I am in the same boat. I struggle with this a lot! I do see advantages of children experiencing some books over and over again. Especially when one teacher might use the book to do an author study and another teacher uses it outside of the author study to practice visualizing. This, I believe is very beneficial. However, some books simply cannot be used over and over again. For example, after hearing about it here, I began using Baloney when introducing Context Clues. This would not work if the students had read the book before, because they would already know what the words meant. There is also a book called "What's Going On In There" that I use to practice Making Predictions. It is hard to make a prediction if you already know what's going on. It is these books that I tend to get possessive over and put my foot down and say that I will be using them and that other grade levels need to find another text to use. All others, I let it slide off my back. If the students roll their eyes and groan, "We read this last year," I say, "Great! Now you'll read it again!" I keep on going! The students do actually grasp onto strategies/skills quicker if they're using a text they've seen before.
If you come up with any magical solution, let me know! Angela [email protected] writes: >Hi everyone! > >I need your thoughtful advice and guidance. I have been teaching with = >the mosaic strategies for 4 years now and love it. It was hard at first = >because I was the only one using the reader's workshop format and the = >strategies (ala Debbie Miller) and I had no support. Thank goodness for = >all of you. Many times I just lurk, but even then I've received so much = >support and confidence by just reading your posts. I think we have some = >teachers coming around to this way of teaching and it excites me but I = >also have reservations about how to approach them with the idea of not = >using each others mentor texts. How do you set this up in your schools? = > Are there certain books that have been "assigned" (for lack of a better = >word) to each grade level for modeling strategies so the same books = >aren't used over and over again for the same lesson? This is hard for = >me to explain without feeling very possessive and I hope it doesn't come = >across that way. I am very willing to give up titles that I use for our = >first grade teachers to use instead and there are thousands of books to = >use. (I teach 2nd by the way) This is the very selfish part that makes = >me a little ashamed...there are a few books I use that I definitely = >don't want to give up. I have spent a lot of time looking for the exact = >right books and spent a lot of money in the process. Some are from = >Reading With Meaning and some are from other websites, this listserv, = >and other professional books I've read. I'm feeling very protective of = >what I have, but again, am willing to give up some titles. I am also = >very willing to help these teachers who want to start using the = >strategies because I think it is so powerful. What is the best way to = >approach this and what do your schools do? Maybe I'm fretting over = >nothing and being too possessive of what I've created in my = >classroom...I hope I don't sound as selfish as I feel! I'd really like = >to sleep tonight so any thoughts? Angela Hatley Almond Fourth Grade East Albemarle Elementary School _______________________________________________ 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.
