Essential in literacy instruction? When I taught middle school, I thought the following was essential: Time for students to choose books to read independently Time for mini lessons that modeled what readers do to comprehend. My colleague and I developed several strategies that, interestingly, were very similar to the strategies mentioned in MOT. Time for students to reflect and write about their reading. This school district had many struggling readers; at least half of the students did not read at grade level as measured by our standardized test. So it wasn't too difficult to find strategies and skills for students to practice. Now, however, I am in a school district that has the opposite population--80% of students meet and/or exceed on our state test.
LANGUAGE ARTS CONTENT SPECIALIST I have the above title. Given our population (from above) , it has been extremely difficult to move teachers to adopt a more rigorous stance for reading instruction. At the beginning of the year, we used the example from the new Mosaic of Thought, The Three Questions. Our curriculum essentials include the strategies from MOT, yet teachers were very surprised at the level of thinking that was presented in this lesson. It is frustrating to know what needs to happen, yet I really can't do anything about it. I have suggested staff development until I am blue in the face, but there is no time!!! It's important to me that teaches read about strategy instruction, then TRY IT, then come back to debrief. That's the best way to foster change. My point is that what was essential for mini lessons in one district would not make it in the second district. I agree with Jennifer in that there is no scripted program that can replace a knowledgeable teacher. However, programs do have their place. If a middle school student is struggling with fluency, use something that has worked. Teachers need the appropriate tools at their hands to help readers move forward. They don't have the time to search on their own for what is the best intervention for each different reading problem. However, the teachers need to take responsibility to know what is available, what is research based, and take the time to reflect on their practice. I know that happens with those in this group, but, unfortunately, not all teachers do that. WHAT DID I LET GO OF? Worksheets. Frequency of written responses. I am embarrassed to say that when I first began reading workshop, I asked my middle schoolers to respond 10 times!! Yes, 10 times. At their end of year survey, they said I had them do too much writing. So, over the summer, I read some adolescent lit and tried to respond 10 times. Didn't work. So, then I honed it down to five written responses. Same response--too much writing. By the time I left that school, students were responding three times. I got the same quality, probably better because the students had more "meat" to respond to. I gave up all end of book projects unless it could be done within one period. WHAT WOULD I ADD IF STILL IN THE CLASSROOM? More time to talk OUTSIDE PRESSURES Our Illinois state standards have become very specific, and, actually very helpful, to focusing on strategies. Two years the Illinois Board published the Illinois Assessment Framework for reading. It helped teachers in my current district to focus on what is essential--all the reading strategies are there. Maybe not in exactly in the same language, but they are there. I refer teachers to that framework when teachers ask me what to teach. Also, our district worked on identifying essential benchmarks. Those come from the above framework and are grade specific. Those are the skills that students are tested on. Since they all come from the Reading framework, I am confident that students will continue to do well on our state test. Since we only have about 10 essential benchmarks per grade, teachers need to be aware of what else is important. After the essential benchmarks are taught (actually taught throughout the year), teachers teach "what's important." That is identified by what else is on the reading framework. If there is additional time, they can teach those lessons that just don't fit in in the above two. Now, this is still a work in progress. In fact, we are having grade level representatives meet to help make the curriculum more consistent across buildings. We seem to have everything in place, but some teachers still feel they can ignore the benchmarks and continue to do what they've done in the past. We are getting criticized by both parents and our board, so we need to do something. However, we are still lucky in that we can continue to not use a basal as long as we can demonstrate that students are making progress. Carol On Mar 30, 2008, at 11:29 PM, Joy wrote: >> 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 _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
