I think I'd go even a little further and say that nearly ALL instructional decisions that are made--literally thousands a day--are our attempt to balance. To know which things aren't mutually exclusive--and which ones are. To know how much of this, how much of that, which application when, etc. Skillful teaching is, and I believe should be, a constant happy struggle.
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:44:38 -0400> To: > [email protected]> Subject: Re: [Understand] Getting the juices > flowing...> > > I have struggled with this for years. Maybe, we need to > consider what the > purpose is for our lesson(s). If we are working on > fluency, decoding skills we > need easy books. But couldn't we be modeling > the struggle through read alouds > when teaching comprehension???> > Then...there are books which are very simply written which require > > inferential thinking---a struggle---to comprehend. An example might be "the > Giving > Tree" or "Grandfather Twilight." Many poems would also seem to work > for this > purpose...decodable words but deeper meanings when read and > reread...> Perhaps it is all about balance...giving kids LOTS of easy reading > to > develop proficiency AND opportunities to stretch their minds. > > Jennifer> > In a message dated 3/16/2008 2:56:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:> > just heard Dick Allington at Michigan Reading > Association on Saturday,> March 15. It was very interesting. He spoke of the > misunderstanding that> kids have to struggle with text to understand, but > adults won't. The> example he gave was this. If we have a typical adult text > with 300 words> per page. Thinking it is an independent level of 99 percent, > the reader> would not know 3 words a page. Most adults would not read the > book. Adults> expect to know 99.99999999999999999 percent of the words. So > why do we as> teachers think it is ok to give kids books at an instructional > level of 97> percent let alone 99 percent? We need to be very careful with > our teaching> decisions. He had a ton more for us to think about> > > > > > > > **************It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms, and advice on AOL Money & > > Finance. (http://money.aol.com/tax?NCID=aolprf00030000000001)> > _______________________________________________> Understand mailing list> > [email protected]> > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org _________________________________________________________________ Shed those extra pounds with MSN and The Biggest Loser! http://biggestloser.msn.com/ _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
