Amy, I am concerned with it not being a balanced literacy program. Sure it teaches many students to decode simple text and offers them success as word callers. What does it offer in means of comprehension or development of metacognitive thinking or fostering a love of reading? My school district offers the use of this program to our special education department. I could not imagine using Reading Mastery school-wide for every child.
Sandy -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Amy McGovern Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 8:25 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Reading Mastery, etcetera Although I am probably only courting more negative comments from a some of you, I'll risk it to say that the stories in Reading Mastery 1 are extremely short. In no way do they compare to the length of the average trade book. The first story that is actually in a story book is only 21 words long (at lesson 91 of 160). It is literally one half page of text in a book that measures about 4X8 inches and it has only one picture. And despite your thoughts that hiding this one picture is some sort of punishment...the kids giggle and see this as a game. The picture gives away the story. If you look at the picture ahead of time, then the climax of the very short story has been ruined. Most stories in RM1 are one to two pages of text and one picture. As I said in my original post, I was only scratching the surface of what makes a lesson in RM1 work. I am on this site to learn and I greatly appreciate the wisdom and intelligence of many of the teachers who participate on this site. There are many ways to teach children to read. If you don't like Direct Instruction and Reading Mastery, that's ok. But know that it works for many, many kids. Just because you don't understand the rationale, don't agree with it or just plain don't like it...That doesn't mean that it isn't good or effective or enriching instruction. It would be nice to see a greater willingness (on this recent thread) to look at Direct Instruction with more of an open mind, to question the rationale as a way to seek understanding, rather then negatively judge it for whatever reason. Respectfully,Amy McGovernEducational Consultant> Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:40:56 -0700> From: [email protected]> To: [email protected]> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Reading Mastery, etcetera> > Renee,> Hiding the pictures wasn't the only thing that made me cringe.> Elisa> > Elisa Waingort> Grade 2 Spanish Bilingual> Dalhousie Elementary> Calgary, Canada> > The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart. > -Helen Keller> > Visit my blog, A Teacher's Ruminations, and post a message.> http://waingortgrade2spanishbilingual.blogspot.com/> > The idea of hiding the pictures makes me cringe. :(> > Renee> > _________________________________________________________________ Windows LiveT HotmailR.more than just e-mail. http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_hm_justgotbetter_howi tworks_012009 _______________________________________________ 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. _______________________________________________ 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.
