What a nightmare! This sounds like something in a dream. I have a 90 minute block for reading, but the emphasis is literature not basal. We are encouraged to teach from the state mandated objectives. Basals do provide some advantages in the classroom, but should not be the only resource. Sounds like your reading coach should try teaching like this before she mandates. For my lower readers I use Read Naturally to build fluency. For those that are struggling with phonics I use Intensive Phonics. Both are wonderful support programs and when applied properly yield much better readers. For example I have a student that is reading grade level material (4th) at 46 words a minute. She is now at 76 words a minute and our goal is to increase that as close to 120 as possible. What I like about the Read Naturally program is that it includes comprehension, vocabulary, and writing development. It builds from their instructional reading level up. There is some wonderful information on the internet about it. Your curriculum director needs an epiphany.
Actually, I teach 120 minutes of reading a day. The ten students needing fluency work come in for 30 minutes during the lunch recess. I alternate them. Five come in on Monday and Wednesday. The other five come in on Tuesday and Thursday. Four days a week I have two volunteers come in for 15 minutes to work the Intensive phonics program. Parent volunteers, when trained properly, can be a wonderful resource. Good luck! My prayers will be with you. >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Reply-To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies >Listserv"<[email protected]> >To: [email protected] >Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] most significant barriers >Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 19:57:23 EST > > >In a message dated 2/1/2007 7:28:55 AM Eastern Standard Time, >[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > What do you all feel? > > > > >In a message dated 2/1/2007 7:28:55 AM Eastern Standard Time, >[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > "What do you think are the most significant barriers that hinder the >development of a successful reading/language arts program?" > > > > What do you all feel? > > >I could ramble all day about our current mandates. We are required to >have >a 90 minute reading block. 30 minutes is whole group, 60 minutes is >stations/small group. We MUST teach from the Houghton Mifflin basal. The >overwhelming majority of my class reads below grade level, yet I must teach > them from >the on level basal. When they are in stations, the group that works >independently, while I work with a group, most of them do nothing. They >are not >capable of reading grade level materials, and I am not supposed to be >giving them >work that isn't from this publisher. (Although out of desperation I >sometimes ignore this mandate). I am not allowed to integrate any other >subject >areas into the 90 minute reading block either. > >We aren't allowed to read novels or chapter books at all. When I >questioned the literacy coach about reading novels her response was, "Why >would you >want to do that"? I replied, " So we could read authentic literature". >But I >was told no we must read the basal. We cannot do any writing during the >reading block, unless it is a response to something they read in the >wonderful >basal series. > >I believe that my students would make more progress if they were reading >texts-including a basal-that was at their reading level, not necessarily >their >grade level. The students I do have who read on grade level don't really >get >the attention they need or deserve because we are focused on those who are >behind. > >The ony analogy I can make is if I spend all day in Calculus and I am >capable of 6th grade math, what am I really going to be learning? >Nothing. > >I absolutely love reading, personally, as well as writing, but I HATE >teaching it. We also have no formal writing curriculum and many of our >grade level >objectives for writing sound like reading objectives. Example: > TLW >Apply knowledge of word families to increase vocabulary. > >Rosie > > >_______________________________________________ >Mosaic mailing list >[email protected] >To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > >Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > _________________________________________________________________ Invite your Hotmail contacts to join your friends list with Windows Live Spaces http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwsp0070000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://spaces.live.com/spacesapi.aspx?wx_action=create&wx_url=/friends.aspx&mkt=en-us _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
