Some of us have been working on figuring out how the whole partnership thing will work in the middle grades here. There seems to be a ton of information about the little guys and an equal ton of information about the older grades. But that middle space is still a little bit like being at [...]
Entries from June 2008
June 12, 2008
Summer Reads: Franki Sibberson
You all know that I adore Franki Sibberson’s work with “middlers” – those kids who are already readers, but not yet sophisticated in their reading. In our school this starts somewhere in second grade for most of our kiddos and continues right through fifth grade.
Many of you read Franki’s book Still Learning to Read . [...]
June 4, 2008
Notes from Our Fall Conferring Workshop
Conferring in the Reading Workshop
Overview:
A good conference will be
√ Focused — you choose an area and work on it. You cannot ask a million questions
√ Brief —- you need to be in and out in a matter of minutes
√ Accountable — there is follow up [...]
June 3, 2008
Music, Music, Music
Those of you who visit the Reading Room often comment on the quiet music playing in the background and on the mood it creates for those of us working in the room. Music is funny like that — it sends a subtle, subliminal message about behavior, about stress levels, about emotions and about what’s [...]
June 3, 2008
New Classroom Organizing Book
This looks like a must-read!! Especially for those of us who really got into the whole Trading Spaces: Classroom Edition last summer.
Debbie Diller is doing some amazing classsroom makeovers. She’s written a book about the process. Right now, one chapter is available online at Stenhouse. You can read for free. [...]
June 3, 2008
Phonological Awareness: Music Downloads
You all know that I love Between the Lions from PBS for building phonological awareness and early reading skills. How great is this??? Between the Lions now has some free MP3 downloads that you can drop right onto your IPod or onto the school computer via ITunes (Itunes is already loaded in the applications on [...]
June 2, 2008
The Sisters Do It Again!
For those of you who are devotees of the Sisters and their Daily Five or their CAFE Assessment system, there is good news!!
The Sisters have launched a new website The DailyCafe . Like their friends over at Choice Literacy, they’ve chosen to go with a subscription site. This means that you pay an annual fee [...]
June 2, 2008
Remember the Minilesson??
The Architecture of a Mini-Lesson (adapted, as always!)
Connection:
Explain how today’s learning fits within the current unit of study
Teach:
State your teaching point. Literally, say “Good readers……..”
Teach just one thing
Choose just one way to teach — there are always multiple ways to show kids something. For a mini-lesson to remain “mini”, you [...]
