Judy, I long for the school of your dreams. I taught in one very much like that when I first embraced workshop. I was soooo happy and? - bonus- most of our kids passed the test!!
Jennifer's ideas about collaboration are right on. I offer to do lessons in our school, and the teachers who take me up on it are those that I have found are lurking - they are the intellectuals, but they need to find each other...and me. Although I spend far too much time now doing groups, when I do get into classrooms, it is great. One of things that has helped me..and Jennifer alluded to this... is that I often try out something new, and ask the teachers for advice before I do it. For example , today a first grade teacher asked me to do a poetry lesson for National Poetry Month. I agreed, of course, but gave her some choices, asking which she thought her kids were ready for. I don't pretend to be an expert, I ask for help, and I am honest when lessons don't go well. It makes me an equal, even though I am not a classroom teacher. Cathy -----Original Message----- From: Judy Mazur <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Special Chat List for "To Understand: New Horizons in ReadingComprehension" <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:40 pm Subject: Re: [Understand] intellectual role models-was- backing up toChapter 1 Jennifer, thank for this long and thoughtful response, and thanks to Cathy and Nancy and Beverlee for helping me remember that we don't just model for our kiddos. First off, I like the people I work with--I hope I didn't sound disparaging. It's just that for years I've been touting MOT (and have even done some training) and they love what they see in my room-they love the IDEA--but there's not much transfer (to their rooms). History: my little district really invested several years in MOT--Ellin Keene even spoke to us for a morning and quite a few teachers were sent to Colorado for training. But then, alas, along came the politician's "program" and only a few of us held onto MOT (at times with the tips of our fingernails). Now the "program" is waning and I'm desperately trying to remind my colleagues of the wondrous thinking that comes from real reading. I think I need to take Jennifer's marvelous advice and work within our collaborative model. I need to think of some ways to make it easier for others to buy in. In my dreams I work in a school where every classroom works on comprehension strategies during reading before moving onto a true writer's workshop. Ahhhhh. Never say die, Judy _______________________________________________ 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
