Renee - I think our profession is in kind of a mood, and justifiably so. It's as though we've all taken leave of our senses -- well, I mean the decision-makers, I guess, not us. But when you see things like SRA's corrective reading try to teach vocabulary words such as amblng in "call and response" format to ELL kids, it causes you to bid leave of your senses, so you can stand it! Nice quote at bottom. Some of our current-day decision-makers must think there isn't anything in our kids for them to discover! How wrong they are.
Frankly, I don't think we need "research" to back up everything we say and I'm tired of having my own classroom observations and experience tossed aside because some obscure "research".... especially that research which is done by the company which wants to sell its product..... says that "this" is the "best" way to do something. In the case of fluency, the problem as I see it is that for some people.... and that includes many administrators and curriculum directors overseeing assessment committees ..... fluency comes down to speed. We can talk and talk and talk on this listserv about how fluency includes "prosidy" or whatever you want to call it, but for those looking at numbers, it often comes down simply to speed. More words per minute with no mistakes = higher fluency level. I'm not buying it. As a member of a district assessment committee a few years ago, when we were deciding on what would constitute proficiency for a variety of things, I remember having to argue and argue and argue.... unfortunately to no avail.... to look at more than number of words per minute in assessing fluency. Renee (who's in kind of a mood) "You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself." ~ Galileo _______________________________________________ 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. _________________________________________________________________ http://liveearth.msn.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.
