Hi there, I have read nearly all the books Nancie has written, including The Reading Zone, which felt to me like a further adventures to In the Middle. My Master's classes taught the Strategies that Work, along with Yellow Brick Roads by Janet Allen. Both use fiction and non fiction as the reading amterial. I absolutely believe in everything they BOTH teach. I don't believe one needs to be used in abandonment of the other. I never took Nancie's writing to purely mean reading fiction. I feel she said reading, period. According to the info I have she teachers 8th grade in a school where the kids come to her reading, because they are often getting good reading teaching since kindergarten. Most of us in the upper grades don't have such a gift. Nor do many of us have kids with parents that read, so they come to us with holes in their experience.
Think about comprehension like a someone learning to drive. Shift gear...signal...slowly pull out...brake..., but once they do it enough, it becomes intuitive and they do it without thinking about it. In The Reading Zone Nancie talks about how the strategies can just be a hinderance to a good reader, and that is very true. If the strategies are taught and practiced long enough they do, in fact, become intuitive. Kids apply them without having to stop and think about it. Our kids just take longer to do that. I also feel the message from Nancie is TRUST the kids. The reason I think we (many teachers) continue to have the kids stop and record on notes is because in a world filled with so much accountability, we need the kids to "prove" they understand what they are reading. As well as to protect us from well meaning, but misinformed administration. Even past the point where the kids would be using the strategies completely on their own, many still require the "stickies." It slows a kid down to have to stop and record. Nancie has different tools to assess what the kids know and what they need next. When the strategies become cumbersome and prohibitive is when a teacher must stop telling the kids to prove they're using the strategies and just allow them to read. I have 7th graders. Many have told me they had never finished a novel until this year. In my conferences with kids, I can tell when the noting is a problem, because usually they tell me. I can begin switch the focus from the strategies to the text itself. The read aloud is the one place that allows you to model and discuss text with a whole group. These are the same conversations I want in book groups and individual conferences. Don't discard any of these rich strategies. No one strategy is better than the other, but used in conjunction, presented as they are needed, IF they are needed, they give the kids a richer experience. kim -- Kimberlee Hannan Department Chair Sequoia Middle School Fresno, CA Laugh when you can, apologize when you should, let go of what you can't change, kiss slowly, play hard, forgive quickly, take chances, give everything, have no regrets.. Life's too short to be anything but happy. [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ 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.
