I guess I don't know enough about how this idea got started, and how it's been used in some schools so far. Maybe I haven't read the posts in this strand carefully enough. There is something about the idea that makes me uncomfortable, but I don't want to be critical without knowing more.
I think part of it is that some schools around us are jumping on board with the idea, and I suspect it is because of their experiences with an organization called Focus on Results. I am hopeful that the ideas on the list-serve aren't around every classroom teaching the same reading strategy using the same book every month, because that is the impression I get about the idea as I am starting to hear about it in district schools. That sounds like teaching a strategy just for the sake of it, and not in regards to what individual students, and groups of students really need right then to continue developing along the continuum as readers. I hope teachers are not giving up their "real" read aloud time to read the community book. That would be certainly be a mistake. But, either way it seems like this is an idea that takes more effort than it is really worth. We have used a picture book that the principal bought each teacher a couple times to kick off the year, like Ish, by Peter Reynolds, but we haven't considered replicating a community read every month, year after year. Even though there are lots of books in the world, I suspect this would quickly become too contrived for my comfort level. I am happy creating our own classroom community over the two years I have with children. We read a lot of books together that make sense for us. john _______________________________________________________ Sent through e-mol. E-mail, Anywhere, Anytime. http://www.e-mol.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.
