In a message dated 6/28/2007 9:59:14 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
AR is the only way they will allow kids to read real books in their classrooms during the school day. Yes, they use it as part of the curriculum, BUT it gets real books into kids' hands. The tests are the accountability. My school implemented AR about 10 years ago. I am about to start my 8th year there. Every year, school wide, we have devoted an hour a day to AR. The library is open to everyone during that hour. While this isn't "real" research, the teachers who were there before me say that the students' reading scores improved over what they were before AR. Why? Because we had a whole hour devoted to independent, self-selected reading each day. Now kids were reading where they used to go to the library once a week to check out a book they may or may not have read by the next week. The AR tests held them accountable: the teacher could see if students were misusing that time. It is not a way to teach reading by any means, but as Kim said, it gets real books into kids' hands. It has given hesitant teachers "permission" to allow a big chunk of time for just fun reading. I used to think it was a great program, and am still grateful for the time it gives us for library use. Though my readings and experience, I know it doesn't "teach" anything, but my plan is to incorporate my reading workshop into that time so that my students have the opportunity to find books they like for independent reading time. We are going to be doing a book talk this fall with all of our teachers using MOT1. Hopefully all of us will learn how to work with our students teaching them the strategies. Cheryle/Hobbs, NM ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. _______________________________________________ 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.
