Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Info. Regarding Last Class Date(s) and Projects
Everyone,
Since Christy and I taught two summer institutes, we are allowing you to choose which day you want to turn in your project. The time has not changed, but the location has--we will be meeting at the Lizard's Thicket in Irmo at 9:00 on both the mornings of August 2nd and August 3rd. We will have a room reserved so that we can enjoy breakfast together while we celebrate, reflect, and talk about your upcoming school year! If you'd like to submit your project electronically, you may send it to either Christy's or my email-- cmartin@lex5.k12.sc.us or rdhinson@lex5.k12.sc.us Of course, you may also bring your project with you to the breakfast! If you submit it electronically, we must have it prior to the morning of the breakfast.
Also, and this is very important--please bring with you a self-addressed envelope for us to return your projects and journey stories to you. If you want us to return it to you via district mail, that is fine. However, if you want it mailed to your home, please include proper postage.
Regarding course evaluations, it is our understanding that CCU sends a letter to you letting you know that you have a Web-mail account with CCU. THEN, an email is sent to your Web-mail which will have a link to the Evaluation site. There are no more paper copies of evaluations, it is all done through CCU's web mail. If you did not receive any such letter, please contact Nancy Williams at the District Office. Your course evaluations are very important to us!
We will see all of you in the morning!!
Becky and Christy
Since Christy and I taught two summer institutes, we are allowing you to choose which day you want to turn in your project. The time has not changed, but the location has--we will be meeting at the Lizard's Thicket in Irmo at 9:00 on both the mornings of August 2nd and August 3rd. We will have a room reserved so that we can enjoy breakfast together while we celebrate, reflect, and talk about your upcoming school year! If you'd like to submit your project electronically, you may send it to either Christy's or my email-- cmartin@lex5.k12.sc.us or rdhinson@lex5.k12.sc.us Of course, you may also bring your project with you to the breakfast! If you submit it electronically, we must have it prior to the morning of the breakfast.
Also, and this is very important--please bring with you a self-addressed envelope for us to return your projects and journey stories to you. If you want us to return it to you via district mail, that is fine. However, if you want it mailed to your home, please include proper postage.
Regarding course evaluations, it is our understanding that CCU sends a letter to you letting you know that you have a Web-mail account with CCU. THEN, an email is sent to your Web-mail which will have a link to the Evaluation site. There are no more paper copies of evaluations, it is all done through CCU's web mail. If you did not receive any such letter, please contact Nancy Williams at the District Office. Your course evaluations are very important to us!
We will see all of you in the morning!!
Becky and Christy
Friday, July 16, 2010
SR: Make It Real
" I like to think of shared reading as a shared text experience." Precisely. Using the shared reading strategy allows students to collaboratively discuss, analyze, and read a specific text together. I am a big fan of the "big books" after our activity on Thursday! The language, stories, and illustrations are great, while offering the opportunity for a variety of teaching points. This article includes a helpful chart on comprehension strategies, awareness of informational text, etc. to use during shared reading. I thought the "Buddy Reading" example from Manhattan New School was great! The students used Time for Kids magazines as a shared text and then particpated in a think aloud with a cross-age partner ( 2nd and 5th graders). I find this article's emphasis on informational texts helpful, especially when teaching Social Studies!
IR: Guiding Readers and Writers
I love the first 20 days!!! The chart provided is so helpful, it literally plans your first 20 days of reading workshop. This is so helpful in establishing the routines, procedures and expectations of workshop time. I love the level of detail in each lesson. As a beginning teacher, the first 20 days is especially helpful. Sometimes it is hard and overwhelming to know where to begin and this provides an excellent springboard for reading workshop. I will defiantly use this is my classroom no matter what grade I teach!
article on SR: Shared Literacy
This was a good article to sum up the things we had seen and talked about in our last class. I could identify with her when she described the way she used to teach. It is very different from the balanced literacy method. I was thankful to see skill and strategy explained, and the three language cueing systems, semantic, syntactic, and graphophonemic, talked about in more detail and with examples.
I am not familiar with the term masking. I see her examples, but am not sure exactly what masking means. Could someone clarify this for me?
I am not familiar with the term masking. I see her examples, but am not sure exactly what masking means. Could someone clarify this for me?
IR: Offering Children Opportunities for Practice and Response
I think this is my favorite article yet. I am ordering this book. It seems to have so much practical information.
I have been confused as to what a 'just right' book is, and how to choose these for each individual child. This article really clarifies this, going over the individual components that are important in deciding which books 'fit' which readers. I also appreciate the specifics she gives on organizing the books within the classroom, and the beginning strategies of matching children with books, including the use of the Ohio Word Test. I also liked that she gave a sample list of books for each level.
Enlisting parents help is a good idea too. One thing that my child's kindergarten teacher did was to ask us to send in a 'birthday' present for our child to open on his birthday. This present was to be a book for them to keep in the classroom. The front inside cover was to be personalized with a picture and a note from the parents. I thought this was a neat idea, and it added 20 more books to her library.
I also likes her suggestions for what other things may be happening during independent reading, but that she stresses that independent reading on their level with just right books is the most important thing!
I have been confused as to what a 'just right' book is, and how to choose these for each individual child. This article really clarifies this, going over the individual components that are important in deciding which books 'fit' which readers. I also appreciate the specifics she gives on organizing the books within the classroom, and the beginning strategies of matching children with books, including the use of the Ohio Word Test. I also liked that she gave a sample list of books for each level.
Enlisting parents help is a good idea too. One thing that my child's kindergarten teacher did was to ask us to send in a 'birthday' present for our child to open on his birthday. This present was to be a book for them to keep in the classroom. The front inside cover was to be personalized with a picture and a note from the parents. I thought this was a neat idea, and it added 20 more books to her library.
I also likes her suggestions for what other things may be happening during independent reading, but that she stresses that independent reading on their level with just right books is the most important thing!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Coaching and Conferring with Readers
On the very first page of this article an interesting point is brought up...why have we focused so much on writing conferences and not reading conferences? Even for myself I always feel much more prepared and confident to conference with my students as writers as opposed to readers. My writing workshop is better developed than my reading workshop, and my students seem to be more sustained writers than readers. I love and value reading to its core...I am wondering why my classroom doesn't necessarily reflect this.
"Conferring with young readers...first involves research in order to learn where the child is as a reader and understand the child's intention, then deciding what we should teach, and then teaching in a way that can influence what that child does on another day with another book."
I found this to be a powerful quote because it goes along with what we discussed in class today as far as lesson planning goes. To do this model effectively, we can't plan a year, a month, or even a week ahead...we have to let our students' needs guide our decisions and our teaching.
I appreciated the section of the article that discusses how coaches should intervene as little as possible while readers move through text. Our job is to "help readers develop unconscious habits." We are there to scaffold the reading work we hope will happen rather than to stop the reading completely to discuss all the strategies they can or should use.
"But in the end, children need to read as best they can, without our presence to hold them up."
I appreciate this idea as well, because it's something with which I struggle. It is really hard not to correct every miscue or attempt to turn each one into a teachable moment. We want our students to be proficient readers, but we want them to do it immediately. Oftentimes we shortchange them by giving them too much help because we do have this goal in mind. It is important for us to step back and give them the tools to become independent readers and problem solvers. We won't always be there when they are reading...they have to be able to do it themselves!
"Conferring with young readers...first involves research in order to learn where the child is as a reader and understand the child's intention, then deciding what we should teach, and then teaching in a way that can influence what that child does on another day with another book."
I found this to be a powerful quote because it goes along with what we discussed in class today as far as lesson planning goes. To do this model effectively, we can't plan a year, a month, or even a week ahead...we have to let our students' needs guide our decisions and our teaching.
I appreciated the section of the article that discusses how coaches should intervene as little as possible while readers move through text. Our job is to "help readers develop unconscious habits." We are there to scaffold the reading work we hope will happen rather than to stop the reading completely to discuss all the strategies they can or should use.
"But in the end, children need to read as best they can, without our presence to hold them up."
I appreciate this idea as well, because it's something with which I struggle. It is really hard not to correct every miscue or attempt to turn each one into a teachable moment. We want our students to be proficient readers, but we want them to do it immediately. Oftentimes we shortchange them by giving them too much help because we do have this goal in mind. It is important for us to step back and give them the tools to become independent readers and problem solvers. We won't always be there when they are reading...they have to be able to do it themselves!
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