-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 11:00 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Mosaic Digest, Vol 21, Issue 6
Send Mosaic mailing list submissions to
[email protected]
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
You can reach the person managing the list at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Mosaic digest..."
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 16:52:01 EDT
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Your reading and writing practices and learning
experiences
To: [email protected]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Susan,
You sound like you are doing an amazing job! Your classroom must be an
inspiring place for these kids. What grade do you teach? Without
modeling,
everything falls flat...right?
Leslie
In a message dated 5/4/2008 10:24:09 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Reading and writing are social acts they require our students to have times
of coming together with their peers and pulling away to independent
reading
and writing. This year I feel like I have put together a symphony of
readers and writers in my 6th grade class. I take my cues from leaders in
the field: Reggie Routman, Calkins and the volumes of her work, Stehanie
Harvey and Anne Goutvas, Carl Anderson, Cris Tovani, Ralph Fletcher, Ellin
Keene , Katie Wood Ray, certainly Best Practice, and folks that are in the
trenches with kids. I look for people who can write from the first hand
experience of working with the kids. Then I take the cues from the
students.
I model, model model, all year long then employ the gradual release model.
In reading I have what I call "Book Clubs" and in writing "Writer's
Workshop". Just labels but the content of what transpires in them is what
is
so important.I monitor and filter in strategies etc. The literary debates
that take place in their book clubs are awesome! When kids engage with
emotion and debate on what motivated a character or clear up
misunderstandings and in some cases decide, *ok we see this differently and
that is just fine.* When students look at a piece of mentor text and
think
ohhh I want to write like that or they come up to you while reading
independently and say *you have to listen to how this author wrote to show
how bad a situation was or how they paint the picture of the setting where
I
feel I am right there or I tried to do what Spinnelli did in Eggs listen to
what I wrote etc.* It isn't textbooks that create this atmosphere it is
authentic literature and writing about their lives. If I had to teach from
a basal series you may as well put me behind a depart store counter selling
perfume! My work is hard, my work is rewarding, my work changes lives and
sparks readers and writers to go to new levels of understanding.
Hope this helps!
Susan
> I have been reading the list serve for months now but do not really get
how to respond. Hope I did this right... Interesting about Best Practices.
We are told we may not have any in-service time spent on anything that does
not have research based stats to back it up. I teach in Iowa and I do not
know if this is tied to NCLB or the Iowa "rules" Also find the talk of some
programs being too prescriptive interesting. Some of us read Mosaic years
ago and started doing our own thing while still following the standards and
benchmarks of the school. Any new training we have had in teaching of
reading strategies has been from us getting together and reading great books
about teaching reading and doing what we think is best. We have had a bit
of structured vocab. instruction and last year were given Guided Reading and
Writers to read on our own, but no real training. We also have used
Strategies that Work both versions and the new Mosaic. Too bad there is not
a happy medium, where we get the training we need to really help kids be
readers who think and such scripted reading. Any other book suggestions
would be great. I teach third grade and we work as a third/fourth team.
> On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 9:26 PM, Renee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Best Practices:
> >
> > - doing what children need, not what a program says.
> > - keeping meaning/comprehension at the forefront
> > - reading to and with children
> > - integrating writing with reading
> > - considering alternate forms of literacy (critical literacy,
> > mathematical literacy, visual literacy)
> > - allowing children's needs and interests to influence instruction
> > - knowing why you are doing what you are doing at all times
> >
> > Those are just off the top of my head.
> >
> > I don't worry whether or not something is "supported by research"
> > because I have little regard for most education research
> > statistics/generalizations unless I know what the design of the
> > research looked like in the first place. :-)
> >
> > Renee
> >
*************************************
_______________________________________________
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.
