I agree with you, but we had pretty extensive support for them. It was really some teachers, both effective and not so effective, who were allowed to do whatever they wanted, regardless of expectations that really did us in. I had worked for 7 years to get a uniform balanced literacy program, and we were pretty close.
That's sad too. Carol ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sarah Storkson" <[email protected]> To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 10:12:20 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] RTI - Any info on AIMS Web? Some teachers are not able to make decisions about what is effective though. That is where they are better off being forced to use the basal than to go off on their own and do things that are showing no progress in their students. Sad, but true! On Feb 11, 2010, at 8:58 AM, [email protected] wrote: > You are fortunate that you had administrators that were willing to allow you > to do this. I was forced out of my la content specialist position because the > new superintendent brought in a curriculum coordinator. He claimed she knew a > lot about literacy. (I was given the choice of teaching 6th grade or > retiring. Since this would have been my last year, I retired.) > I now learn that teachers are being forced to use the basal with fidelity. > They are not allowed to use any of the lessons from the comprehension > toolkit, no writing lessons outside of the very poor basal instruction. They > have no time for reading workshop, literature circles or writing workshop! > All practices that were embraced by most teachers. Understandably, the > teachers are upset. I don't know how many are closing their doors and doing > what they know best, either. > I'd like to think that the assessments will prove how wrong this instruction > is, but in 2 of the 4 schools, the students come to school with such great > backgrounds that they will probably progress. Unfortunately, the better > teachers know that those children would have done better with a combination > of basal instruction and reading workshop. > How sad! > Carol > ----- Original Message ----- > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 7:20:49 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central > Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] RTI - Any info on AIMS Web? > > I love reading this discussion of Aimsweb! I was so frustrated when > our district used this program last year. It goes against EVERY single > thing I know about reading instruction and reading assessment. > Remember: "What gets measured, gets done!" I knew I did not want > teaching for fast reading to get "done" in our district. I even > emailed Tim Rasinski last year and got a great response about how he > felt these 1 minute assessments were a travesty! > > We (reading specialists) decided to write our own progress monitoring > assessments that actually assess real reading: ALL aspects of fluency, > accuraccy, comprehension (literal and inferential). We bought rigby > texts and have created over 150 tests from levels 3-34. I don't think > we knew what we were getting ourselves into when we started (over 800 > pages of assessments!), and I'm not sure we would do it again. Now > that it is done though, we are happy we did! We feel we actually get > useful information this year. Yes, it does take longer to administer > (although we don't do them every week), but as the IRA says, we > shouldn't sacrifice quality for efficiency. > > I say that anyone who is really unhappy with what they are using should > keep speaking up and searching for something that makes sense! > > Tricia Burke > Reading Specialist > > > _______________________________________________ > 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. > > > -- > SECURITY REMINDER: > DO NOT give your e-mail login and password to anyone. EduTech will NEVER ask > you to provide this information. If this message is asking for personal > information, it did not come from EduTech. - Vaccine2 > _______________________________________________ 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.
