> You know what Bev? In my schooling,WAAAY before accountability and NCLB, I > can remember being asked to sit on the rug with phonics charts and chanting > the sounds in isolation with my classmates. I can also remember my very > first spelling tests in first grade and the tears that came when I saw all > the red x's on my first test.( I can STILL remember 39 years later, that I > spelled girl as"gril" and was totally devestated by it!) I can remember the > SRA kits...where we all read from little cards and took the quizzes so we > could go to the purple level...I was one of those over achieving kids that > would work like the devil to get to the higher levels.) None of these > practices are what I would consider to be best practices. I would never teach > that way myself...no thinking at all....BUT, that was my elementary > schooling. Very traditional...yes...even down to the Dick and Jane readers. > I still loved going to school and I loved reading, though the time I spent > with the set of nature encyclopedias my mom gave me and my beloved Laura > Ingalls Wilder books (a new one for each birthday and Christmas) was a very > different kind of reading than what I did at school. >
Jennifer, I laughed reading what you had to say. I, too, think I had my share of sit and stare learning in school. I think I was much like you. I probably owe some of those teachers a big debt though. In fact, I am pretty sure I owe them a great debt because my imaginary life soared and I think I have a pretty decent imagination as a result. I , too, also had those occasional out-of-the-box teachers that might school rock. Thank goodness for them. They taught me how to teach the way I like to teach (along with many on these lists and a few wonderful mentors at my school). You asked about the essentials offered by Ellin? I loved them. It made me think of NCTM's recent release of focus standards for mathematics, except theirs are by grade, too, whereas Ellin's seem to be broader across grades. I wonder though, if that is just the difference between language arts and math. I think it is so important to hone down what we intend to teach if we want to go for depth and learning. :)Bonita _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
