Joy, While I do understand your feelings, I must say I'd rather have the AR police at my door than HM police, or the OC police, or the Reading First police. In my experience with it, AR does expect the kids to read for long uninterrupted periods of time, with books (supposedly) at their level, with books they CHOOSE, has stupid little quizzes that mirror the STAR tests we give at the end of the year. It gets real books into kids' hands where perhaps there would be none allowed.
There is still a great deal of good teaching you can do with it. You can, in fact, conference on those books, put together book studies, test on class read alouds, use partner reading with those books, do extensive responding or writing about the books that can incorporate deeper thinking. Books can be started and abandoned. If a book isn't exactly the best of books the kids can learn to think critically and discuss why that book was bad... It IS settling for something less than the ideal, granted, but I can think of SO many better reasons to throw up my hands a quit. Kim On 9/3/07, Joy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The folks I feel for are those trapped in a school/system where they are > forced to use it. So what to do in that instance? I've said that I'd leave. > Not always the easiest thing to do. So, in the meantime, the mortgage has to > be paid, families have to eat. What do you do until you can find another > position, or what do you do if you are in the "perfect" position, other than > being stuck with AR? > > This is where knowing your administration and their limits comes in > handy. I'm not suggesting that anyone be insubbordinate, but you have to > know your work environment. Do you have a good open relationship with your > administrator? How much fidelity do you have to show to the program? How > closely are your grades going to be scrutinized? (At my old school AR > results were viewable by the principal as were our computerized gradebooks.) > > Are you able to close the door and teach, or are the AR nazis going to > be at your door? Will you have to train your kids to pull out AR books > everytime someone comes to the door? Can you do Lit Circles and have > everyone take the test on that book? Can your students keep reading response > journals? > > Granted, this makes your job a bit more challenging, but if you're like > me, you'll want to do what's best for your students. If that means double > dipping, then that's what I'd do. > > > > > 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 > > > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------- > Got a little couch potato? > Check out fun summer activities for kids. > _______________________________________________ > 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. > > -- Kim ------- Kimberlee Hannan Department Chair Sequoia Middle School Fresno, California 93702 The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book. ~Author Unknown [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.
