>Within your post, what I see is a basic question: "Why throw out the baby with the bathwater?"<
Then again, how do you know what works? That's a question that has appeared on this listserve over and over again. If the students all pass the test, does it mean they learned the content? If a student reads aloud perfectly, does that mean he or she comprehends what they are reading? It's a question of what goals you have for your teaching.... Do you want your students to be better readers? Pass the state test? Is your goal the ability to use a dictionary? Or is it to learn new words? I don't remember much of my spelling tests from school other than the fact that I could pass the tests easily....not because I learned the words from the lessons, but because I already knew them from reading them in books. My most memorable lessons as a student were the ones where the teacher unlocked my mind and showed me how to look at deeper meanings of literature, how to make connections between items, and - most importantly - showed me how to think. Set yoiur purpose first for teaching a lesson, then figure out how to achieve it. That's the key to teaching. Don't just teach a lesson because it's in the book or because it's fun. Don't follow the book chapter by chapter. Figure out the needs of your kids, then decide your desired outcome. If the kids don't learn it, figure out other ways to get the lesson across. Bottom line, if a lesson isn't going to help you or your kids, why do it? Bill _______________________________________________ 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.
