After teaching 4th and 5th grade for 12 years, I am now working as an assistant
in a Montessori classroom with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders. The teacher has let
me be in charge of reading with the 1st and 2nd graders. There is 1 block of
time scheduled per week, generally 45-60 minutes. (I know! I know! This
should be happening daily! It's killing me.) The teacher said she wanted kids
to be able to identify characters and retell the plot, so I spent a couple of
weeks having kids pay attention to information about characters (hard for them)
and a few weeks having kids practice retelling the stories they've read. From
there I moved into having students use sticky notes to mark spots in the
book--we talked about different reasons we might want to mark a spot (it's
confusing, it's funny, it's special in some way, you like imagining this part
of the story, ...I told students a few and then helped them add to the list).
I could use suggestions of where I should go with the students. I do have
Comprehension Connections and could go through those activities. I'm just not
sure how to prioritize what is most important for me to do when the time for
reading instruction is so limited and students' abilities are so varied
(struggling to sound out cvc words all the way to reading chapter books like
the Rainbow Fairies and Fantastic Mr. Fox). I guess I do know that I want to
prioritize teaching kids that reading is thinking--but beyond that...
I've also been told that because this is a Montessori classroom I'm not
supposed to require them to do anything--so if they really don't want to read
they don't need to. I haven't done anything with reading partners, since that
seems more directive than the lead teacher wants me to be. I've been just
saying things like, "You could talk about your book with a friend." Any
suggestions on this? It's hard for me not to be placing kids in partnerships,
but I also don't want to overstep my role or be "non-Montessori".
Thanks for sharing ideas!
Natasha
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