MiddleWeb's
Reading Workshop Project
Digest Index
A MiddleWeb Listserv Project
Self-selected members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List are joining
together to explore the Reading Workshop and other ideas about supporting
middle grades-aged readers. Find out more about
the project.
Here is a running record of our conversation, beginning September
7, 2001. We will post new conversation strings as time allows. We don't
have time to clean them up as nicely as we'd like, but we'll try to cut
out long duplicate messages, etc. So far we've posted conversation through
March 2002.
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 11:23:13 -0400
From: John Norton <jcroftn1@mindspring.com>
Subject: [MWprojects] Welcome to the Reading Discussion!
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Hi, Folks!
This message will serve as the kickoff for our discussion of Reading
Workshop and related topics of your choosing. We have about 20 people
on this special list at present and I'm sure we'll see others join as
we go along.
I'm going to set this list so that you can obtain a Digest version if
you like, but I would request that everyone stay on the regular
version for at least a week so we can generate some steam!
Recall that I have set up a special section at MiddleWeb for this
chat, which I anticipate will go along at its own pace for the rest
of the school year.
http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWindex.html (bookmark?)
Each week I'll post Juli Kendall's journal on her Reading Workshop
adventure. I encourage everyone to contribute reports of their own
classroom work. If you have things you'd like for me to post on our
"download" page, send them to me privately. If you can turn them
into
PDFs, great. If not, send me a note and let me know what format you
have them in and we'll figure it out.
Any time you need to sign off for awhile, you'll find the directions
for doing that, or for switching to the Digest version, at:
http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWsignup.html
I'll post the Digests of our discussion at MiddleWeb as I can find time.
I'm going to begin by posting a second and third message containing
Juli Kendall's background paper on her work and her first weekly
journal. Perhaps these two pieces will provide us with enough "stuff"
to begin a conversation!
John
norton@middleweb.com
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 12:15:08 -0400
From: John Norton <jcroftn1@mindspring.com>
Subject: [MWprojects] Juli's background paper
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Hi... Here's Juli's background paper. It's also on the website, with
hotlinks to her resources.
John
------------------------------------
Background about Juli Kendall and the Reading Workshop
Juli Kendall is helping us moderate a Reading Workshop discussion
during the 2001-02 school year. Here's some background about Juli and
her Reading Workshop activities in the Long Beach (CA) Unified School
District.
Juli writes:
I live in Long Beach, California. "Iowa by the sea" is how it
was
affectionately referred to for many years. Even though we have lots
of coastline, we have no surf. This is because the Navy installed a
breakwater during World War II. So, many of our beaches are sadly
empty even on hot summer days.
Of the 30 years I have been teaching, the last 17 years I have worked
in Long Beach. While our district motto is "Teach by the beach,"
the
reality is that we are a large urban school district. Long Beach
students and their families speak over 50 different languages. Faced
with California's high stakes assessment program, we are challenged
to keep our focus on helping all students achieve proficiency on
Content Standards. All content areas emphasize literacy.
Some background about myself
I began teaching in an elementary school in San Diego. My BA is in
English, and my master's degree is in Multicultural Education. I also
have a Bilingual Specialist Credential in Spanish. Along the way to
middle school, I taught in a variety of positions (Special Education,
Preschool, Spanish Bilingual Education, Title VII Resource Teacher
for Khmer/Cambodian Students, and Language Arts Specialist).
Perhaps the unifying thread in my career is English Language
Learners. I am trained in Reading Recovery and in Descubriendo La
Lectura, the reconstruction of Reading Recovery in Spanish. I have
extensive training and experience teaching reading to students whose
first language is Spanish as well as students whose first language is
Khmer (Cambodian). This is what I have done the most, and this is
what I love the best. "Do what you love; love what you do."
For the last six years I taught reading and writing in a
centers-based program in middle school. As English Language
Development and Reading Department Chair, I participated in writing
District Content Standards and developing performance assessments
that measure students' proficiency. I also had the opportunity to be
a Literacy Standards Coach providing on-going staff development in
reading strategies, collaborating with other teachers and assisting
teachers in looking at student work.
As a result of working in middle school, I am much more
self-reflective. Looking at students' work has become the driving
force behind my instruction. It is the kids who show us what they
need and where we need to go next. "Follow the child."
Working with struggling readers
My job has changed this year. I'm moving to 5th grade, and I'll be
working as a Literacy Specialist implementing Reading Workshop at
Whittier School. We will focus on students who were held back from
6th grade, or are in danger of being held back. These students have
not yet passed the end of 3rd grade level reading benchmarks for
fiction and non-fiction text. That's a requirement for moving to
middle school in our district. I'll be working on strategies for
improving their reading comprehension while providing in-class
support for teachers. I'll also model Interactive Read Alouds for
teachers and students.
At Whittier, 90% of the students receive free lunch and 90% are
English Language Learners, primarily Khmer speaking (Cambodian) and
Spanish speaking students. Because of the high numbers of students in
this attendance area, many are bused to other schools. To accommodate
as many students as possible, the school operates on a year-round
schedule with five tracks. According to SAT 9 scores, they rank 28th
in improvement among schools in California.
The staff consists of a highly trained and enthusiastic group of
primarily new teachers (five years or less in teaching). They are
deeply committed to providing the best educational opportunities for
their students. There are several Khmer teachers who had experience
teaching in Cambodia and have provided mentoring and invaluable
assistance to the newer teachers. I have learned from them that what
we do in education is "for the Children."
Here's the big picture
Students who do not achieve at least 4th or 5th grade level reading
proficiency can actually lose ground as they move into middle school.
"There is a reading level below which the child may lose his skill
when he moves out into the community rather than maintain it. It
falls somewhere around the average 10- to 11-year-old achievement
level. If our reading skill is not sufficient for us to practice it
every day by reading the paper or notices or instructions, then we
seem to lose some of the skill in much the same way as we lose a
foreign language which we no longer speak."
-- Marie Clay, An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement,
1993, p. 13
As a result of their work with students and their analysis of
student data in reading, Whittier has decided to make an all-out
effort to improve their students' reading comprehension and use of
higher level strategies on text.
Here's how the staff got to this point. They started by reading
Mosaic of Thought. Then they had regular book study groups with
Strategies That Work, as well as Guiding Readers and Writers, 3rd-6th
Grades. This led them to investigate the concept of Reading Workshop.
They heard Lucy Calkins speak and read her book, The Art of Teaching
Reading. In July a team of teachers and the principal attended the
8th Summer Reading Workshop Institute at Columbia Teacher's College
in New York City.
The staff recognizes that even though their school is making
progress they need to address the literacy needs of students going on
to middle school. As a result, they have decided to add daily
Interactive Read Alouds and Reading Workshop to their classroom
agendas.
Some of the things we will be working on in the first month:
1. Assessments of students ­p; running records, writing samples,
developmental spelling levels, "listening" to students talk about
their reading
2. Curriculum mapping - (Heidi Hayes Jacobs, Mapping the Big Picture)
3. Reading Fluency and a Reading Fluency Rubric/Scoring Guide -
"Reading Fluency," Susan K. Strecker, The California Reader, Vol.
34,
No. 3, Spring 2001.
4. Independent Reading and an Independent Reading Rubric - The Art of
Teaching Reading, Lucy Calkins, pg. 78
5. Introduction of Daily Interactive Read Alouds
This is where the journey begins!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 12:15:08 -0400
From: John Norton <jcroftn1@mindspring.com>
Subject: [MWprojects] Juli's first weekly journal
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Reading Workshop Journal -- Week #1
JOURNEYS BEGIN WITH A MAP
"Let's start at the very beginning, A very good place to start.
When you read, you begin with A, B, C..." -- From *The Sound of
Music*
This summer as I got ready to implement Reading Workshop in a new
setting, I found myself needing to become concrete, and so I started
to map. Using Heidi Hayes Jacobs' book, Mapping the Big Picture:
Integrating Curriculum and Assessment K-12, I came up with a draft
for the first month. Always before I have mapped a year at a time.
This time I wanted an "in the works" map. One that could be
constantly revised and modified from month to month. I want to ensure
that it reflects student needs based on the ongoing assessments and
progress we are making through the units and mini-lessons.
One of my collaborating teachers took a look at the map, and we had
an animated conversation about how assessment for each student has to
drive our instruction. We talked about what those assessments should
look and sound like. She made the suggestion that we be sure to
indicate that the mini-lessons would be driven by the assessments. So
we added a comment to the mini-lessons column -- "based on
assessments."
[Download Juli's September 2001 curriculum map here - PDF FILE]
http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWdownld/09CurrMap.pdf
Then we gave our principal and several other teachers a copy of the
revised draft map. They didn't have suggestions but did have
interesting reactions. The principal asked us to be part of the
professional development on Reading Workshop for our teaching staff.
In addition to the official staff development, a group of teachers
have decided to meet on Friday mornings (the only time available due
to busy schedules) for "coffee" and an ongoing Reading Workshop
conversation.
So what did we learn from our initial professional development
session on Reading Workshop? We learned the infamous "less is more"
lesson. As always, we had to make decisions and use the amount of
time we had to focus on 2-3 important teaching points. We started
with a KWL and discovered what prior knowledge staff had about
Reading Workshop. Here are some comments in response to our question
"What do you know about Reading Workshop?"
--individual growth
--personal interest in reading
--reflection on reading passages
--reading and responding in reader's logs
--read independently and discuss what you read
--a program that helps a class use different literary genres
--small, heterogeneous groups
--I don't know (one honest soul made this comment)
--read every single day with the fragile readers
--mini-lessons based on needs (lots of assessment)
--literature circles, discussion of books
--reading comprehension
--Read Aloud
--Guided Reading
--uses good literature
--try to involve all levels of reading
Our teaching points were 1) the importance of assessment and 2)
getting started in September. We shared our curriculum map for
September and the way we score Independent Reading time. At the end
of this first session, we asked them to write down any questions they
had or additional help or information they wanted.
We plan to use these for designing our next presentation and
providing year-long ongoing assistance. We want it to be based on
teacher needs. Here's what they said:
--I want to learn how to level books
--Learn more about Reading Workshop units
--More strategies on how to manage the in-flowing and out-flowing of books
--Does this Reading Workshop take 2 hours?
--How to level books!!!!!
--Observe other teachers doing Reading Workshop
--Leveling books
--Lesson on mini-lesson
--Ideas for academic centers
--Model for us with students
--Mini-lessons
--How to level books
--Want to know how to level books
--Demonstrate the mini-lessons
--Application to existing programs with time schedule
Obviously, we now have some clear indications about next steps. Maybe
we should consider giving teachers a choice between several topics.
What's next? The first week of school!
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 20:58:45 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Juli's first weekly journal
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
In a message dated 9/7/01 9:17:06 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
jcroftn1@mindspring.com writes:
<< She made the suggestion that we be sure to
indicate that the mini-lessons would be driven by the assessments. >>
Okay, so I've had my first three days of Readers Workshop and my feet hurt.
I prepared my opening activities based on class time available and the
insertion of a Character Education lesson on Trustworthiness that was
required by the staff. What I opted to do was use the story given by the
Character Ed. committee as my baseline for both my read aloud and my Reading
Log Scoring Rubric.
What I have learned so far is that my class has eighteen seventh grade boys
and four girls. The kids do not get along and are very talkative. Most of
them have major organizational issues.
What went well: More students are engaged from the beginning than I
originally thought based on looking at student work. I had an eighty percent
return on homework that was finished during my read aloud. The response
to
the read aloud was phenomenal compared to anything I have tried before.
I've
selected a book called the Wednesday Surprise for the next one, and then
The
True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Since I was looking for a baseline,
my
lesson went like this: Character Ed. story read aloud. Write about the
story in your Reading Log. I gave very little instructions and noticed that
many students had fairly high level questions in executing the reading log
passage. They wanted to clarify names of characters and weren't sure about
what to do with the narrator whose name was never given in the text.
Next week, I am beginning the district mandated phonics program, setting
up
Reader's Workshop Folders and am starting my formal Benchmark Reading
Assessments based on probable indicators. To be honest, I'm stuck on how
to
group the kids since none of them seem to like each other. I'll know how
after I've had a chance to assess their reading work.
I have promised my spiritual advisor that I will not take anything personally
until June.
Charles.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Lit8teacher@aol.com
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 22:14:09 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Juli's first weekly journal
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
In a message dated 9/7/01 8:59:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Nickandcharles@aol.com writes:
<< Okay, so I've had my first three days of Readers Workshop >>
I've been at it for two weeks and I feel like I am moving too slowly. I
think part of the problem is that I was using short stories that were taking
two class periods just to read as the basis of mini-lessons. This week was
a
paced a bit faster by using picture books to model TTS connections. Next
week I plan to get through TTW and TTT connections and practice the Connector
role for literature circles as a whole group.
LeeAnn
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 00:38:28 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Juli's first weekly journal
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
In a message dated 9/7/01 7:14:38 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
Lit8teacher@aol.com writes:
<< I feel like I am moving too slowly. >>
LeeAnn. I LOVE that you said that. It seems like too slow is the story of
my life. Am I getting anywhere? Am I getting anywhere? I folded the
connections into my Scoring Rubric and in a small group setting am going
to
model them and wait.for it to happen and use that as an example. I had a
really hard time explaining TTW. I've heard that if we go to fast they don't
get it and become confused. Alot of my kids are ELLs. Are you working with
them? So I know that my comprehensible input has to be right at their level.
What I'm noticing with the group overall is a general confusion about
procedures and following directions, even the couple of EOs I have in the
class. It would make sense to me, that these reluctant readers would be
confused and have difficulty following directions. I'm wondering how to
circumvent this.
Here was something I found interesting:
Our administrative team developed a mock planner for use during the first
week of school. We have a four and four, eight period block, however, we've
been seeing all eight periods these first three days. Our staff generated
a
shared expectation that we would check the planners every day. Since each
day in the organizer is set up for only four periods, they seem to be at
a
loss as to what to do. What I'm seeing is that the planner is an example
of
looking at student work in reading functional text, and the kids are
extremely inflexible with their strategies in how to use it. I've seen that
some teachers have tried to teach them to number the lines. Some of the
planners I've seen have numbers all on the wrong days. In my group that's
really concentrated, everybody is making similar kinds of errors. In a
larger setting, I can see it being overlooked. I think this kind of thing
adds to their overall confusion about what to do in the big picture at
school. They must be so frustrated.
Like I said though, I was doing cartwheels at the level of engagement with
my
read aloud. They were so there. I've been thinking about starting my
lessons on accountable talk next, instead of looking at sequence of events
and main idea which is what was really in my curriculum map. What do your
procedures look like? I'm curious as to what they do when they get to your
class and how you get them started. Do you have any language chollenges?
What about extreme behavior situations?
Juli, what do you think?
Charles.
=============================
From: Lit8teacher@aol.com
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 06:57:50 EDT
Subject: [MWprojects] procedures/moving slow
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
In a message dated 9/8/01 12:39:22 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
Nickandcharles@aol.com writes:
<< What I'm noticing with the group overall is a general confusion
about
procedures and following directions. What do your
procedures look like? I'm curious as to what they do when they get to your
class and how you get them started. Do you have any language chollenges?
What about extreme behavior situations? >>
I spent a lot of time the first two weeks on procedures (and I am still
making time to mention and practice them each day)--I think that is another
part of the reason I felt I was moving too slowly. But I know I did the
right thing after what happened yesterday:
I had to take the morning off to take my daughter to her preschool open
house, so it was my students' first time with a sub in my room. Normally
before a sub, all my classes get the "expectation lecture", but
this time I
just didn't have time to do it. The lesson plan that I left was for the
students to write in their journals (topic was on the board, a timer on
my
desk is set for five minutes--this is the procedure that they follow every
day to begin class) and then they were to read independently and fill in
a
TTS t chart as they read to practice TTS connections. I came back just
before lunch and talked to my sub to find out how things went. He said that
when he saw independent reading in the plans, he was nervous and expecting
discipline problems and instead, they were the best classes he has ever
subbed for!
As far as my student population, my school is pretty homogenous. It is a
very rural school in Michigan and only a handful are of an ethnicity other
than caucasian. I have a minor in bilingual education (that hasn't done
me a
bit of good here!), so I can empathize with your language difficulties.
And
I haven't had a single discipline problem--unless you count the boy that
was
loudly whispering "beefcake" every time my back was turned! But
I handled
that just by asking who he was talking to because a beefcake is what you
would normally say to a good looking guy, so if he was talking to me, I'd
prefer "foxy lady"!
Let me just also mention that after a couple hours in my daughter's preschool
classroom I am so happy to be a middle level educator!
LeeAnn
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 16:23:34 -0400
From: John Norton <jcroftn1@mindspring.com>
Subject: [MWprojects] Who on this list is doing Reading Workshop?
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Hi...
Charles and LeeAnn have signed on with comments about their early
reading efforts this year.
Charles wrote:
"Okay, so I've had my first three days of Readers Workshop and my feet
hurt.
I prepared my opening activities based on class time available and the
insertion of a Character Education lesson on Trustworthiness that was
required by the staff. What I opted to do was use the story given by the
Character Ed. committee as my baseline for both my read aloud and my Reading
Log Scoring Rubric.
"What I have learned so far is that my class has eighteen seventh grade
boys
and four girls. The kids do not get along and are very talkative. Most of
them have major organizational issues."
LeeAnn wrote:
"I've been at it for two weeks and I feel like I am moving too slowly.
I
think part of the problem is that I was using short stories that were taking
two class periods just to read as the basis of mini-lessons. This week was
a
paced a bit faster by using picture books to model TTS connections. Next
week I plan to get through TTW and TTT connections and practice the Connector
role for literature circles as a whole group."
HOW'S IT GOING FOR THE REST OF YOU? And if you're not doing Readers
Workshop, what will you be doing this year to work on reading issues?
Let's chat!
John
PS: For us slow students, what do TTS, TTW, and TTT stand for? ;^)
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Linda Thames" <lthames@tislink.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Who on this list is doing Reading Workshop?
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 16:41:41 -0500
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Actually in my class of 6th graders (many of whom read from 2 to 3 years
below grade level), I am using Maroo of the Winter Caves as a whole class
read and trying to model for them the text-to-self and text-to-world reading
strategies from the book. It is very slow going and even though we are now
at the halfway point in the book, it was only on Thursday that someone very
tentatively offered something up. It is extremely hard when I have modeled,
modeled, modeled and they don't seem to get it. I am almost at my wits end
especially since I am the only one at my school attempting to teach this
way
and I had no training in this at all. What little I know is from reading
those wonderful books : Mosaic of Thought, Strategies That Work, and I Read
It, But I Don't Get It. Maybe some of you who are more experienced could
walk me through one of your lessons when you teach strategies. I love to
hear how others do it.
By the way, I try to use picture books for the strategies when I can but
our
library has so few that I have to purchase them if I want them.
Linda
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMES@aol.com
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 18:00:13 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] procedures/moving slow
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
In a message dated 9/8/01 3:58:52 AM, Lit8teacher@aol.com writes:
<< I spent a lot of time the first two weeks on procedures (and I
am still
making time to mention and practice them each day)--I think that is another
part of the reason I felt I was moving too slowly. But I know I did the
right thing after what happened yesterday:
>>
LEEANN,
Kudos to you for taking the necessary time to "TEACH THE TASK."
For me,
going slowly at first and making all students accountable for everything
gives students the message that this is serious business. Even though our
Reading Workshop class has a different more relaxed format we are all about
the business of learning. You are so lucky to find out so soon what a great
job you are doing. Keep it up!
Juli
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 15:20:56 -0700
From: Lea Molczan <lealoo@teleport.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] procedures/moving slow
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
This is probably a silly question, but what is TTS?
Thanks,
Lea
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 15:23:56 -0700
From: Lea Molczan <lealoo@teleport.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Who on this list is doing Reading Workshop?
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
I just finished my first 3 days of school yesterday, so I've just been
working on some get-to-know you things. I plan on beginning workshop
toward the end of next week. I'm starting with reading and writing surveys
that I will read next weekend. Hopefully that will help me plan a bit
more. I will also get my first writing piece from my students next week,
so I can see what individuals need to work on and what everyone as a whole
needs. We'll see where it goes...
Lea
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMES@aol.com
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 18:25:37 EDT
Subject: [MWprojects] Cartwheels at the level of engagement
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
In a message dated 9/7/01 9:39:21 PM, Nickandcharles@aol.com writes:
<< Like I said though, I was doing cartwheels at the level of engagement
with
my
read aloud. They were so there. I've been thinking about starting my
lessons on accountable talk next, instead of looking at sequence of events
and main idea which is what was really in my curriculum map. What do your
procedures look like? I'm curious as to what they do when they get to your
class and how you get them started. Do you have any language chollenges?
What about extreme behavior situations? >>
Charles,
You have some challenging students this year. I know them well since I had
them last year. The good thing about these students is that they love a
good
Read Aloud. Because you really grabbed them the first day, they will be
with
you the rest of the time. They just love to be read to. Guiding Readers
and
Writers talks about how Reading Aloud can be used to teach reading and also
provide good models of writing. Since Reading Aloud is something to which
they respond positively, it gives you a good jumping off point. The
challenge is to get them engaged in other parts of the program. The initial
homework return rate is a really good sign that they are buying in.
How is your scoring guide for Accountable Talk developing? I'd love to see
it. Could you send it to this list? That's just what I need to help me
focus my instruction on "talk" for my kids.
<<What I'm noticing with the group overall is a general confusion
about
procedures and following directions, even the couple of EOs I have in the
class. It would make sense to me, that these reluctant readers would be
confused and have difficulty following directions. I'm wondering how to
circumvent this.>>
Many of the at risk readers we have worked with also had organizational
challenges. I remember the teacher who made a scoring guide for backpacks
and included this score in their conduct grades.. It was in kid friendly
language. I think they helped her develop it. It really seemed to help some
of the kids have an idea of how to organize.
I wonder if a scoring guide for planners would be beneficial. So many of
the
scoring guides we have worked on helped me organize how and what to teach
so
that the students could learn what I wanted them to know.
What do you think about this?
Juli
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 19:54:00 -0700
From: KathleenA Renfrew <karenfrew@earthlink.net>
Subject: [MWprojects] reading workshop
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
These are the things I have done so far after 8 school days:
1. Introduced the organization of my bookshelves
2. Taught the reading strategy of using prior knowledge ( a strategy
that an be used in any subject area)
3. Shared our favorite books/ books that had an impact on us as readers
4. Reading interview
5. mini lesson on reading is thinking; followed by a homework assignment
for them to use sticky notes to mark two laces that they were aware of
their thinking
6. introduced a reading log where they keep track of the title, author,
date finished or abandoned, was it an easy book for you, Just right, or
challenging, and genre
it doesn't seem like much for 8 days but it certainly took lots of time
Kathy
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 17:20:08 -0700
From: Lea Molczan <lealoo@teleport.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] reading workshop
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Kathy,
Thanks for sharing what you did...this provides me with a great starting
place! Could you explain the reading interviews that you listed at #4?
Also, when you say you shared favorite books -- did you have kids bring
in
books or did y'all talk about them? Was this done in small groups or as
a
class discussion?
Thanks!
Lea
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 20:18:55 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Who on this list is doing Reading Workshop?
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
In a message dated 9/8/01 1:24:34 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
jcroftn1@mindspring.com writes:
<< PS: For us slow students, what do TTS, TTW, and TTT stand for?
;^) >>
I took them to mean Text to self/world/text a la Mosaic of Thought. I hope
that's what LeeAnn was referring to.
Charles.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Lit8teacher@aol.com
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 20:26:33 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Who on this list is doing Reading Workshop?
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
In a message dated 9/8/01 5:41:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
lthames@tislink.com writes:
<< Maybe some of you who are more experienced could
walk me through one of your lessons when you teach strategies. I love to
hear how others do it.
By the way, I try to use picture books for the strategies when I can but
our
library has so few that I have to purchase them if I want them. >>
I wouldn't say that I'm more experienced :), but here's how I did a lesson
on
Test To Self (TTS) connections:
I made a T chart on my white board easel, half labeled "The author
said. . ."
and the other half labeled "That reminds me of. . ." I read the
picture
book _The Ghost Eye Tree_, stopping and filling out the T chart for my TTS
connections. Then I had the students make a T chart on their individual
white boards and I read the picture book _The Relatives Came_ (slowly) while
they recorded their own TTS connections. Then they shared some of their
connections. This took a class period and the next day they had a T chart
to
fill out as they read in their independent reading books.
I do have a fairly good selection of picture books because I have little
ones
at home, but I have also been getting many from the public library
lately--especially ones that I have found on suggestion from the main list
that will work well with my Holocaust unit. I mentioned before that I
started using short stories in my mini-lessons (I used _The Clown_ by Patrick
McManus and _The Lie_) but I felt that it was taking too long with those.
LeeAnn
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 22:18:16 -0700
From: KathleenA Renfrew <karenfrew@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] reading workshop
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Lea Molczan wrote:
> Kathy,
> Thanks for sharing what you did...this provides me with a great starting
> place! Could you explain the reading interviews that you listed at
#4?
> Also, when you say you shared favorite books -- did you have kids bring
in
> books or did y'all talk about them? Was this done in small groups or
as a
> class discussion?
>
> Thanks!
> Lea
>
>
> >
> >3. Shared our favorite books/ books that had an impact on us as
readers
> >
> >4. Reading interview
> >
First of all, so far everything I have done is whole group. The reason I
am
teaching my mini lessons whole group is that i have only 12 students in
my
whole class. Beginning next week I will only have 10 or 11 regularly because
of special ed pulling two of my kids four days a week.
Sharing books- we all did this. One day we talked about it in class and
their
homework (mine too) was to bring in one/two books that had made an impact
on
them in some way. They all did it. It was great to see the diversity of
their
responses to this prompt. What happened from there was that kids wanted
to
read books that their peers had mentioned...it had a snowball effect. it
was
pretty neat.
Reading interview- that was an interview that I took from the Guiding Readers
grade 3-6 by Fountas and Pinnell. There is a similar one in nancy Atwell's
In
the Middle. My kids struggled a bit with this. I think 7th and 8th graders
my
give more in depth responses.
Kathy
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 01:20:57 EDT
Subject: [MWprojects] Fwd: Cartwheels at the level of engagement
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
In a message dated 9/8/01 3:31:43 PM Pacific Daylight Time, YAMES writes:
<< How is your scoring guide for Accountable Talk developing? >>
Mrs K;
I am going to do my very best to figure out how to send an email attachment
once and for all. I am so TECHNOLOGICALLY CHALLENGED!!!!! All my downloads
are still trying to open in excel. I solemnly swear that by the end of this
weekend I will send you a file with all of the Rubrics I've generated over
the summer. Unfortunately you'll get my Foreign Language Rubrics too because
it's all in one file and I'm not evolved enough to do anything too risky
and
different yet. Does this sound like anyone you know? I have yet to put
together the independent Reading Rubric. I was hoping to mooch yours. Also,
check out the citizenship Rubric and let me know if you think I should create
a different Rubric specifically for my reading class.
Charles.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 01:24:11 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] reading workshop
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
In a message dated 9/8/01 4:54:11 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
karenfrew@earthlink.net writes:
<< 6. introduced a reading log where they keep track of the title,
author,
date finished or abandoned, was it an easy book for you, Just right, or
challenging, and genre >>
Kathleen,
Is that the reading log from Guiding Readers and Writer's? That's the one
I'm going to use (we'll start with it on Tuesday)
Charles.
==========================================
Date: Sun, 09 Sep 2001 10:48:00 -0700
From: KathleenA Renfrew <karenfrew@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] reading workshop
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Nickandcharles@aol.com wrote:
> Kathleen,
>
> Is that the reading log from Guiding Readers and Writer's? That's the
one
> I'm going to use (we'll start with it on Tuesday)
>
> Charles.
Yes, that is the reading log from Guided Reading. I like it better than
the
one I used last year from In the Middle.
there are also some resources available from the Art of teaching Reading
by
Lucy Calkins
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 09 Sep 2001 10:51:30 -0700
From: KathleenA Renfrew <karenfrew@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Fwd: Cartwheels at the level of engagement
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Nickandcharles@aol.com wrote:
Charles,
I know I should send this privately but I bet there are interested parties.
I
would like a set if you are ready to share sent to me privately. The big
question is ...could you send them to John who could then post them for
all of
us?
thanks
Kathy
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMES@aol.com
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 19:56:50 EDT
Subject: [MWprojects] Fwd: Resources for teaching strategies (mini-lessons)
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
I wrote this to the general listserv and thought it might be of interest
to
someone here as well.
Juli
Someone wrote in to the list asking about lists or resources for teaching
strategies like in the book, Strategies that Work. Linda Hoyt has written
two books that are great for strategies and other reading comprehension
stuff.
1. Snapshots: Literacy Minilessons Up Close
2. Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension
As I recall, Linda Hoyt worked with Stephanie Harvey, Chris Tovani, and
the
authors of Mosaic of Thought. Her ideas are easily implemented, good with
at-risk readers and often can be used without buying other books. They go
from very beginning readers up through middle school level readers.
Juli
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: "LEIGHANN FULLER" <clfuller00@msn.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Who on this list is doing Reading Workshop?
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 20:22:29 -0500
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
------=_NextPart_001_0001_01C1396D.26396A40
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I'm trying to integrate portions of RW this year. Tuesday I am going to
=
try introducing self-questioning by having them look at a title and a sto=
ry's pictures and asking what they would like to know about the story of
=
what they can guess about. I have the individual dry erase boards and I
t=
hought I'd have them make t-charts in groups with the question on the lef=
t and their answers (found after reading) on the right. I'm also going to=
be teaching QAR this month... so after a time of them generating questio=
ns we'll classify them into the 4 categories and talk about how we answer=
them all. It's my third year and I feel like I'm "getting it"
finally!!!=
:) Also during read alouds, I thought I'd model what goes through my hea=
d as I read to them. =20
Leighann Fuller
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 18:58:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Melba Smithwick <melbayvette@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Who on this list is doing Reading Workshop?
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
While I am no longer as of this year in the classroom,
I did use the readers workshop strategies last year
with my math classes. I'd like to share some of the
things I did so that teachers can see that the model
works for all subjects.
90 minute block:
Focus: I had my students make a journal entry, usually
an explanation or description of a math process.
Read-aloud: I read _Math Curse_ one section a day.
and asked the students to respond in their journals.
Mini-lesson: I taught my math lesson here and used the
math book. I followed the book's directions for
teaching most of the time.
Guided practice: I assigned each group to re-read the
lesson that pertained to one example. There are
usually four to five examples given in their books. I
told them that as a team, they had to be able to
explain and teach this example to the rest of the
class. As they collaborated, I conferenced with each
team as the need arose.
Independent practice: Students worked on their
assignment/homework. However, they were allowed to
tutor each other. While this was going on, I tutored
students who were behind, re-tested, reviewed, and/or
conferenced with individual students.
My classroom is our new staff development room. I have
modeled read-alouds, think-alouds, retelling, and this
week double column notes with every core subject
including current events. Our teachers are doing a
great job of utilizing these strategies in their
content areas.
Melba
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 13:45:29 -0400
From: John Norton <jcroftn1@mindspring.com>
Subject: [MWprojects] Posting stuff for this Reading chat
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Yes...feel free Charles, and others, to send me files for posting at
MiddleWeb. We have a download/access page set up for this chat. When
I get things posted, I'll inform this list.
PS: You can't send attachments to a list anyway. We block them to
protect against viruses.
John
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 14:40:36 -0400
From: John Norton <jcroftn1@mindspring.com>
Subject: [MWprojects] If you signed up late for this chat
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
We have a "home page" for this ongoing discussion.
Go to:
http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWindex.html
John
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 17:47:27 -0400
From: John Norton <jcroftn1@mindspring.com>
Subject: [MWprojects] Charles - rubrics posted
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Well, that was rather efficient! Thanks to Charles and Juli for
forcing me to finally set up my Mac to make quick PDF files. It's
pretty darn cool.
I've posted two files that Charles sent to me, via Juli. One has four
rubrics, the other has two. You'll see two versions of Charles'
Reading Log. The revised one has some slight changes in the "1"
category, which I'll bet we can get him to explain to us.
Go to our downloads page to find and download these PDFs. They're
quite small and easy to download, as are Juli's. If anyone needs
help, please see our on-line suggestions or send me a private note.
http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWdownloads.html
PS: Now that I've learned how to do this, bring 'em on!!
John
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Vlearnserv@aol.com
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 21:09:10 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects]
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
I'm new to this but I am interested in the ideas floating around out there.
I have a few ideas of my own I'd like to share.
I teach 7th grade Reading. We split the grade 7 ELA class into Reading and
and English class to focus on the writing (Open Response Q's and essays).I
wrote a skeleton of the curric. this summer and will ammend it throughout
the
year. I'm extrememly excited about it and I've gotten off to a great start.
Reading skills and strategies are the major emphasis throughout the year.
I
will cover vocab., Greek and Latin word parts, research skills, test taking
strategies, and a unit on learning styles.
We read daily (SSR) and do a written response in a Reading Response booklet.
We've done a Reading Portrait Quilt based on peer interviews of reading
habits - looks great.
The area I am weak on is media literacy and assessment (rubrics for
everything).
-Vickie
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 18:36:33 -0700
From: Lea Molczan <lealoo@teleport.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects]
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Vickie,
Could you explain the Reading Portrait Quilt idea? It sounds great!
Thanks,
Lea
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: "LEIGHANN FULLER" <clfuller00@msn.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects]
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 21:11:54 -0500
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
------=_NextPart_001_0001_01C13A3D.37B66180
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
......[snip, snip] :)., Greek and Latin word parts.....[more snip, snip]
Vickie, what kinds of activities will you be doing with this? My language=
arts dept is doing this for the first time and I'd love to hear your ide=
as!
Leighann Fuller
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Chicasha@aol.com
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 23:32:20 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects]
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
In a message dated 9/10/01 6:09:59 PM, Vlearnserv@aol.com writes:
<< I'm new to this but I am interested in the ideas floating around
out
there.
I have a few ideas of my own I'd like to share. >>
Thanks for sharing your ideas. I am interested in the Quilt idea. Could
you
elaborate?
Sharon
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: ATheins77@aol.com
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 23:48:01 EDT
Subject: [MWprojects] Reading program and an idea to teach inferring
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
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We are teaching reading for our seventh graders trying to focus more on
strategies within a Reader's Workshop. We are beginning with four three-week
rotations (listed below).
1. Reading The Outsiders as a class, discussing the book and responding
in
writing.
2. Learning how to use the library/find information
3. Paraphrasing reading Native American articles
4. I am teaching inferring. It's been great to read some short stories and
articles and I've struck upon a graphic organizer that I think will help.
When discussing inferring last year in our Strategies That Work book study
group, we kept referring to making an inference as putting together the
pieces of the puzzle. That made sense to me. My graphic organizer is a hand
drawn puzzle with about seven pieces (six around the edges with a puzzle
piece in the middle). The middle piece is darker than the others. At the
top of the page there is a place for the title of what we are reading and
a
place to put the question I am asking. For example, we read Ray Bradbury's
short story "Fever Dream" and had the question - Why does the
boy stand back
and wait by the bird's cage at the end? ( This story is about a disease
that
takes over a sick child's body and wants to destroy things (middle school
students love it once they figure it out).) The answer goes in the center
puzzle piece and the text "clues" go in the other puzzle pieces
around it.
We have done lots of practice and I wouldn't say they are proficient at
it
quite yet, but it's a great start. I'm really happy with it.
For the next six weeks, we also do four rotations: (we're still planning)
1. Reading a novel and discussing.
2. Reading nonfiction
3. Reading multicultural stories
4. Me - reading fiction? I'm not quite sure what I want to do. I want to
have them be active readers and continue to respond in some way to what
they
are reading. I've thought about doing Literature Circles with short stories.
I'm hoping to get some good ideas from this list. My inclination is to
continue to work on good reading strategies with as many interesting things
as I can get my hands on!
Amy Heinsma
7th Language Arts & Reading
Windsor, CO
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 01 09:23:15 EDT
From: Lit8teacher@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Charles - rubrics posted
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Charles,
Could you explain how your require your students' reading logs/lists to
be done? Do you have a form for them to fill out? A list of questions for
them to answer? How do they know what you expect from them in their log?
Thanks!
LeeAnn
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Vlearnserv@aol.com
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 01 :11:45 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects]
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
For the Greek and Latin word parts I will use a "tree" - roots
for the Gr or
L root and branches for derivatives. I have various activities taken from
many, many sources. But the basis will be the "tree"
I introduce the "tree" first when I teach activating prior knowledge.
Vickie
vlearnserv@aol.com
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Vlearnserv@aol.com
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 01 :13:50 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects]
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Here's the Reading Portrait Quilt Project
Reading Portrait Quilt Assignment
The assignment we will begin today is to create a quilt that portrays who
we are as readers in this class. To do this you will need to interview your
partner, record the responses, and create a decorated quilt square to display
on the wall.
Follow these steps to begin this project:
1. Assign roles to each person in the group - scribe, reporter,
leader/moderator. Write the names of your group members along with their
job in the group on a piece of lined paper.
2. With your group, formulate 5 questions you feel are important in gathering
information about a person who is a reader.
3. Share your list with the class.
4. Bring to school tomorrow a 2" x 3" picture of yourself.
5. Select partners (names drawn from a hat) and exchange photos.
6. Interview your partner using the questions from the board. Record your
partner's responses.
7. Create a quilt square using the photo as the focal point. The quilt
square must have:
= the interview responses
= a border
= use of color
= visual appeal
= neat and legible handwriting or typing
= a focal point
= your name on the back
8. Answer this Open Response Question:
*What have you learned about your partner or from your partner that will
help YOU become a better reader?
*Answer this in paragraph form on a piece of lined paper or you may print
it
out from the computer.
Rubric for Reading Portrait Quilt Square
4 Work exceeds all requirements. Quilt square contains the following: the
name of the subject, the 5 interview responses done in neat and legible
handwriting or typing, a border, use of color, a focal point, and your name
on the back. Quilt square is outstanding in originality, visual appeal and
creativity.
3 Work adequately meets requirements. Quilt square contains some of the
following: the name of the subject, the 5 interview responses handwritten
or
typed, a border, use of color, a focal point, and your name on the back.
Quilt square is average in originality, visual appeal and creativity.
2 Work does not meet all requirements. Quilt square is lacking some or all
of the following: the name of the subject, the 5 interview responses, a
border, use of color, a focal point, and your name on the back. Quilt square
has minimal originality, visual appeal and creativity.
1 Work shows little evidence of meeting requirements. Quilt square is
inadequate for lack of: name of the subject, interview responses, a border,
color, a focal point, and your name on the back. Quilt square is deficient
in originality, visual appeal and creativity.
0 No quilt square prepared for display.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Vlearnserv@aol.com
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 01 ::01 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Charles - rubrics posted
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Regarding Reading Logs - I have a list of 50 questions that my 7th graders
are required to respond to after SSR. We do this on a daily basis. Later
we
will analyze these questions - literal, inferential, critical thinking and
before, during, after reading. I emphasize metacognition - this term is
introduced the first few days of school and reinforced by other teachers
on
the team.
READING RESPONSE QUESTIONS
1. Before you started reading this book/story, what hints did the title
give
you as to what this book was going to be about?
2. Before reading this book/story today, what were your predictions about
the
characters or the plot?
3. What kinds of things should someone know about before trying to read
your book, so that he/she will understand it better?
4. While you were reading today, what did you picture in your mind about
the story?
5. Which character can you connect with the most in your book?
6. Which part of your book are you having the most difficulty understanding
or connecting with?
7. What have you done that is similar to what the characters experience
in
your book?
8. What ideas do you have about the problem in your book?
9. What issue in your book has caused you to think the most?
10. What kind of message does the author want the reader to get from this
book/story?
11. What issue in your book is the most interesting? Upsetting? Familiar?
Ridiculous? Confusing?
12. How does the setting of your book contribute to the mood of the story?
13. What are the problems the main character faces and how are they solved?
14. How do two of the characters in your book differ from each other?
15. Which part of the story caused the most intense feelings in you?
16. How do the minor characters affect the main character?
17. What is the conflict the characters in your book experience and what
are
you learning about them through this conflict?
18. How has this story changed your thinking?
19. How has this story supported your thinking? While you were reading today,
who did the characters remind you of and why?
21. What events and people cause the main character to change?
22. What motivates the main character's decisions?
23. How realistic is the plot of your book?
24. How does the title relate to the story?
25. What historical event is mentioned in your book and why?
26. How did the author make the characters believable?
27. Which character would you like to have as a friend and why?
28. Why do you think the author wrote this book/story?
29. How do the details that the author uses affect you, as the reader?
30. How does the part that you read today fit together with the parts that
you read earlier?
31. What decision has a character made in your book that you totally disagree
with?
32. What keeps going through your head about this book?
33. What do you think will happen in the next section you read?
34. Which character in your book are you the least similar to and why?
35. What have you learned in your book that will be helpful to you in another
class or at another time?
36. How would you solve the problem that the main character has?
37. How does this book compare to another by the same author?
38. Which character has gone through the biggest change in your book and
why?
39. If you could "jump" into your book right now, what would you
do in the
story and why?
40. Which part of your book would you like to go back to and re-read? Why?
41. What has been the most difficult part of this book and why do you think
that is so?
42. Who would have the most difficulty understanding this book and why?
43. How has the author's style or language appealed to you?
44. What ideas have you gotten from this book for a story of your own?
45. What kind of people should read this book and why?
46. What information or knowledge did you already have that helped you to
understand this book better?
47. Which part of what you read today were you able to visualize the best
and why?
48. What personal event in your life does this book remind you of and why?
49. What strategy did you use while you were reading today to help clear
up
any confusion you were having?
50. What other events, people, or situations has this book caused you to
think about and why?
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMES@aol.com
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 01 :26:24 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Reading program and an idea to teach inferring
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Amy,
I'd love to hear more about your use of graphic organizers as you teach
inferring. Could you talk more about how the students fill out the puzzle
pieces for a particular story, etc. I'd love to hear/read/see some student
work based on the organizers, too.
Thanks,
Juli
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Lit8teacher@aol.com
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 01 21:35:09 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Charles - rubrics posted
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
In a message dated 9/11/01 8:21:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Vlearnserv@aol.com writes:
<< I have a list of 50 questions that my 7th graders
are required to respond to after SSR. We do this on a daily basis. >>
Thanks for sharing! I need a bit of clarification--they have to answer 50
questions on a daily basis, or do they pick and choose which questions to
answer?
LeeAnn
===========================
From: Vlearnserv@aol.com
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 20:30:05 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Reading Responses
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
The Reading Responses are done daily in response to what they have read
during SSR. They choose one question to answer per day. I grade these
weekly to monitor which types of questions they are answering.
Vickie
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 21:26:28 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Charles - rubrics posted
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Hi LeeAnn,
I had to reformat my curriculum map to fit in lessons on Emergency Procedures
in my foreign language classes and prep some materials on Accountable Talk,
so this is the first chance I've had to write back. Apparently Juli sent
John my file of Rubrics and he posted them. I thought she was going to look
them over we would talk about them and then I would send them in so that's
why there were two Reading Log Rubrics. The first I generated over the
Summer. I took home all of the unwanted Reading Logs and read them. I had
had a six point rubric that was based on Summarizing that our reading
department created a couple of years ago. I wanted to standardize the
rubrics so that they were all four pointers because some of the rubrics
I
used had six and some four. I noticed that some of the kids were confused.
By the end of the year last year, my ELLs were primarily writing fours,
and
fives in about three paragraphs.
When I took my baseline after the first day of school, I checked the work
against the rubric and revised it. Last class time, they actually got the
rubric and we went through and highlighted one or two words in each bullet.
Tomorrow, I'm pulling groups and we will be evaluating a friends rubric
and
we will begin building a reading log check list to see if they have all
of
the information, Title, author, an opinon etc. I will take that time to
teach
all of the little parts. My kids writing was a lot lower than I thought
it
would be. So I really want to focus on engagement. It's kind of a tough
group.
I'm finding with them more than any, I almost need the small group
structure for everything so that I'm sure the little bits don't slip through
the cracks. I'm hitting the homework reading calendar really hard this year
too. I know we're not supposed to, but I'm prepared to go with the extrinsic
reward system more than ever. If something else doesn't make sense, let
me
know.
Charles.
---------------------------------------------------------------
*Juli's Journal*
Week #2
"How We Began Our Readers Workshop"
Juli Kendall
Long Beach, CA
Read Juli's journal #2
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 23:39:00 EDT
Subject: [MWprojects] Reader's Workshop, Day Three
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Wow!
Today was my first opportunity to meet with small groups. I began the
day with filling out planners and homework checking. Of the twenty-two kids,
I am having eighteen show up regularly. Of the sixteen that were there
today, four had the reading calendar complete with all of the information
and a parent signature. For them, they got a Jolly Rancher and I let them
pick
what kind. Nobody likes grape. Four people didn't have their regular
planners, nor did they have the temporary planner filled out after three
periods. Another had a temporary planner but forgot that he had it until
we
cleaned out our backpacks at the end of the period.
After this, we took a phonics pretest. Some wanted to work ahead on the
test and others kept with me item by item. I passed out folders and markers,
set my expectations about what I wanted them to do. After one or two stops,
everybody settled in and began working. While they were working on putting
together their folders, I pulled a group and we took a three minute reading
comprehension test, and scored reading logs. I reserved the last twenty
minutes of class for Independent reading to see what would happen.
It sounds like a dismal day BUT for me, it was probably the most
delicious assessment filled day for me even though I didn't got to meet
with
each student personally. Why? There was only one student of the sixteen
that I could observe who didn't appear to care about doing his best, although
the class was filled with little hiccups, upsets, and quirky little problems
that had to be managed. In the group that did the comprehension test, one
student got eight out of eight correct which placed him at a sixth grade
fifth month reading level on that selection, the rest were leveling at second
and third grade. When I asked them to look at the test and tell me what
was
missing, three out of five immediately responded "the title."
I told them to
put a title that told the main idea. They were excited to put the test in
their folders (I'm not sure why, but it seemed important: they kept asking,
"Do we get to put this in our folders?")
We also started building our Reading Log Checklist. I told them that
they couldn't score higher than a One, unless they had the following
information in their reading log: The date, The Title, The Author, A summary,
and an Evaluation (Opinion) recommendation about the book.
During Independent reading time, we made it about twelve minutes before
we started having to go to the bathroom. Half of the kids subvocalise while
they read, and one student tried to hide his motocross magazine because
he
thought I was going to get mad at him, even though my instruction was to
bring anything they wanted to read for independent reading. About four kids
needed to check out books and two of these picked the same book so that
they could read it together. Only one student didn't read at all. (The same
one
from before.)
How I have improved as an instructor: I didn't take ANY of this personally.
I know and understand that I am sitting in the presence of really really
reluctant readers. My powers of observation have really improved, and I
have
a sense of how to go about taking the baby steps that I will need to have
to
take to begin to move them forward. They are going to need first and
foremost, those real basic organizational skills to help them be successful.
I am going to pare down and eliminate anything that feels extra or truly
unnecessary so that we have a real streamlined program. I need to get some
temporary planners to have in my room, and my scoring guide will include
having the planner filled out completely. My reward will be the privilege
of
going to the bathroom. I am going to continue rewarding the kids who have
their Homework Reading calendar filled out and am getting ready to generate
a
Reading Calendar scoring guide. I could go on for hours.
Wow.
Charles.
---------------------------------------------------------------
*Juli's Journal*
Week #3
The Heart of the Matter:
Independent Reading and Assessments
Read Juli's journal #3
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: ATheins77@aol.com
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 20:45:01 EDT
Subject: [MWprojects] Inferring puzzle
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Julie had written that she wanted to know more about the inferring puzzle.
I'm really enjoying doing them, but have slowed down this time to talk about
how we infer. I usually don't use that word "inferring". I throw
it in
occasionally, but we have been talking in terms of answering questions that
are not exactly in the text. What I should have done, and will do next time
is give some literal questions with the stories and talk about different
strategies to find both kinds of answers. I've always given kids the
question to focus on.
For example, last week, we worked on a short story from Jamestown Publishers
called "The Autopsy". It's about a medical examiner who figures
out one of her patients is an alien, but everyone wants to try to stop her,
especially a policeman that she calls to report her findings. At the end
of the story, she finds a numbers on the back of the alien's wristwatch,
calls it, and it happens to be the policeman. The medical examiner tells
the policeman she
dialed the wrong number when she realizes who it is. The question was, "Why
does the medical examiner say she dialed the wrong number when she calls
the policeman?" We discuss as a class because a typical answer might
be, "She feared for her job." That's part of it, but we also discuss
the relationship
between the policeman and the alien. Are they both aliens? As we discuss,
kids put their answers in the center of the inferring puzzle and the clues
around it. I simply want kids to be looking for clues in text and really
reading. That's what we have been focusing on.
> Amy,
>
> I'd love to hear more about your use of graphic organizers as you teach
> inferring. Could you talk more about how the students fill out the
puzzle
> pieces for a particular story, etc. I'd love to hear/read/see some
student
> work based on the organizers, too.
> Juli
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMES@aol.com
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 22:47:37 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Inferring puzzle
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Amy wrote about her experience doing "inferring puzzles" with
her students.
"I'm really enjoying doing them, but have slowed down this time to
talk about how we infer."
Amy,
I really benefitted from your great description of how you are doing these
lesssons. I am curious about why you have slowed down this time. Was it
based on the students' work or what you determined their needs to be? Are
your classes now similar to others where you have worked on this?
Thanks for letting me ask some questions,
Juli
----------------------------------------------------------------
From: ATheins77@aol.com
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 23:32:20 EDT
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Inferring puzzle
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
Juli - This is actually the first year I have used this inferring puzzle.
When I said "this time," I was talking about my second group of
kids. On my
team, we see each group of twenty-five kids for reading class twice -- first
in a three week session and then in a six week session. The students rotate
between us. I have slowed down this time because in the first rotation of
my
reading class, I felt like the kids had learned how to fill in the puzzle
but
really hadn't connected what they were doing to everyday thinking and
reading. We've been discussing connecting your brain to the text,
visualizing, summarizing. Inferring is complicated business!
Hope that helps -
Amy Heinsma
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMES@aol.com
Amy,
How right you are! Inferring is complicated business. We're working this
year to use thinking maps to help students build connections to the text
they are reading. We are starting with visualization. Then we are moving
to inferential question stems that require students to think at higher levels.
We are seeing lots of interesting things such as students taking on the
language we are using to teach them. Example:
talking about the main idea of a passage when they are discussing a book
after "partner reading." It's been really exciting to see these
changes.
Congratulations on the progress you are making helping your students infer.
It's tough work but it's worthwhile.
Juli
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Hi Juli!
I've met with all of my groups individually and have taken them through
the Reading Log Scoring Rubric. I asked them to evaluate their own and the
Reading log of the person next to them. It was interesting to see that one
group emotionally could not handle someone else seeing their work, so with
them, they just scored their own. I began developing a checklist to get
them thinking about what information should actually be in the Log. The
lesson was, "Check to see if you have all of this information. If you
do, then it is at least a Two" This was the first incarnation. Reading
Log Checklist:
To score at least a 2, I need:
The Date
The Title
The Author
A summary (what happened?)
An Evaluation of the book so far (I would or would not recommend this book)
Neat work
I had to modify the Evaluation because the construction "would or would
not recommend this book" was confusing. I broke it up into two parts
I would recommend this book because. . . . I would not recommend this book
because. .
I'm off to a department meeting,
Charles.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMES@aol.com
Nickandcharles@aol.com writes:
<< I had to modify the Evaluation because the construction would or
would not recommend this book was confusing. >>
Charles,
Remember all the conversations we have had about analytic versus wholistic
scoring guide/rubrics. I have found that it works well for at-risk readers
to start with the analytic (checklist style) and then move into the wholistic.
Do you think that is the direction you will go with your Reading Log Checklist?
I love the fact that you modified yours based on the would/would not construction.
I'm going back to mine (it's still evolving) and see if I can rework that
part.
Thanks for sharing,
Juli
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Beverly Maddox" <bmaddox1@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Inferring
I enjoyed reading Amy's and Juli's exchange on inferring. I, too, have slowed
down with my reading/writing workshop class (8th graders in a 2 pd. block,
who are generally reading and writing far below grade level). I'm doing
more discussion as we go along, modeling, questioning, waiting--much like
Amy described.
One thing I did in previous years wass explain the difference between literal
and inferential questions--then tried to get kids to label questions and
discuss the answers. I'm getting far better response this year, and I think
we're ready to start labeling the questions. It has been a great leap for
some of them to actually reflect on the inferential type questions, but
they seem to enjoy the discussions more and more. For the first week or
two, they were very timid about tendering an answer; wait times were as
long as 3 minutes sometimes.
I find they do better if they write a little on the more inferential questions,
then share their ideas. Don't you love the heady feeling you get when the
kids begin to discuss and make connections more deeply? Sometimes it just
raised the hair on my arms!
(which is a better feeling than raising the hair on the back of my neck....)
Beverly Maddox
Little Rock, AR
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Subject: Re: Checklist vs. Rubric (What, more?)
Hi everyone,
I realized that I never talked about what I'm seeing as the significant
difference between generating a checklist vs. using a rubric as the primary
evaluation tool for writing about reading in my reader's workshop. I see
the checklist as a simple list of ingredients, much like a recipe for baking
a cake. "You need this and this and this and this." Just throwing
all of those things into a bowl does not a cake make. As each tiny piece
of instruction is taught and internalized, it can be added to the checklist.
The list then becomes a prompt for the student to more successfully execute
the reading log entry. The rubric measures a higher level of metacognitive
control in a wholistic way.
Ultimately, I'm working toward "Writing More About What You Think About
What You Read," rather than "Writing More About What You Read."
My observation is that most of my kids have difficulty writing summaries.
Usually, in the beginning I've gotten retellings with way too much information.
If I analyze the task they have to be able to determine importance and link
all of the events and details in the selection with a larger main idea,
theme, or author's purpose.
With the rubric, making those highjumps from a one or a two to a two or
a three is alot harder for these guys because the jumps are too high. With
the checklist, they can still build and move forward however, and I can
continue to measure growth over time. They may start out at a one or two,
and stay there for a long time, but I will still be able to see some kind
of growth.
I'm using the checklist in tandem with the rubric and teaching both of those
at the same time as an improvement over what happened last year in one of
my classes. We built the checklist and then when I saw that most of the
kids were ready, switched over to the rubric which became confusing to them.
I saw that it was really hard for them to shift gears and think in this
different way.
Charles.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Subject: Grouping Kids
Hi Juli,
I just read your third week diary entry and would like to hear about how
you have grouped your kids. I read that you taught the independent reading
rubric. Did you do this whole class, or in small groups? I'm finding that
much of my instruction slips through the cracks in the whole setting and
that it's been alot easier to have a conversation about student work and
reading when they are right in front of me. Can you talk a little about
this?
Also, you wrote:
<< When we are moving to inferential question stems that require
students to think at higher levels. >>
What might a sample of the question stems be?
Charles.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: SKosmoski@aol.com
Subject: Re: Inferring puzzle
Hi all-- Inferring is one of the hardest skills I have had to teach! But,
I taught a lesson the other day and realized the kids were inferring without
my help--and without my intent.
I was working with a group of 8th graders in their American History class.
I had a transparency on the overhead of the famous painting of George Washington
crossing the Delaware River. The conversation centered around--What is happening
in the picture? The more we talked the more they were able to make good
solid inferences. For example--one of the men grasps what looks like a locket
in his hand--they must miss someone who gave them the locket or who actually
owns the locket. I'm going to try and tap into that in my reading class.
Mary Anne
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Subject: Re: Inferring
bmaddox1@mindspring.com writes:
<< Don't you love the heady feeling you get when the kids begin to
discuss and make connections more deeply? Sometimes it just raised the hair
on my arms! (which is a better feeling than raising the hair on the back
of my neck....) >>
Beverly,
That last sentence was the cutest. I have been leaving school everyday that
I have my reading class almost feeling high because I'm actually seeing
little lightbulbs go off and the kids making connections. I'm so glad to
have the support and ideas from this branch of the list.
Charles.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMES@aol.com
Subject: Re: Grouping Kids
Charles,
This year for a change I am using mini-lessons with the whole class to plant
instruction and then conferencing individually with students, 3 to 5 every
day, to check for understanding and monitor and adjust. I'm using small
groups for guided reading based on running record assessments. These groups
are where I am doing wrod work or strategy lessons. We're just beginning
the guided reading piece so I will know b etter in a week or two how it
all comes together but so far so good.
We've been focusing on the difference between fiction and non-fiction. When
we get that together we will move on to poetry, biography, historical fiction,
etc.
About stems:
I have the question stems for inference at school and will try to remember
to bring them home early next week and send some samples to the Reading
Workshop list.
Thanks for asking,
Juli
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Re: Grouping Kids
Hi Juli
Thanks for the quick response. How big's your group? What are the ELL language
levels like? Are you finding that you're actually able to use the minilessons
exactly from the text, or do you allow for a little healthy drift and innovation?
What are some of the small steps you're taking? I've been considering that
I'm going too slow, but then I suppose that's what everyone is worried about
and moving as fast or as slow as they must. I'm kind of stuck in this place
of "Well, if I were really an effective teacher we'd be reading blah,
blah, blah. . ." I joined a book study about "Classroom Instruction
that Works." It was interesting. They're spending a lot of time around
Graphic Organizers. I'm not real clear here.
Charles
---------------------------------------------------------------
EDITOR'S NOTE: It might be worth noting that Juli and Charles are in
the same school district, and Juli was a mentor for Charles at his middle
school last year. But we can all still learn from their conversation!
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nickandcharles@aol.com
Subject: Re: Inferring puzzle
Hi again Juli!
I looked at the stems from the benchmark bookmark templates. I'm afraid
to go there because I'm still working on procedures and I have to fit in
that Breaking the Code piece. I'm really liking the pulling groups like
what I did with second period last year. This gives me time for the read
aloud, a BTC lesson and two or three groups. I'm worried about the consistency
thing and having them fall apart because the structure won't be as regular.
Also, our tech person is looking into getting the gateway system up and
running. I'll need to spend time with that and figuring how to structure
the class with that as a new feature. Mr. Lincoln's helping, so it could
be well into the holidays. Oh well. Tell me it's okay to not go too fast.
Charles.
--------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMES@aol.com
Subject: Re: Grouping Kids
In a message dated 9/21/01 7:44:51 PM, Nickandcharles@aol.com writes:
<< How big's your group? What are the ELL language levels like? Are
you finding that you're actually able to use the minilessons exactly from
the text, or do you allow for a little healthy drift and innovation? What
are some of the small steps you're taking? I've been considering that I'm
going too slow, but then I suppose that's what everyone is worried about
and moving as fast or as slow as they must. >>
The classes I work with have from 14 to 35 students. I tried to keep the
groups down to 6 but several have 7 students. Their English Language levels
go from beginning (just arrived from Mexico or Cambodia) to Advanced. I
have plenty of drift and innovations in the minilessons. This week we are
focusing on learning to retell orally. We'll focus just on gettling the
plot correct at first and then branch out to non-fiction. We are going slowly
- one small piece each day - and then stopping to check for understanding
and reteach as necessary. I am determined not to let the groups snowball
ahead of me.
I do think you are right that we all feel we are moving too slowly. But
if kids don't get it then what difference does moving quickly ahead make
when many are left behind.
In a message dated 9/21/01 7:53:15 PM, Nickandcharles@aol.com writes:
<< Tell me it's okay to not go too fast. >>
Remember if you go too fast, you are probably the only one who will be going
fast. Many others will probably just tune out, and we know what that means
for learning and engaging students in Reading.
Juli
--------------------------------------------------------
From: John Norton <jcroftn1@mindspring.com>
Subject: [MWprojects] Juli's Journal #4 + PDF files
Hi, folks... Here's Juli's fourth journal.
http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/JK04.html
She's also sent along two PDF files:
Her October curriculum map
http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWdownld/10CurrMap.pdf
The Reading Assessment Flowchart / Part 1 -- "This is our first
handout for helping teachers select/level books for students,"
http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWdownld/ReadAssessFlow1.pdf
These are very small PDF files, easy to download and open. I
encourage everyone on the list to check them out, read Juli's journal
and ask questions, throw out observations, and generally PARTICIPATE!
John
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Lit8teacher@aol.com
Subject: [MWprojects] a frustration
I know that there isn't much I can do to remedy this situation except to
muddle through it, but here it is: I have gotten through the teaching of
all but one literature circle role (illustrator is left-I figure that one
won't be too hard for them!) So I am getting ready to begin the process
of having them select novels and get started in the actual process-----and
two new students walk in my door today! I can only hope that I have done
a good enough job with the rest of the class that they can walk them through
whatever roles they get assigned--perhaps I should stick to the less-challenging
roles for them for a bit?
LeeAnn
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: KathleenA Renfrew <karenfrew@earthlink.net>
Subject: [MWprojects] book club
Hello all,
I have been working on reading workshop since the beginning of school. I
am going to try and implement Book Club tomorrow. This format is a bit
different from the literature circles model.
One of the things it does is tend to use one book for the whole class.
Obviously this will not work for all kids without some supports but the
format does provide a way for me to integrate science and social studies
fairly easily. Book Club was researched and developed by Taffy Raphael.
I heard about it during my literacy course this summer and purchased the
book s just last week. Does anyone else use this format?
I am looking for titles of picture books or fiction books at the 5th or
6th grade level that are set somewhere else in the world. I am trying to
make connections to my world geography unit.
I know this is more writing workshop than reading but i just finished
giving my kids some spelling inventories that came from a book called
Words Their Way. it even has some content inventories and it would
definitely be appropriate for all middle school if you were looking for
something new in the way of spelling and word study. This is a
particular itch of mine.
Kathy from vermont
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: MAMASWIRLZ@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] book club
In a message dated 9/25/01 6:39:42 PM, karenfrew@earthlink.net writes:
<< I am looking for titles of picture books or fiction books at the
5th or
6th grade level that are set somewhere else in the world. I am trying to
make connections to my world geography unit.
>>
Fire On The Mountain (Ethiopian Folk Tale)
The Most Beautiful Place in the World (Guatamala) Ann Cameron
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Japan) Eleanor Coerr
The Day Gogo Went to Vote: South Africa Elinor Sisulu
The Magic Bean Tree: A Legend from Argentina Nancy Van Laan
Naomi
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMES@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] book club
In a message dated 9/25/01 6:39:52 PM, karenfrew@earthlink.net writes:
<< i just finished
giving my kids some spelling inventories that came from a book called
Words Their Way. it even has some content inventories and it would
definitely be appropriate for all middle school >>
Karen,
I've used this book extensively but have never been able to talk/share with
anyone in a content area who used the content inventories. They seem like
a
great idea to me. Maybe we can find someone who is using it or who would
like to try and could then share what they find with us. Anyone out there?
Juli
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: SKosmoski@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] book club
Kathy--
I just finished reading "Child of the Owl" by Laurence Yep. Although
it is
set in San Fransico's Chinatown, it is the story of a young Chinese American
girl who is finding that being Chinese is very special indeed. She goes
to
live with her grandmother who teaches her about her homeland and traditions
and customs. It is written on about the fifth grade level. I intend to use
exerpts with sixth grade geography.
Would you talk a little more about the format for a "book club."
It sounds
alittle like Janet Allen's version of shared reading--words past print with
voice support. I've done alittle of this using Roald Dahl's "The Witches."
Seventh graders love it!
Mary Anne
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Anne Jolly" <jolly61@home.com>
Subject: [MWprojects] teaching reading - together?
Just wondered - in light of the wonderful ideas and information this
projects list is providing -
How many of you locate and use readinig strategies incorporate these into
your practice as a individual activity within your school?
Do any of you regularly share ideas with other teachers in your school?
And . . . do any of you work together with other teachers in your school
to
collectively develop and prepare reading activities around a common focus
or
goal?
Thanks - Anne
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jan Jewell <vjan_jewell@edmond.k12.ok.us>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] teaching reading - together?
I must tell you all, I have printed off so many wonderful ideas to share
with my colleagues! We have English classes and also a required core class
called Reading/Writing Workshop. I have shared with all of these teachers
and we are all enjoying the ideas. Thank you!
Jan Jewell
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sbscampisme@cs.com
Subject: A bit of a pickle
Having taught only 7th grade honors language arts and reading classes for
the past 8 years I am now in a bit of a pickle- I have one "regular"
reading
class and am finding that they are quite low achievers. I have 5 boys in
the
class that are very reluctant readers and I am not sure if they CAN'T read
or
WON'T read. I have modified some work for them and they are achieving
success but before I go any further can anyone recommend a good reading
skills test that would really help me to understand where their weaknesses
are? We have the STAR reading test on the computer but I don't like it-
not
enough information. Also does anyone do timed reading selections? Are they
helpful and useful? I am finding that those who can read in this class read
really slowly. Painfully slowly.
Thanks for any information.
Sally
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Melba Smithwick <melbayvette@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] ESL students
Vicki,
I just remembered a cool little gadget that I used
with my ESL students. The kit containied sets of cards
with a light pen, a set of headphones, and an
amplifier of some sort. It was about 8 years ago, so I
can't quite remember what it was called. Maybe someone
on the list will know. Anyway, when the student swiped
the pen across the words, they would hear the words
read to them so the students could repeat it. The
program that was used before this light pen was called
a language master (I just dated myself). It's like
that except that the headphones provide more privacy
and with the light pen, the students see and read the
words as they hear them. I hope someone on this list
can give this thing a name. I think it would be a
tremendous help to your ESL students.
Melba
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Norton <jcroftn1@mindspring.com>
Subject: [MWprojects] Welcome new list members!
Hi, folks...
This week I mentioned our Reading Workshop project/discussion in
MiddleWeb's weekly e-newsletter. As a result, we have 6-7 new folks
who have joined the chat. They've been directed to our homepage for
the discussion, where they can find a fairly up--to-date record of
the discussion, plus Juli's journals, the page for downloads, etc.
I encourage our new members to let us know something about
themselves, why they're interested in this chat, and what they'd like
to talk about!
John Norton
Your friendly MiddleWeb Listserv Custodian
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: MAMASWIRLZ@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] teaching reading - together?
I have been kind of quiet this year. Starting in my new school has been
a
challenge, but Anne's question about using reading strategies and regularly
sharing ideas was a perfect segue for me.
At my new school we have staff developers from Australia from an organization
called A.U.S.S.I.E. (Australian Unitied States Student Information Exchange...I
think) Some work with us in Numeracy and some Literacy.
I did the scheduling and created 4 common double preps a week for each team.
During these times the literacy teachers from each team meet to discuss
issues related to running successful reading workshops. We have purchased
baskets and books for all the classrooms (not enough books yet). The staff
developers are helping to set up the rooms and books. In addition, we have
a
team that is assessing the students individually. We can't do all the
students, but are doing those who are most at-risk.
Naomi
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMES@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] book club
In a message dated 9/26/01 2:00:24 AM, SKosmoski@aol.com writes:
<< Would you talk a little more about the format for a "book
club." It sounds alittle like Janet Allen's version of shared reading--words
past print with
voice support. >>
Some resources for reading about "book clubs" or like things -
"Book Clubs," Chapter 20, Pg. 395-427 in The Art of Teaching Reading
by
Lucy Calkins
"Section 4: Literature Study," Pg. 252-300 in Guiding Readers
and Writers
by Fountas and Pinnell
Yellow Brick Roads: Shared and Guided Paths to Independent Reading, by
Janet Allen
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: ATheins77@aol.com
Subject: [MWprojects] Doing literature circles with short stories
Hi, folks. I am starting to plan my six week course that I need to teach
here in a while. My thought is to do literature circles with short stories,
some double-entry journaling and focusing again on strategies that good
readers use. Has anyone else done literature circles with short stories?
This will be the first time I've ever done literature circles at all and
I
wanted some advice for shorter texts if anyone has some. Thanks.
Amy Heinsma
7th Language Arts
Windsor, CO
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: ATheins77@aol.com
Subject: [MWprojects] Timed readings and boy readers
In a message dated 9/26/2001 5:43:20 PM Mountain Daylight Time,
Sbscampisme@cs.com writes:
> Also does anyone do timed reading selections? Are they helpful and
useful? > I am finding that those who can read in this class read really
slowly.
> Painfully slowly.
> Thanks for any information.
I used some old timed reading books my very first year, but I found that
for
struggling readers it was even more frustrating to be on a time limit. I
think one of the best things you can do is read to them and have them read
in
partners to each other to get their fluency and confidence level up. I think
it's really important to have stories that the boys really like so that
they
get interested in reading at all. I found several that work for boys - "The
Autopsy" and "Jones and Smith" out of a book called Caught
by Surprise or
something like that by Jamestown Publishers. One's about an alien and one
is
about a guy living a double life. (e-mail me privately if you want more
information. (Jamestown has lots of high interest things for boys.). 2)
"Fever Dream" by Ray Bradbury (has a disease that takes over a
boy's body)-
ours was in the Great Source Publication Daybooks. 3) "The
Most Dangerous Game" (about hunting men). It has made a huge difference
in getting my boys to read this year. I also think science fiction and fantasy
really appeals
to middle school boys. Hope this helps.
Amy Heinsma
7th Language Arts & Reading.
Windsor, CO
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: MAMASWIRLZ@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] assessing reading
Kathy,
That sounds great. We are using a commercial kit that is good. There is
a
general survey for all students about reading attitude. Then there are cards
with leveled reading passages and a running record form. Someone ordered
it
last year and it turns our that it fits with what we are doing this year.
Naomi
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jan Jewell <vjan_jewell@edmond.k12.ok.us>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] teaching reading-together
What is I Read It But I Don't Get It. Interesting title!
Jan Jewell
Susie wrote:
> At our school, our faculty meetings are professional development based.
For
> example, at one meeting last year my principal and I presented some
of the
> ideas from I Read it, but I Don't Get It.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Norton
Subject: "I Read It"
Jan...
I'm so glad you asked! After months of procrastinating, I've finally finished
editing a chat we had about "I Read It But I Don't Get It" late
last spring. Here's the full discussion:
http://www.middleweb.com/MWLISTCONT/MSLreaditchat.html
You'll also find a link to a page with more information about the book.
The author, Cris Tovani, joined us for part of the chat. I've also sent
her some questions that didn't get answered in the discussion and she's
promised to provide some further answers when her schedule allows.
John
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Shighley@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] teaching reading-together
At our school, our faculty meetings are professional development based.
For
example, at one meeting last year my principal and I presented some of the
ideas from I Read it, but I Don't Get It. Next week we plan to use some
things from the 90/90/90 schools from Douglas Reeves (suggested and
summarized by MiddleWeb member Larry Tash).
Some of our teaching teams do plan activities together, and many of our
teachers focused on math and reading skills before our state testing (which
is already over). But, as in many cases, we could really improve in the
follow-up!
Susie
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: KathleenA Renfrew <karenfrew@earthlink.net>
Subject: [MWprojects] assessing reading
Naomi wrote:
> In addition, we have a
> team that is assessing the students individually. We can't do all the
> students, but are doing those who are most at-risk.
I am going to try and find out about what book level my children are reading.
I have copied a page from a level R, S, T and so on book. I am going to
do running records individually on kids , granted I only have 12 kids. I
will let you know more soon.
Kathy
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: MAMASWIRLZ@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] assessing reading
Kathy,
That sounds great. We are using a commercial kit that is good. There is
a
general survey for all students about reading attitude. Then there are cards
with leveled reading passages and a running record form. Someone ordered
it last year and it turns our that it fits with what we are doing this year.
Naomi
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: SKosmoski@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] teaching reading - together?
Anne
We have weekly curriculum meetings where we meet as grade level teams to
share what is working in our classrooms. These are district mandated, but
we
tend to have fun with them. We bring food and "goodies." We have
been known to have contests--and just be silly.
Mary Anne
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: SKosmoski@aol.com
Subject: [MWprojects] working with "reading in the content areas"
Hi all--
I have been working with my content area teachers to get them to understand
that we all teach reading. I started by using this simple survey that gets
all of us to clarify our beliefs on teaching reading. One of things I learned
by doing this is that as teachers we all want what is best for our kids.
But many of our content teachers are afraid to "teach it wrong".
They are struggling with the fact they feel like they "can't"
teach reading--not that they don't want to.
I even have one social studies teacher who is teaching geography with pictures
and maps--he knows the kids can't read the book-he wants them to learn geography.
He doesn't want the fact they can't read the text to get in their way. I
want to hug him--at the same time I want to scream at him--they have to
read text! Do I sound frustrated?
Mary Anne
Inventory of Attitudes and Beliefs
About Implementing Reading and Writing
Strategies In Your Content Classroom
Directions: Read the following statements and indicate how you feel about
each by using the following system:
Strongly agree-SA
Agree-A
Undecided-U
Disagree-D
Strongly Disagree-SD
_____ 1. The principal and other teachers will disapprove if I employ many
reading and writing strategies in my classroom.
_____ 2. I will not have time to implement reading and writing strategies
in my classroom because I must spend most of the time teaching the content.
_____ 3. In middle and secondary school, the teaching of reading should
be the responsibility of the reading teacher and the teaching of writing
should be the responsibility of the English teacher.
_____ 4. Students should already know how to read my textbook when they
enter my class.
_____ 5. If I give reading assignments, I should not have to help my students
read and learn from the material I assign.
_____ 6. Writing can be used in my classroom to improve learning.
_____ 7. I am very aware of the reading and writing needs of my students
and am in the best position to teach to those needs relative to the course
content.
_____ 8. If students in my class cannot read my textbook, it is not my responsibility
to show them how.
_____ 9. It is just as important for my students to learn how to learn as
it is for them to learn content information.
_____ 10. I believe the language systems (reading, writing, speaking, listening)
can be used as vehicles for learning the subject matter.
Adapted from Brozo, W.G. and Simpson, M.L. Readers, Teachers, Learners:
Expanding Literacy Across the Content Areas, 3rd ed., Upper Saddle,
New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1999.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Jeanne Post" <JPOST@MAIL.NYSED.GOV>
Subject: [MWprojects] Greetings
I'm one of the new participants John mentioned. I've been a reading
specialist for many years, but for the past several my day to day job has
been a bit removed from the classroom level. I'm a "regional field
liaison for school improvement" for the New York State Education Department
.
What that means in day to day work is that I work with teachers and
administrators instead of kids. So, my responses are more likely to be
that I've seen something really neat in Binghamton, Elmira, or one of my
other assigned districts. This time, I'd like to begin with a program
I've observed in Watkins Glen, where fifth graders learn to do running
records and tutor second graders, with benefits for both the older and
younger children. Engaging kids in activities that are important to them,
and help them connect with others is one way to involve them in reading.
Watkins Glen students love participating - both the second and fifth
graders - and both are becoming better readers.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Lit8teacher@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] working with "reading in the content areas"
Mary Anne wrote:
<<<I started by using this simple survey that gets
all of us to clarify our beliefs on teaching reading. >>>
What a great inventory! Can you share what you did next? How did you go
about the "battle" of beginning to change their perceptions on
teaching reading?
LeeAnn
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Lit8teacher@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Greetings
Jeanne wrote:
<<<This time, I'd like to begin with a program I've observed in
Watkins Glen, where fifth graders learn to do running records and tutor
second graders, with benefits for both the older and younger children.
>>>>>>>>>>
What a fabulous idea! I think I may talk to the 5th grade teachers in my
building about doing something like this (my 8th graders working with 5th)
LeeAnn
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Norton <jcroftn1@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Timed readings and boy readers
AMY WROTE:
>I used some old timed reading books my very first year, but I found
>that for struggling readers it was even more frustrating to be on a
>time limit. I think one of the best things you can do is read to
>them and have them read in partners to each other to get their
>fluency and confidence level up. I think it's really important to
>have stories that the boys really like so that they get interested
>in reading at all. I found several that work for boys - "The
>Autopsy" and "Jones and Smith" out of a book called Caught
by
>Surprise or something like that by Jamestown Publishers. One's about
>an alien and one is about a guy living a double life. (e-mail me
>privately if you want more information. (Jamestown has lots of high
>interest things for boys.). 2) "Fever Dream" by Ray Bradbury
(has
>a disease that takes over a boy's body)- ours was in the Great
>Source Publication Daybooks. 3) "The Most Dangerous Game"
(about
>hunting men)
>
Testimony of one boy: I loved "The Most Dangerous Game." I found
it on the web, so you won't need to buy a book:
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/MosDan.shtml
This is a terrific website by the way, with lots of free stories:
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Norton <jcroftn1@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] running records
Jeanne wrote:
>This time, I'd like to begin with a program I've observed in
>Watkins Glen, where fifth graders learn to do running records and tutor
>second graders, with benefits for both the older and younger children.
Jeanne...tell us more about how the 5th graders learn to do running records!
John
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Janet/Tom Smith" <jtsmith1@adelphia.net>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] teaching reading-together
Hi! "I Read it, But I Don't Get It" is a wonderful book by Cris
Tovani. You
can get it through Stenhouse Publishers (http://www.stenhouse.com)
I have used it for the past 5 weeks in my 7th and 8th grade reading classes
(along with Harvey's "Strategies that Work" and Allen's "The
Yellow Brick Road") and have never had such enthusiastic readers! The
kids can't wait to come to class and can't stop reading!
J. Smith,
Conneaut, OH
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Ellen Berg" <ellen.berg@eudoramail.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Doing literature circles with short stories
Amy wrote:
>My thought is to do literature circles with short stories, Has anyone
else >done literature circles with short stories?...I wanted some advice
for shorter >texts if anyone has some.
Amy,
I think it is wise to start lit circles with short stories. The kids can
get instant feedback without the pressure of sustaining roles.
One of my VERY favorite short stories is "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros.
I just read it to my class today, and they connected so deeply with it!
There are issues of teachers and adults being "right" because
they are older and in charge, feelings of being laughed at, our insecurities
when handling difficult situations...I love it.
Another story that goes along with "Eleven" is "The Jacket"
by Gary Soto. Young Gary Soto has to wear an ugly, guacamole colored jacket
that his mother buys, and he blames his poor grades, lack of friends, and
no female companionship from 5-7th grade on the ugly jacket.
Ellen Berg
Turner Middle
St. Louis, MO
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jan Jewell <vjan_jewell@edmond.k12.ok.us>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Literature circles
OK - sorry if this seems like something I should already know. (I have just
switched after 12 years of teaching emotionally disturbed/behavior
disordered to teaching 7th grade learning disabilities. I am determined
to
expose my students to material as challenging and enriching as I can while
still accommodating their needs.)
Could you explain how you do your literature circle? We are doing short
stories right now and I would like some additional activities. Thank you!
Jan Jewell
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: KathleenA Renfrew <karenfrew@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] assessing reading
Naomi wrote:
> Kathy,
>
> That sounds great. We are using a commercial kit that is good. There
is a
> general survey for all students about reading attitude. Then there
are cards
> with leveled reading passages and a running record form. Someone ordered
it
> last year and it turns our that it fits with what we are doing this
year.
We actually had something like this last year but it did not give me a level
for
kids. I used a piece of text in the beginning of sixth grade and a different
piece at the end of the year. What it did was let me know if students were
at
grade level in the area of reading fluency and reading comprehension.
Comprehension was based on an initial oral retelling of the first page of
the
text and three higher level questions the student answered after they completed
the reading. This was good fro assessing/ reporting but it didn't anything
to help me with instruction. I am hoping when I am done with my makeshift
assessment I will have an approximate instructional level of each child.
then I will be able to begin to put together some guided reading groups
or
pairs. I hope I can keep the groups flexible and really teach the kids specific
skills that they need.
Kathy
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: NRreads@aol.com
Subject: Re: Lit circles
For Amy,
I have used Lit circles with picture books just to get the kids going and
it is much easier for me to model what I'm looking for. Works great! Most
important tip:model, model, model what you want them to do. I work with
struggling readers, but really not that different for "reg ed"
kids.
Nancy
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMES@aol.com
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] running records
Jeanne wrote:
<< This time, I'd like to begin with a program I've observed in Watkins
Glen,
where fifth graders learn to do running records and tutor second graders,
with benefits for both the older and younger children. Engaging kids in
activities that are important to them, and help them connect with others
is
one way to involve them in reading. Watkins Glen students love participating
- both the second and fifth graders - and both are becoming better readers.>>
I worked at a middle school where high achieving 8th graders worked with
6th graders struggling with reading. They did running rec ords, helped with
Writer's Workshop, managed books for different levels and generally worked
as student tutors. I employed several in my classroom with great success.
This program was very well received by the 6th graders who were mostly
English Language Learners. The 8th graders received service learning credit
for these activities. We did training sessions at pizza luncheons and donut
breakfasts. It was really lots of fun.
Juli
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Melba Smithwick <melbayvette@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [MWprojects] Using ideas from the list
Anne Jolly asked how we are using ideas we get from this discussion.
Funny you should ask. I frequently/weekly actually send e-mails to my faculty
with ideas and websites that I have learned to cut & paste from the
list. It
has made my job as staff developer so effective and made me look good. My
teachers think I work so hard searching for these wonderful ideas and websites!
I do give credit where credit is due, but nonetheless, they
appreciate it. In fact, the math teachers in 3 middle schools use the math
journal ideas and websites. I absolutely love this avenue! I have learned
so much from everyone and I see these ideas being used, modified and displayed
every week on my campus.
The common focus on my campus is literacy. I have provided staff development
in read-alouds, think-alouds, retelling, questions strategies, double column
notes, CRISS vocabulary strategies and done some demonstrations with my
faculty. In fact, tomorrow, our new superintendent and his assistant superintendent
will be learning how to do a learning walk. The trainers are Dr. George
Perry, my principal, and guess who?-me! We will be looking for evidence
of literacy. I am soooo nervous. The teachers always know the focus for
each walkthrough so it should go well.
Melba
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Norton
Subject: Lois Lowry/censorship
Although it's a little off-topic, I thought this article someone sent me
today from a Mass. newspaper might be of interest. We've been discussing
high-interest books. Have you encountered books that your students loved
but that parents and/or principals wanted to avoid?
John
--------------------------------------
Author sets minds thinking
Friday, September 28, 2001
HOLDEN-- The children, adults and college students who had gathered in the
Holden Senior Center to hear Lois Lowry discuss her book "The Giver"
looked bewildered as she began.
"God is not pleased with you," she said, reading from a letter
from a Scranton, Pa., mother.
Ms. Lowry had been invited to speak by Gale Free Library in recognition
of Banned Books Week. It is a subject with which she is very familiar, but
even in her familiarity she is not always prepared for the criticism.
She was not prepared, for example, for the hostile reaction of the Pennsylvania
mother.
Controversy has surrounded many of Ms. Lowry's books. The "Anastasia"
series and "Rabble Starkey" were banned in several schools.
She showed the Holden audience a 1984 newspaper clipping with the headline
"Blume, Lowry novels as corrupt as Playboy." The headline elicited
laughter from the audience, even the children, who had brought stacks of
books to be autographed.
Most of the children had not read all of Ms. Lowry's books. She has been
publishing them since 1977 and has 23 in all, dealing with such topics as
adoption, identity and teen pregnancy.
Her handling of those topics has brought her critical and commercial acclaim.
Her books are regularly assigned in classrooms and discussed in book groups.
In 1990, she won the prestigious Newberry Medal for "Number the Stars,"
a story of a girl in Nazi Germany. She again received the honor four years
later for "The Giver."
Her books are read and commended by people of all ages. Among her fans,
she said, are the Trappist monks at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, who had
"The Giver" read to them.
But her task Tuesday night was not to discuss the honors she has received
for "The Giver," but to talk about the criticism of the book and
the attempts to ban it in schools and libraries.
"The Giver" imagines a futuristic society that, although free
of crime and poverty and war, has also suppressed individuality and memory
of human history. The society has many negative qualities that are necessary
to make it function, including what Ms. Lowry describes as "an element
of cruelty."
Ms. Lowry described a scene in which the young protagonist watches the euthanasia
of a baby -- the less-healthy of newborn twins. The scene, she said, has
caused some readers to say the book has "anti-Christ teachings"
or does "service to Lucifer."
But such criticism is "missing the point that the scene is trying to
make," she said. The scene is a warning, not an endorsement.
The story of "The Giver" had its origin in wondering, Ms. Lowry
said. She wondered, "What if people didn't have to remember anything
bad?"
It is important to realize, she said, that the imaginary society in "The
Giver" is based on an ideal: to rid our world of everything bad and
replace it with good. In a time when America is realizing its vulnerability
and building its reaction to that vulnerability, the message is relevant
and important.
It took Ms. Lowry 13 years and 20 books to win the Newberry Medal, the highest
honor for young adult writing. Her two books that have won -- "Number
the Stars"and "The Giver" -- are different but offer similar
lessons to young readers.
Until Sept. 11, the children of the new millennium were a generation unacquainted
with the realities of war and national fear. Yet, even in times of peace
and plenty, the world harbors human evil. If young people do not learn of
the capacity for human evil, they will be ill-equipped to combat it in their
times, she says.
For this reason, German schools use "Number the Stars" to help
teach children about the darkest period in their country's history. It is
also for this reason that many American schools include "The Giver"
in their reading lists.
But for the children who came to Ms. Lowry's talk this week, with paperbacks
in hand ready to be autographed, the focus was not on the World Trade Center
attack or Osama bin Laden or even the evil in the world. They wanted to
talk to their favorite author about their favorite books, to know where
she got her ideas, to find out why "The Giver" ends in a confusing
way.
And in this, Lowry had achieved another of the goals of any conscientious
children's writer: to encourage young minds to wonder why and to wonder
how.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sbscampisme@cs.com
Re: The giver
Interesting article on The Giver! I have taught with this novel for 8 years
and it is one of my favorites! But I have had parents who were upset that
we used it. so before we start I always give my students a brief summary
and tell them if they think their parents would object they could opt for
a similar book -- Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes (same genre- not
as thought provoking). Very few opt out but the parents thank me for the
option.
And the parents always get a list of all the books we read and can read
them in advance if they are worried. Parents do not get to "run"
my classroom but I respect that they are raising their children and we can
always work out an option if needed. Amazingly since the parents know this
there have been no problems with censorship or major parent complaints.
On another note last year an elem. parent complained that all the books
her 5th grader was reading had death in them- so our principal asked us
to list all the curric