I don't know that I ever had to deal with a parent or a child who challenged gradual release of control or differentiation. I was very up front with families about it being my job to meet the varying needs of the kids, fair isn't equal, yadda-yadda-yadda. And it seemed to work.
In terms of reading, I met more frequently with children of higher needs. I do know other teachers who met with problems related to this--why isn't my son in a guided reading group every day? But I never did--though I had to explain it to my principal. Once she realized that a workshop setting was just what allowed me to challenge and monitor kids working with more independence, and shore up those who needed me more, that was a non-issue. I worked with younger, Joy, but I used partnered reading to address strategy instruction and it was very appropriate to say (because it was true), " The books we will be working with today are going to challenge you as a reader. You may find them difficult to read and so I am assigning partners today. Sometimes you get to pick a partner, but there are times when it is my job to decide. This is a day for me to decide. Not only is reading the words going challenge you, but the thinking is going to stretch you. I don't know about you, but when a job is challenging, I like to work with a partner. I decided on the partners because I know that some people will need help with the words and some people might need help with the thinking. It is up to you to decide how to share these jobs, but make sure both partners are ...(strategy)." This sort of notion that two heads were better than one was just status quo for me in my teaching, maybe the kids just read it that way. I can't tell you how many times the able reader was supported in his/her thinking by the less 'able' reader. In terms of the actual reading, I saw lots of things happening--buddy reading, one reader-one listener, choral reading, one child readiing entire page, and the second child rereading and I never told them how to go about this. Being very excited about the strategy instruction was largely the key, I think. They didn't see the primary task of reading as saying the words, so it didn't seem to be an issue. Of course there plenty of opportunities for independent reading, guided reading/book club/strategy groups and individual conferences. I tried to make it clear that in becoming stronger and stronger readers, we had two responsibilities--one was to read and think about challenging ideas and the other was to do lots of just right reading. Lori On 7/7/07 11:51 AM, "Joy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'd like to talk about gradual release of responsibility. How do you do it? > How do you accomodate various levels of readiness without offending the > sensibilities of your students (i.e. Why doesn't "Billly" have to do this?) > How do you communicate with parents about this when your criterea changes? Any > other ideas? > > > Joy/NC/4 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and content > go hand in hand. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org > > > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------- > Get the free Yahoo! toolbar and rest assured with the added security of > spyware protection. > _______________________________________________ > 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. > -- Lori Jackson District Literacy Coach & Mentor Todd County School District Box 87 Mission SD 57555 http:www.tcsdk12.org ph. 605.856.2211 Literacies for All Summer Institute "Literate Lives: A Human Right" July 12-15, 2007 Louisville, Kentucky http://www.ncte.org/profdev/conv/wlu _______________________________________________ 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.
