ASSIGNMENT FOUR: WRITTEN REFLECTION-Section Two- Teaching Essentials Chapters 4-6
Read
Writing Essentials, Chapters 4-6 and briefly reflect on the following
thoughts written below and any additional comments that you have after
reading these chapters. Post your reflection to the course blog.
Chapter 4: Raise Your Expectations
• Why we need to raise expectations – ESPECIALLY for our minority and lower socio-economic students
• How to raise expectations in your classrooms as well as in your grade level and throughout your entire building
• What about handwriting, spelling and editing expectations?
• How to use the Optimal Learning Model to support your students’ needs
“Raising
expectations” for our students is a big push in all of our districts.
Under “No Child Left Behind” many schools have been identified as “in
need of improvement” and have been working furiously yet unsuccessfully
for over ten years to “close the gap” for our minority children. But
more important than improving performance on high stakes tests is
remembering that if we raise our expectations and teach explicitly, then
our students will rise to the occasion and astonish us with the high
quality work that each of them is capable of.
Regie
has some great insight into the need to raise expectations of our
students and feeling comfortable and confident with the decision to set
high standards for all learners. She raises the question, What are our
clearly articulated, rigorous yet reasonable expectations? This is a
question that we should reflect on as individual teachers, and one that
should be the starting point for a conversation within our grade levels,
buildings and across entire districts.
We’d
like to know what you think of one of our favorite quotes from the
book: “Worksheets aren’t good enough. The students who can do them don’t
need them, and the ones who struggle with them feel defeated by the red
marks, which only reinforce their feelings of inadequacy. WORKSHEETS
FOSTER MEDIOCRITY!” (We personally wanted to shout out when we read
that!) Please include your thoughts in your Section Two Reaction.
In
this chapter, Regie also sheds some light on several topics that
teachers often ask about. “What about handwriting expectations?” and
“Conventions, Editing and Publishing?” It’s always helpful to get
another professional’s point of view on these pressing issues! Enjoy the
chapter!
Chapter 5: Do More Shared Writing• Where does Shared Writing fit within the Optimal Learning Model?
• For which learners is Shared Writing appropriate?
• How can we link Shared Writing with Shared Reading?
• How can Shared Writing be used to support word work?
• What are some “Tried and True” ideas for Shared Writing?
Regie's
idea of Shared Writing is very different than that of many other
professionals in the field. So often we use Shared Writing only with the
primary grades. As Regie states, “What a great way to teach and engage
all students in all aspects of oral and written language.” If we are to
consider teaching through all phases of the Optimal Learning Model, we
can begin to see how important Shared Writing is for our students. We
think that the idea of using Shared Writing in both upper elementary and
the middle schools is a new way of thinking for many of us.
One
of the reasons Regie encourages teachers to use chart paper and an
easel, instead of projecting to a screen with an overhead or document
camera, is that the children are seated right with you on the floor,
which usually holds the children’s attention a little better. Another
idea that has worked great for me is to move the overhead machine to the
group area and place it on the floor in the middle of the group in
front of the easel. I then project the machine onto the white space of
the easel. It’s great because you’re able to be right there in the
middle of the group and have the benefit of writing more quickly onto a
transparency rather that chart paper. You’ll need to consider which of
your Shared Writing activities you’ll want students to be rereading
(don’t forget that you can hole punch transparencies and put them in a
binder for future reference) and which you may want posted to your walls
on charts.
Regie’s
list of “Tried and True Ideas for Shared Writing” (page 112) is very
extensive. It would be helpful to take a look at Regie’s list as you
create your curriculum map for the year. Where would some of her
suggestions fit within your science, social studies, math, reading and
writing units across the year?
Chapter 6: Capitalize on the Reading-Writing Connection
• How can we become more effective integrating our reading and writing instruction?
• Are we as efficient as possible with our responses to reading?
• The benefit and necessity to integrate our content area teaching with both reading and writing
• The importance of writing (and reading) more nonfiction
We
know research shows that reading achievement affects writing
achievement and vice-versa, and we also know that it continually gets
harder to fit “it all” into our day. Effectively using reading and
writing connections throughout the day in all areas of language arts,
math, science, social studies, and even specials such as art, music and
library, is our only option.
Regie’s
suggestion of taking a closer look at how we use written response to
reading is a very important one. Careful consideration is needed to
decide if what we’re asking the students to do is “worth their time.”
For example, if the response we’re looking for will “deepen
comprehension, cause the writer to reflect on the content, and/or foster
appreciation for the text” then it’s worth it. We whole-heartedly agree
with her statement that many of the overly structured assignments such
as book reports can alienate our readers! While response journals do
have their benefits for us professionally Regie states, “they also take
up a lot of our time!” It’s a very organized teacher who can effectively
keep up with their responses without feeling overwhelmed and
frustrated. Don’t forget the bottom line – “Be sure that students spend
more time reading than writing about reading!” (Page 126)
We
are so glad that Regie addressed how to effectively teach summary
writing. We know that many teachers have a difficult time
differentiating between a summary and retelling – I (Jackie) was one of
them until several years ago. The snapshots and procedures that Regie
shares on how to teach summarizing are invaluable and should be a
reference that we all refer back to throughout our teaching year.
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Chapter 4: This chapter somewhat frustrated me, in that this book was published in 2005, and yet schools around the country are still conversing about how to raise low expectations and explain away less rigor (for any student); when the research clearly shows that when there is an ethic of excellence culture in classrooms and schools, students will raise to it. Thank you, Regie! (from page 57) “Mediocrity is not an option.” I personally believe that any classroom expectations, be it: behavioral, reading, writing, or art studio expectations, the entire class needs to discuss and agree upon them. From there, using a shared writing experience, document the expectations and finally display the written expectations in the classroom. I also agree with the author that there is often a need to specifically summon students when expectations are not being met. To return to the subject of mediocrity and work sheets, I wholeheartedly agree that they foster mediocrity. There are a plethora of successfully integrated ways, which Routman lists later in the chapter, to get achieve successful results… write, write, write NOT drill, drill, drill.
ReplyDeleteChapter 5: Shared Writing on the Optimal Learning Model (OLM) is full of exceptional benefits. Most importantly, it fosters the beginning of independence as a writer. Students also expand their thinking skills, they are engaged in a community of learners and their ideas are valued within that community. It is of my opinion that shared writing is appropriate for all learners; however, a larger benefit would be the ELL students. This population of our student body benefits from this portion of the OLM by stimulating a broader literary development. Shared writing is a safe context for listening to and sharing ideas. I have heard it said that words have three lives. Words are spoken, heard and written. And shared writing is the perfect venue for ELL students is experience the three lives of words. As I conclude with my few final thoughts on this chapter, and in keeping with the authors primary focus in chapter one of simplifying teaching. I prefer to use chart paper when demonstrating and presenting shared writing, due to the fact that I can flip back to review vs. rewriting the entire concept again. Regie’s list of “tried and true ideas” is thorough and jam-packed with stimulating ways to get students to write, write, write! I have had success with student’s journal writing in science and social studies. I have also used current literature to launch integration with “math-writing”, for example: Measuring Penny; The King’s Chessboard; The Keeping Quilt or the Math Curse. I firmly agree and research has shown that integrated learning is the best!!!
Chapter 6: The integrated curriculum way of teaching provides a meaningful learning experience that develops skills and knowledge, while leading to a more concrete understanding of conceptual relationships across all curricular arena and it is unquestionably more rewarding and FUN for teachers. Cutting across subjects and pulling them together provides children with a vision and experience of interconnectedness and interrelationships of their learning, not a fragmented experience where there is less transfer of learning. A final point of this chapter reading: summary writing, also know as, the art of determining importance is a life skill that will be integrated into future classes, higher education and the work place.
It has been proven time and time again that students will rise to the expectations of the teachers who believe in and teach them. They will also lower their own beliefs in what they can do if they have teachers who do not have high expectations for them. Our underachievers Routman not only holds students to this high standard, she holds us teachers to this high teaching standard. Truthfully, that is part of why I am taking this class. I KNOW that I am not living up to Routman’s high writing-teacher standards. I am not teaching my students the best way I can. I think that I should be using free writes every day in my LA classes to get the students to write more. One statement Routman made that hit me hard was on pg. 65 “If you are reading everything that your students write, they’re not writing enough.” WOW! My students are not writing enough! I need to get them writing more.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed when I see teachers who are not requiring students to edit their own and their colleagues work. I have seen first graders that can and will do it. I have seen kindergarten teachers who have their students use “guess and go” writing but have them underline words that the students themselves think may be misspelled. I still have my 6th graders do this. Routman suggests that it speeds the writing process up and gives the students confidence to actually make the students get their conventions correct as they go. I know that my class would love it if there was less editing and they could “get it right” without laborious editing however, that is not the way my process works and so I feel that there are those that will want to write that way and those who will have their flow interrupted if they feel bogged down with conventions.
I agree with Routman that many writers can write better once they have spoken it. Not only is this better for the ELL student but I believe it is better for every student. I often have students turn to a partner and have a conversation about what they are going to write before they start. I have never had a public conversation with students. I do like the idea of using different level students for this conversation and I will try it out this week.
As teachers I think that we often want to teach so badly that we forget that we have to first gain the students trust before they will learn. Routman talks about doing this when she says to find the good in students writing, before suggesting changes they might make. There is always something good we can comment on. I try to do this even when writing a response to students.
This week I plan on doing some shared writing with my class and on Pg. 128 Routman outlines a Summary lesson that I would like to re-create. I am excited to do a summary lesson. The majority of my students can do a reasonable summary but there are a few that have a very hard time and everyone can do better
“Higher quality work is not necessarily long.” That sentence really brought me back to my days as an elementary student. We were always required to write to a certain length, and I always hated it. It certainly wasn’t my best writing. I just added things until it reached the end of the page requirement. It was thoughtless at times. I agree that we should be doing a high quantity of work, and writing so much that teachers don’t have the time to read all of it, but it should not be thoughtless writing. Another thing that brought me back to what I felt during writing as an elementary student was Regie’s comment about using graphic organizers. I try to get my students to use them, simply because it is a goal in their IEPs, but I hated them as a child. I don’t use them now as I write, and didn’t like them then. I see the value in notes and as Regie said, using sticky notes, but I much prefer stream of consciousness writing. I never understood how I was supposed to tell someone about the beginning, middle, and ending of a story that I hadn’t written yet. It always seemed to me like backwards summarizing of a story that doesn’t yet exist.
ReplyDeleteRaising your expectations... I sometimes feel quite sad about what low expectations are placed on the students in my classroom. I am working in a Lifeskills Classroom, and I have heard people say things such as, “they just need to learn the basics, it’s not like they will be earning a regular diploma.” I think that is so ridiculous. I don’t care what “track” they are on, I have very high expectations for the students that I work with. They are low academically, yes, but with the extra help that they receive in our classroom, and the fact they do most of their work in a small group format, I expect them to be able to achieve great things and maybe even reach grade level or close in most subjects. Having a learning disability or behavioral problem is not a reason for me to not push them to learn to their full potential. After reading section two however, I do realize there are some improvements that I need to be making in my teaching. I need to be doing more demonstrations and shared writing. This is the first year that I’ve worked in the Lifeskills Classroom, and I think I forget that they need more modeling than other students might. The “Tried and True Ideas for Shared Writing,” on page 112 will definitely come in handy for me as I try to reshape what our writing period looks like. I plan to do this a lot more so that the students will have an opportunity to see what I am expecting rather than me just telling them. I also liked Regie’s ideas for building trust with students by asking questions in a positive way, or noticing what they’ve done correctly before pointing out the things they need to fix. I’m really big on publishing perfect pieces of writing, and sharing them with other students in the classroom.
Since I am not the classroom teacher, I do not have the option to totally transform how our class operates. I can only change how my three student writing group operates, but in the future I will aim to have a classroom that integrates writing into other subject areas. I can see how it leads to deeper thinking and understanding, and improves students’ writing skills.
Yes, Penni, Integrated learning is best! There really is no other way to get everything done that we need to without integrating.
ReplyDeleteHi Tonya, I also felt it was an ah-ha when I read that if we are reading everything that our students are writing, then they are not writing enough! Many teachers put tremendous pressure on themselves to read everything that students write and comment on the writing to prove that they did in fact read it. But if you take a step back and look at the way we instruct reading, we give students tons of time to practice reading. We don’t correct or comment on every little error or mistake that they make. In fact when they are doing independent reading we may not know what errors they are making. They are practicing and developing a love of reading. The same should be true of writing, students need lots of time to practice writing. (Now this is not to say we are not conferring and pulling students for groups and aware where they are developmentally. The point is that students have a tremendous amount of time at school (and hopefully at home) to practice reading without red pen corrections or comments for every page they do read.) Teachers can check in with students and ask for them to mark a passage or page in their writing journal or folder that they would like the teacher to read, celebrate, or comment on. This makes it more meaningful for the student and more realistic time wise for the teacher. I think if teachers keep this point in mind then writing will become more enjoyable for students as well as teachers. How did the public conversation and summary lessons go?
Hello Carol,
I agree about the required length of a story. I understand why teachers may do this but as you point out it does not necessarily result in the best writing. I had several conversations with my humanities dept. chair at my last school. Neither of us liked graphic organizers or the old outline for a report with notecards. We just didn’t work that way and both of us filled out our outlines and notecards after we created our report. I believe we should model and show students that there are various graphic organizers but not require them to use them. When I think what I use the most it’s a list format and a web format. Those are really the two organizational methods that I use when I write.
Having the right expectations for our students is incredibly important. I can’t imagine how I would feel with a label placed on me in school that I was never going to amount to much. Student motivation coupled with teacher support can develop into amazing results!
Chapter 4 I think that the key to this chapter is that we not only need to raise our expectations as teachers, but we also need to encourage our students to raise their own expectations of themselves as writers. One of the keys to this is to make sure that kids are writing for a reason and that they have personal investment in their writing. I have had two recent successes in this department recently (yeah!)
ReplyDeleteThe first involves the personal narrative unit that I started (and was rather bogged down with) just before I embarked upon this class. I began asking myself why we were even doing this unit. (other than the fact that it is required by the district.) Usually I have the kids self publish final drafts into little booklets that we keep for the class to read, and while the kids really like these (they don't even seem to mind the recopying the final draft step.) I felt the need to do something different. So I told the kids that this time I was going to publish an anthology (ooh how they love big words.) But I would only publish stories that were "High Quality." So we went to work listing what High Quality Work looked like (It was sadly, a little hard to get beyond neat, proper spelling, capital letters and punctuation. ) But eventually they got the idea and started talking about using interesting words, having a hook to make the reader want to read the story etc.. After reviewing the lengthy list the kids went to work and did some seriously great writing. One boy went back and changed his first sentence to "One spooky night my hamster got me into serious trouble." Now that's a story that just begs to be read! Anyways, by involving the kids in defining what good writing is and by giving them a purpose I found that the kids definitely rose to the occasion.
The other example I have involves handwriting. I was so glad to see Regie address handwriting in this book. I feel with the advent of computers, it is even more important that we stress handwriting in the early grades (I can't tell you how many conferences I've had with my own children's teachers where I have asked them to get on my kid's case about their messy handwriting - might be hereditary I suppose, only to be told not to worry they can use a computer when they get older. Sigh.... On Friday in honor of Dr. Seuss' b-day, I suggested that we decorate the school with Dr. Seuss quotes. I gave the kids paper Dr. Seuss hats and let them choose a quote to write on the hat. Because we were going to be posting these around the school I stressed the handwriting needed to be "perfect." I gave the red fine tip markers to write with (they had the option to write in pencil first.) The combination of the red markers and fact that these were going to be displayed brought out a level of perfectionism I rarely see. The kids kept noticing mistakes and needing new hats. It was all I could do not say "oh that's good enough... just call it good" But I took a deep breath and went and cut out more hats as the kids challenged themselves to do even better.
As for worksheets, I could agree more that they foster mediocrity. I notice it especially on the homework I send home. You can tell it is done just to get it over and done with. There is no real audience and no real reason to do it except that it is assigned.
Chapter 5
ReplyDeleteI realize my last post was a little lengthy, I'll try to be a little more concise this time. I think I mentioned in a previous post that other than poetry, I haven't done much Shared writing with my class. I like the idea of doing shared writing over a period of days. 10 or 15 minutes a day seems like it will keep kids attention much better than a 30 minute stretch. Also I think this models to kids how they can keep working on a story over a period of days
Looking at the Tried and true list I see a number of ideas I'd like to try this year and even more that I'd like to incorporate at the beginning of next year
Some ideas I'd like to try are:
School alphabet book (might do a weather related one actually)
Visitors guide
Poems (I already do this one!)
Research report (as introduction to our animal habitat unit)
Student survival handbook guide for next year's students
How to act on the playground
Thank you letters (we go on a lot of neighborhood walks and have lots of people to thank)
Invitation (A student's mom has offered to teach the class sign language,
I think we'll send her an official invitation
Observations of our class lizard
Instruction Guide for taking care of class lizard before we led it to another class
Literarcy chart (such as what High Quality 2nd grade writing looks like.)
Lots of good ideas. I'm excited to try them.
I have struggled a bit with having students write about their reading especially during Guide Reading. I felt that this chapter gave some very valid arguments for responding to reading in writing and some very practical means of doing this. I, too agree that it is important that kids spend more time reading than writing. I have seen kids spend 30 minutes responding to a selection that took 5 minutes to read. But I think that if the purpose of this writing is to help kids increase their comprehension and if they understand that they do have an audience (possibly themselves) this can be extremely effective. I love the idea of having little notebooks to write in, to jot down predictions or key ideas.
I am truly amazed of the great impact on students by raising our expectations. I thought how teachers very often meet at the beginning of the school year to provide each other’s with some academic and behavioral information about the students help. We assume that we are helping each other to get a general idea about the student’s level. However, the author proved that our method is completely wrong. Instead of assuming that a student can’t read, for example, we should assume that he/she could read if we provide our student with interesting and motivated lessons. When the author stated that teachers should “never give up on a child” I felt so motivated to help all my students no matter what their levels are. They all can achieve higher level if teachers support them academically and socially.
ReplyDeleteI also like the writer’s suggestion about the scaffolding conversation. I think it is a great way to encourage students to express their feelings, to think deeply, and to write more. We are not only staffing information in our student’s mind, but we are rather helping them to think critically be problem solving.
When I read the quote about the weaknesses of the worksheets, I felt guilty for relying so much on worksheets through the past years. However, my intention was not to make them feel defeated by the red marks; I just used it as a way to evaluate my students’ understanding of the main concepts we have learned in the unit. It is also a way to evaluate my teaching style and think about the points that my students are struggling with, so I can re-teach the lesson again before I move on to the next unit.
From reading chapter 5, I assume that shared writing might be used as a replacement of the worksheets. I like the students’ samples because they show student’s creativity and enjoyment. In the future, I will definitely try summary of content –area study, games, charts, plays, class books, letter to parents from their own children telling them what they learned…etc. Definitely, all students will have fun learning and at the same time they are improving their oral language modeling, their writing conventions, and their social skills.
I would comment on the book reports as my final thought. I always hear students from different grades complaining about the heavy work they have to do for book reports; however, my daughter who is in second grade is enjoying this activity a lot. It is her favorite homework because her teacher made it fun and interesting. When her teacher sent the instructions for the first book report, I felt overwhelmed because there were many complicated steps. But, my daughter knew exactly what to do. She informed me that the teacher did a model in the class, and they also practiced together as a group. She was able to work on all the parts on her own, and made it into a piece of art at the end (She had to connect human body together after writing on each piece). Again, last week, I received long instructions about how to use a serial box to do the book review. My daughter knows exactly what to do because they did some samples together. I am so thankful to the teacher because my daughter is so motivated this year towards reading and writing. She even writes several pages stories from her own imagination. I know her teacher took this course last year, and I’m so proud of her for implementing what she has learned because I can see the great improvement my daughter is going through on reading, writing, penmanship, and oral conversation as well.
Ch 4: This is something that needs to be school wide- I teach third grade and I get so frustrated that I’m having to teach handwriting-PRINTING- to over half of my class. It is so hard to break habits of improper letter formation of 8-9 year olds! I want to see expectations raised across the building but it is hard as one person to create change. Even when I think about how to raise expectations in my own room, I get excited yet at the same time overwhelmed. I always struggle with enough time and also the early finishers.
ReplyDeleteWe are using Sitton Spelling which focuses the most frequently used words in reading and writing. With this program, I am seeing less mistakes with “everyday words.” We also have a list of “No excuse words”. Each child has this list in their desk to refer to when writing across all the subjects. So that we don’t impede the writing process, students circle words they need help spelling and then come back to them later. They can ask a neighbor, use a dictionary, a spell checker and THEN double check with me. I want them to use other resources before they ask me.
I have been using the Optimal learning model more frequently in class. I am trying to add lessons in, but we are in the middle of preplanned Animal Reports. So I am trying to give mini I do, We do, You do, lessons as we are working through this project.
Ch 5: Shared writing is appropriate and ideal for all learners. Students become co-teachers of language to other students by modeling. Students that struggle with the pen suddenly have a voice. I like the idea of spending more time rereading our shared writing pieces. I know that students love reading class created books – even from years past. These books are always a hot item and I have to limit how long you can keep them in your book box. I think I will begin to create a Class Writing Binder – where we will put published work, including some of our shared writing pieces.
I really like all the ideas on “Word Work” from quickly doing on the spot things like find all the words with the /t/ sound to the things that require more prep like the cloze story activities and cutting and reassembling the story. I have already added shiny titles to my shopping list and sticky notes to my lesson plan to remember to squeeze these activities in.
I’m going to add the tried and True ideas to my school year lessons. I especially like substitute procedures, letters to __, book review (after we finish read alouds) and summaries to access understanding.
Ch 6: I really like the point made about children who read literature become better writers than children who primarily read the basal reading text. I strongly dislike our basal program yet because RTI we have non-negotiable when it comes to our basal. There is very little nonfiction. I try to add more nonfiction in as much as possible tying the basal to something in the nonfiction realm. I also squeeze in as much real literature as possible. But we have to use our basal curriculum for 90 minutes whole class and then an additional 30 minutes at the intervention level. This leaves little time for enrichment. I have a wonderful classroom library and try to allow for free-choice reading as often as possible.
I want to incorporate more written responses to reading – even if it is from the basal. Responses that make students reflect or reexamine what we have read – not just regurgitate.
This year I have created a “Wonderful Words” wall. When we find really good parts of books- descriptive sentences etc. – We write them on sentence strips. Share them then hang them on the wall with the idea that we can borrow or be inspired by these phrases and use them in our own writing. My students are great at finding them, but I need to help them incorporate them better.
Overall after reading this chapter, I want to add more writing into my reading block. We can summarize, write reviews, make connections to nonfiction topics and create charts. I also want to think deeper about the questions I am asking.
I hope this is all coherent - my baby has been a cling-on and I have been typing with her "assistance" Optimal learning model in action -I'm already modeling real word writing. :)
DeleteChapter 4- After reading chapter 5 I was reminded of several conflicting values I have had over the years. I have always held my students to very high expectations, until lately. Writing had become my teaching weakness. Changing writing programs often and being told that 4-square was the end all change all program I had accepted mediocrity. Boring, formulaic writing had become the norm. I wondered if I should have taught high school rather that elementary school. My colleagues were accepting low quality writing and shifting their focus from correct grammar, spelling and neatness. Accepting “so-so” quality and just getting something turned in was all that was expected. Worksheet assessments as the only form of assessing students was giving me actual information about what my students knew! The bright students did well but the students that couldn’t comprehend exactly what the question was asking were getting more wrong than they should have. “Shut-UP” sheets are a false account of student’s knowledge! I wish that my school would not only vertically align curriculum, but also align expectations for heading papers, correct grammar, spelling and neatness. I continually have 6th graders writing “i” rather that I, using tooken, drunk, me and him. I hate that I even hear it on TV, and the third grade basal even has a story called “Me and Mike” REALLY!
ReplyDeleteChapt 5-My students and I nearly always do a shared writing on an assignment. From experience, like Regie, I have had visions of what an assignment or project should look like only to be disappointed because I hadn’t given enough background knowledge and quality examples of what I expected. After taking a class called “The Word Conscious Classroom” I have incorporated several concepts into my reading and writing technique. I especially love “The Gift of Words” idea where you “borrow” powerful words and phrases from the authors we read. My favorite reading curriculum is when we read a whole class novel together and students out the words and phrases they find. We record these in our “Gift of Words” steno along with the definition and they use these in their own writing. Other than sometimes using a word out of context this tool makes their writing interesting and rich rather that stilted and generic.
Chapt 6- Reading-Reading-Reading not only makes better readers but better writers. All authors, not just students, gain style from other writers. Great leads and conclusions as well as rich vocabulary can be gleaned from all reading; even picture books are a wonderful source for writing techniques. You cannot become a good writer or gain a genuine love of reading from a basal. I teach the focus skill from each section and apply it to what we are reading, create (with the help of Quizlet) vocabulary lists and finds many ways to access comprehension skills. It is more work for the teacher initially but the rewards are endless. I must try harder to figure out how to incorporate more nonfiction into my reading program, not just our social studies text book. We do have Nat Geo but it seems a bit elementary for my sixth graders.
Again, Regie confirms my beliefs about what good teaching is and I am glad to be back on track!
Yes, Susan! I agree. We also need to encourage students to raise their own expectations. Thanks for sharing about your class anthology. :D We love to read when teachers feel inspired after reading Regie’s text. It goes to show that having students write for a purpose and audience really does raise the quality of their work.
ReplyDeleteI’m with you on the handwriting! Love the Dr. Seuss activity! Glad you found some ideas to try out from this section.
Hi Madiha! That’s wonderful that your daughter is enjoying reading and writing so much. It’s also nice to hear that teacher from a previous term is using things from the course in her practice. ☺
Hello Sarah! Yes, it made perfect sense. ☺ What about allowing students to highlight Wonderful Word Walls descriptive phrases with a highlighter? (Kids just love highlighting, I think it makes them feel so grown up.) Perhaps this might help encourage their use of these words and phrases.
It is difficult when teachers are required to use the basal reader. Can you pick only quality stories out of the basal? What about asking your principal for permission to “pilot” a year (or half a year) where you are using high quality trade books and incorporating more nonfiction into the reading program. You could keep data on students’ levels and samples of their work and writing to document the success.
(I don’t know a lot about RTI and Title One/Reading First requirements, but at my last elementary school they had written a HUGE multi year, multi dollar grant for Reading First/Title funds. They were successful but had been very smart in the way they worded the use of the basal. I don’t have the specifics but basically the teachers weren’t required to use it every day or every week. I’m not sure how it went but I think maybe they shared stories they thought were worthwhile once a month. There were no workbooks or worksheets. Students were all using leveled texts and were in guided reading and strategy groups. We had tons of leveled readers as well. My point is that perhaps administration can be smarter how they word grants or work around federal requirements to allow teachers the freedom they need to instruct in the way that they believe is best.
Robin,
ReplyDeleteI’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the Gift of Words class. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback about that course especially from 4/5/6 teachers. We also find Regie to be inspirational and a source of encouragement.
What about some periodicals like Time for Kids or the equivalent at your grade level? You could also print off copies from websites or even encyclopedias…your district likely subscribes to Encyclopedia Britannica or a similar online resource. If you have a librarian they should easily be able to help you find interesting, grade-level nonfiction material.