Yes to what you say below. I'm thinking that if the text is easy or not even a little bit challenging then there is no room to practice any strategies or rather the strategies you use are automatic. You don't need to stop and think about how to solve a reading problem. And this miht make it difficult to be metacognitive. On the other hand, if the text is too hard you might not even know where to start. So, I'm thinking that a possible solution would be to make sure that kids, at all stages in their reading development, have books that they can read but that still make them think because the issues presented are complex or make one pause to consider alternate viewpoints, etc. Maybe this is what Ellin is talking about? I haven't read this section so I may be simplifying things but it seems to me that we may be talking degrees here. What does everyone else think? Elisa Elisa Waingort Grade 2 Spanish Bilingual Dalhousie Elementary Calgary, Canada
Wow, this leveling thing really has been a struggle for me, too. When I first began teaching reading workshop, I, too, felt that students needed to be in independent text. That's what I thought was recommended in professional texts I read. Also, my students were struggling readers and middle school students. Truthfully, I was more concerned that they READ. I didn't really check through oral reading whether or not the text was easy enough. During conferences, we worked on comprehension. If students appeared to understand, then they continued the book. Now I am in a district with students who achieve above average. I heard Ellin last year talk about the necessity for students to practice strategies on challenging text. That makes a lot of sense to me, but I also think we need to think about the needs of the readers. Students who already are readers could certainly benefit from reading challenging text. Our parents complain that their children aren't being challenged in school. One way to do that is present them with challenging text where they do need to use strategies. For children who struggle, I want them to read. So, it becomes a balance between finding them text they WANT to read and text they CAN read. If the text is too difficult, they won't comprehend. But, sometimes, the motivation to read outweighs the need to have a book they can read. I remember a girl who was identified as a resource student. We combined the classes for a literature circle study. She choose the most difficult by Cynthia Voight called Izzy Willy Nilly. It was a very thick book and one that I thought she wouldn't be able to read. I checked in with her after the first week, but she wanted to continue reading it with her group. She did finish it with all the others. She beamed that she finished such a large book. She did get some meaning from it, but she gained confidence in her reading ability. Leveling has always made me leery. I think we need to look at the child, their needs, their motivation; then make decisions on how to best match them to text they will want to read. Because don't we want children to read, read and read? Carol La Grange, Il On Jun 21, 2008, at 4:00 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
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