Brooke Charlie @brookecharlie - Tumblr Blog

Here are the charts you developed during the curriculum carousel activity on 12. 3. This might be helpful in describing your curriculum ideas for your pen pals.

This piece was inspired by a heated discussion I had with a man who believes that teachers have an easy job. Please feel free to share it with others if you agree with the message.

"You can’t measure inspiration by a child’s test scores. You can’t measure inspiration by a child’s grades. You measure inspiration 25 years later when that hot-shot doctor, or lawyer, or entrepreneur thanks her fourth-grade teacher for having faith in her and encouraging her to pursue her dreams."

#preach

Each time one prematurely teaches a child something he could have discovered himself, that child is kept from inventing it and consequently from understanding it completely.

- (Piaget in Miller, p. 154)

Let the kids figure it out themselves! Don't just say nonfiction is real and fiction is make-believe, lead them to discover that and experience it! Then they will want to learn and discover about everything that the book mentions as well. Kids are naturally curious, so use that to your advantage!

#lled400

Guidelines for Successful Instruction in Reading (Parr & Campbell)

Recognize that student independence as "real readers" is the ultimate goal.

Emphasize reading and writing connections all the time.

Provide multiple purposes for reading.

Use high-quality literature and texts of many types in multiple contexts.

Emphasize the collaborative nature of reading by including many opportunities for discussion and interaction.

Give students plenty of time to read at their instructional level and within their interests.

Provide explicit instruction in word solving that builds word knowledge and teaches skills and strategies for word solving.

Use a variety of assessment techniques to inform instruction.

- (Parr & Campbell, p. 75)

#lled400

ksherbz-blog

Podcasts are a popular form of audio blog that range from various talk formats to radio-style formats. You can easily create your own podcast anytime with the Mac software GarageBand. With this software, you can record your own audio, add new audio tracks and add photos to accompany the podcast. Once you’re finished recording, you can transfer all…

This site might be helpful in thinking about how to integrate podcasts into your reading/writing curriculum.

Concern for teaching the facts has caused us to neglect forging an emotional connection between those facts and the lives of our children.

-(McClure and Zillow, p. 28)

Include aesthetic response/experience in reading literature, not just the facts!

#lled400 lled401

When curriculum comes straight out of a textbook, we have the assurance that we've covered the necessary material. But this assurance is misleading, if not false. Yes, you can test these skills in isolation, but that doesn't tell you very much...You watch to see what skills kids put to use in their drafts. Your students' writing-their strengths and shortcomings-determines what skills you will teach and when you will teach them.

-(F&P, p. 90)

Conferences and mini-lessons people, not textbook teaching

#lled401

Basics of the Writing Conference

listen

be present as a reader - react as a normal human being

understand the writer

follow the student's energy

build on strengths

teach one thing

content differs depending on age and ability

"Teach the writer...not the writing. The idea is to add to the young writer's repertoire of strategies-not merely to improve a particular piece of writing, but to improve all the writing that student will do" (F&P, p. 52).

Additional tips:

keep conferences short

go beyond what's on the page

get the student involved

know your tastes

tell the "story of your reading"

don't get into a power struggle

#lled401

About 75 percent of what we do as teachers has to do with what was done to us at the other side of the desk, when we were students.

-(Fletcher & Portalupi, p. 49)

A blessing and a curse I guess? Could really be good or bad

het5023lled-blog

ksherbz-blog

Well would you look at this handy dandy little suchandsuch.

Standard Miscue Marks

(use for miscue analysis - analyze child's reading from recording)

#lled400

Book Clubs: Asking Questions and Inferring (Miller Ch. 6)

Readers...

determine meanings of unknown words by using their schema, paying attention to textual and picture clues, rereading, and engaging in conversations with others

make predictions about text and confirm or contradict their predictions as they read on

use their prior knowledge and textual clues to draw conclusions and form unique interpretations of text

know to infer when the answers to their questions are not explicitly stated in the text

create interpretations to enrich and deepen their experience in a text

purposefully and spontaneously ask questions before, during, and after reading

ask questions for many reasons

determine whether the answers to their questions can be found in the text or whether they will need to infer the answer from the text, their background knowledge, and/or outside source

understand that many of the most intriguing questions are not answered explicitly in the text, but are left to the reader's interpretation

understand that hearing others' questions inspires new ones of their own; likewise, listening to others' answers can inspire new thinking

"We remind ourselves that we believe in depth over breadth; we believe that teaching a few things well makes more sense than teaching many things superficially. And we resolve to continue to do what we believe is best for our kids, our school, and ourselves" (Miller, p. 114).

"Trust yourself and your kids. You won't be disappointed!" (Miller, p. 115).

"Inferring...is the heart of meaning construction for learners of all ages" (Miller, p. 125).

"Questioning is an essential thinking skill, learning skill, and democratic skill. Questioning is at the heart of becoming an independent thinker and self-directed learner" (Miller, p. 133).

"Resist the temptation to jump in and lead the kids to what you believe - you may be surprised at what you learn!" (Miller, p. 142).

#lled400

I walked into Fairview Elementary School this fall with a box full of books and a head full of ideas. I was a new teacher with visions of children clambering over one another for a good book and a classroom full of wavering hands wanting to share their newest pieces of writing. I had enough experience to keep me from being totally idealistic, but I knew what I wanted to see.

Gilbert, p. 9

That sounds like the beginning of an amazing teaching career :)

#lled400

Seeing children write about the connections and observations we have made since the beginning of the year is really amazing, but to hear them talk about these things on their own, with each other, building on each other's responses is what is so fantastic about literature circles. To know that children, all children, can have such rich conversations and pay attention to such detail of plot and craft of writing is really exciting.

Gilbert, pp. 13-14

#lled400

I am more concerned with choosing books that are right for my students, that will facilitate discussion, capture interest, and keep them wanting more.

Gilbert, p. 12

#lled400

Goodman - Reflections (Prisca Martens)

"We no longer hear readers' stumblings, false starts, and mistakes as errors that indicate poorly learned skills or consider them to be careless lazy readers who aren't thinking or paying attention to the text. Instead, we hear sensible predictions, corrections, substitutions, and insertions evidencing readers' knowledge and control of language and the world as they transact with the text to make sense and construct meaning" (Martens, p. 36).

"Regardless of age and proficiency, all readers miscue. The difference between proficient readers and readers experiencing difficulty is not that they make miscues but in the kinds of miscues they make" (Martens, p. 36).

"These students experience difficulty in reading because they are operating with a faulty and inadequate view of the reading process, often supported by narrowly conceived reading instruction. They believe that what readers do when they read is sound out letters and recognize words. But that doesn't work. It never will. When anyone tries to read with that kind of view, they experience difficulties. In order for these students to become more proficient readers, they need to integrate their knowledge of all the language cueing systems, to revalue reading, and to revalue themselves as readers" (Goodman in Martens, p. 38).

"Through discussions like these, readers come to revalue reading. The reading process is demystified. Students come to understand that proficient readers do not simply sound out letters and recognize words, they make sense as they read. They integrate the language systems (not relying on only one or two) as they sample the text (not looking at every letter or every word), infer and predict meaning (not just recognizing words), and self- correct when their predictions do not make sense" (Martens, p. 39).

"Do nothing else right now than listen to your students read. Really listen. Then assume that any miscue they make is for a reason" (Martens, p. 39).

#lled400

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