Dear Sarah and all, I teach sixth grade students with special learning needs. I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year on classroom procedures and modeling my expectations. This is a very critical area especially for my students. I do a modified reading workshop where I start with a variation of the Daily Five and build stamina. Students read self selected books, read with a partner, read to the teacher, have a drawing activity or written response and have an activity relating to the vocabulary of the reading that they are doing with the teacher. I keep things fast paced and even the most struggling of my readers are engaged in learning. I use Lit Circles but do not start until mid-year. I use Clock Partners to build community and challenge accountability. I use tons of picture books for comprehension, literary elements, writing style and as a springboard for written responses. We use Reader's Theater both canned and class generated. We re-write the endings of books or place them in different settings. We do lots of author studies and use a variety of genre. Some books and resources that I have found extremely helpful in addition to Mosaic of Thought, Strategies that Word, Reading With Meaning and any of the Fountas and Pinnell books are : Starting With Comprehension - Andie Cunningham - this book is written for very young learners but I have found it very useful for making sure my students start with very basic comprehension skills. My students come to me very adept at word calling with zero comprehension so it is vital to give tehm the basuc building blocks to get them started. The Daily Five - this book was also meant for much younger readers but I have used a lot of the basic principles to making sure that students get a variety of reading experiences and yet build their reading stamina and grow them as readers. I Read It But I Don't Get It - Cris Tovani Do I Have To Teach Reading - Cris Tovani - Tovani's books are great because she struggled with comprehension all the way through hisgh school so she can really speak to our middle and high schoolers who are struggling with the same issues. Bringing The Outside In - Sara Kajder - this is another great resource for older readers. She has a lot of great ideas for different ways to approach learning vocabulary. She does a lot with visualization and using digital cameras to capture meanings of words in action in everyday life. Hope this was of some help. If you have additional questions, email away! June [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.
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