August 30, 2009
I must be on the right track for this year. The New York Times says so. (I’m being facetious, of course, but if you want a fast and bright snapshot of the workshop approach I am trying, read this.)
Doug Noon at Borderland is trying it too, and we’re blogging about it together through the year. I am completely jazzed about this collaboration, to use Doug’s lovely adjective. The pairing of an inexperienced suburban/urban female teacher in New York with a rural Alaskan male teacher with 27 years under his belt, both trying the same approach, makes the researcher-poet-monster that feeds on symmetry and lives in my belly very happy. I’ll post the link when we’ve got the Wordpress theme straightened out.
August 30th, 2009 at 11:31 am
I’ve gotten some mileage out of doing it with my classes when I taught 9th grade; I’m planning on doing it with my current 10th grade standard students when we finish our nonfiction unit.
I think it is a little more high maintenance then the NYT piece makes it out to be. You really do have to teach proper journaling and paraphrasing techniques. Building the classroom library can also be expensive, I often partner with the school librarians to give my kids some time to explore various titles in the library (which earns me major brownie points with the librarians). But I agree that some students who experience books primarily through school assignments can rediscover a love of learning that too much of their classwork discourages.
I had a recent post on this on my blog: http://innered.edublogs.org/2009/08/22/threeideasbehindreadingproblems/
August 30th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
[...] glad that the idea is becoming popular. My favorite English blogging queen, Dina, is trying this out as well. I made the following comment on her site regarding the NYT piece: I’ve gotten some [...]
August 30th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
What books, in your opinion, are “must haves” for a classroom library?
August 30th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Oh brother. This list is so impermanent it’s as if I don’t even have one. Sources include: a) constant surveying and rating of books with my students with a summative list in June; b) the book appendix in Nancie Atwell’s “In The Middle”; http://www.teenreads.com; The Newbery medal and honors books. YALSA (http://www.ala.iorg/yalsa) is also a terrific source. And my librarians, school and public. I try to stack in favor of quality fiction and narrative non-fiction, limiting pulp series and “sound byte” books like “100 People Who Changed America” etc– not because these kinds of books aren’t good reading, but rather because I feel it’s my primary responsibility as a teacher to help my kids dive into a whole world while reading, increasing their stamina and depth of concentration. I also try to find books that transcend current events or culture otherwise they get outdated faster than I can breathe.
August 31st, 2009 at 2:56 am
[...] I like your suggestion that we use our blogs to compare notes about teaching in reading workshop classrooms this year.. [...]
September 1st, 2009 at 3:54 pm
[...] I like your suggestion that we use a blog to compare notes about teaching in reading workshop classrooms this year. I [...]