> What do you consider to be essential in your literacy instruction?
Essential to me is SSR time, and a well stocked classroom library. I have
made it clear that the 45 minutes following lunch is untenable - no pull outs,
no specials, no interruptions, period. I want my kids reading for 20-30
minutes, conferencing with me, and doing "Book Tell." This is the time when the
kids read, read, read. Then they get to talk about what they read. It is a gift
I give to them, and the time when I get to know them as readers. I can't
imagine teaching without the time to have the intimate conversations we have
about what they're reading, what's good, what's hard, what they do when it gets
hard, how I can support them so they can understand. (A few of my students read
while listening to recordings of the text, this seems to help them)
Occasionally I do assessments during this time. I still do some running records
followed by retells, and I just got Ellin's Assessing Comprehension Thinking
Strategies, but I'm struggling with how to use it to help me more
than what I already do. (Maybe this would be helpful for teachers who are just
beginning???)
> What can you start to let go of in order to focus on what's essential?
I'm not sure there is anything I'm letting go of, I make sure this happens,
and always will. If a time came when we couldn't do SSR right after lunch, I
would rearrange my schedule so we could do it at another time. If I couldn't
have a classroom library, I'd have to bring all my books home and feed them to
the kids as best as I could.
> What will we focus on in the midst of outside pressures?
This is hard for me, because I am very tenderhearted; negative things other
people say affect me adversely. Our school had a rough patch about 2 years ago,
and parent confidence was at an all time low. I had parents second guessing
everything I did. Some parents wanted more traditional teaching using basals,
some parents didn't know what they wanted, they just didn't understand what I
was doing, or how it was helping their child,and they wanted something
different.
I stood firm, explaining carefully and in great detail what I was doing and
why. I invited them to visit my class, and they did! They got to see that I did
do phonics instruction, just not in a way they were used to. We made word play
a part of every day, exploring patterns and sounds. Then we got down to the
nitty gritty with read alouds and think alouds. I used examples from Mosaic of
Thought, and many of the lessons on the MOT listserve website. Every week in my
class newsletter I wrote articles with tips for how to help their child improve
their reading at home.
It was an uphill battle, and those who stuck it out with me saw amazing gains
on their Iowa test scores. (I know, test scores aren't what matters, not what's
essential, but to the parents at my school it is the be-all, end-all gauge of
good reading instruction) We give the Iowa in the beginning of October, so the
scores they got in third grade reflected what I did in second grade and there
was a gigantic increase in every child's score, even the kids receiving special
services. so that's what opened the eyes at my school and got people
considering my "offbeat" ways as more acceptable.
You would think that people sending their children to a progressive school
would expect the things we talk about here as commonplace, but that's not what
we see. We see parents that don't like something about the traditional public
school, they're not sure what they want. Then they get to our school and get
upset because we aren't doing worksheets or reading from a basal. (I even went
out and bought a set of used basals to mollify the parents. I used them in
class, but for read aloud's and strategy instruction.)
I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, I'm reading chapter 2 right
now, and have to admit it's got me thinking. In fact, I'm thinking so much I
had to stop for a while and let it sink in. Could you repost the schedule? I'd
like to spend as much time as possible here. This has wide implications for how
we continue to educate our children.
The question that is rolling in my head is:
How can we make experiencing their own intellect more habitual for students?
I have no answers, just blood, sweat, tears, and an immense dose of hope.
Joy/NC/4
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and content go
hand in hand. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org
---------------------------------
No Cost - Get a month of Blockbuster Total Access now. Sweet deal for Yahoo!
users and friends.
_______________________________________________
Understand mailing list
[email protected]
http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
