Elisa... What's not to like??? It's Debbie Miller! :-) Actually, one of the statements near the beginning of the book really got me thinking. She wrote about how important it is for each of us to really think about what is important for us in reading instruction...consider what it is we believe. She encourages each of us to really think about those things and commit it to paper. And then, when you are planning, teaching, and reflecting upon your teaching, you run everything through that lens. It makes your teaching so much more focused and deliberate... (thus the title Teaching with Intention.) Debbie actually writes that it isn't as important to believe certain things but to have carefully thought through those beliefs to begin with. So, in my journal I am writing and rewriting my belief statements about reading. I have been working on this off and on since Christmas when I got Teaching with Intention and read it. Some of my struggles as I try to come up with my five top beliefs about reading and reading instruction actually leak out here in my Mosaic posts from time to time as I try to reconcile my beliefs with what I am actually doing and with each other. An example...I wrote that I believed that a constructivist approach to reading was important to develop readers who are engaged and interested. This is tough to reconcile with another belief...that every child learns differently and that we as teachers are responsible for helping each child find the right path to learning. This internal intellectual struggle makes it hard for me to develop a strong opinion on scripted intervention programs. This was a harder task for me than I thought it would be. What is it you all believe about reading? I would love to hear other people's top five and maybe that will help me wordsmith mine. As long as we all realize that when we are sharing these belief systems we are sharing our core values. We are all very deeply emotional about those things we value so we need to be aware of that as we respond to each other. Jennifer In a message dated 2/13/2009 8:18:08 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
Hi Jennifer, That's one of the next books on my growing pile of books to read. What did you like about it? Elisa **************The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. AOL Music takes you there. (http://music.aol.com/grammys?ncid=emlcntusmusi00000004) _______________________________________________ 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.
