraid to go "outside the box" They know that something works and > they cling to it. I also think that (as the Charlotte Web examples > showed, people like old favorites - or want to use it because the > movie came out and the kids are actually interested) I think maybe > you need to find a list - there's lots of them online and in several > of the books about teaching the strategies - of different materials. > Then each grade level can > decide which materials they want to use and would be "sacred" Our > building did that when we were using "Empowering Writers" We decided > which grade levels would use which prompts. I have never used > Charlotte's Web or Sarah, Plain and Tall because I knew that 4th grade > used these. I love those books, especially Sarah, but I wanted to be > respectful of the 4th grade teachers. Pretty much all of our books > are open to any grade level, as we have a book room, where we can > check out guided reading materials or whole class sets. Most of the > teachers are pretty respectful of each other. My partner read > "Charlie and the Chocalate Factory" outloud to her class. Well the > 5th grade teacher is also reading it outloud. The difference is my > partner read it in Spanish, so when they get to 5th grade (if he is > still there - we have ALOT of moving around) The kids will hear it > again, but in English. So it will be different for them. Tammy/CT/3 > Kathy Conover <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Once again our staff met to share lessons and activities that we use > while teaching the reading strategies. A new strategey is introduced > monthly. And once again several grade levels are using the same > materials and books to teach the strategies during guided reading. How > do you handle this situation? I believe that each year we should be > "digging a little deeper" while teaching the strategies, not reteaching > something that the kids learned the year before. How can we change this > practice....we have to make our teaching better for our students if we > want to help them become successful readers. Thank you. > > _______________________________________________ > 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. > > > _______________________________________________ > 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. > > "When you learn, teach. When you get, give." ~ Maya Angelou _______________________________________________ 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.
