Suzanne, I love reading your thoughtful and thought provoking messages. I also love using literature circles for reading with my third graders and I believe they help the children show the most progress on the DRA, while developing lifelong readers. Shouldn't that be the ultimate goal?
In my mind I think part of the problem with literature circles is that some teachers have difficulty giving up the control of their reading groups to children. I don't mind admitting that at times the questions the children design are better than my "back-up" questions, but you have to be open to that. Teaching with literature circles is not as linear as teaching reading in a traditional guided reading format. I also think that some administrators may not understand that a "child run" reading group with children creating the questions is a goal that we struggle to achieve. I sometimes wonder if they even recognize "best" practices themselves. To see things from their point of view, I think we all struggle to stay on top of all of the subjects we have to teach, and the administrators must have the same challenge. I would love to hear how you have moved beyond the roles. I have had the children create or tweak roles themselves. I also have difficulty assessing literature circles beyond anecdotal records and looking over the assigned "roles" once they are completed. If you would like to chat about lit circles in a sidebar conversation email me off mosaic. I find the direction/s education is taking confusing. On one hand we are told to differentiate to meet the needs of all learners while on the other hand we are told to use a one-size-fits-all model to reach those needs. I don't think children should have a steady diet of any one way of teaching reading when there are so many different approaches that you could take. Leslie Leslie R. Stewart Third Grade Teacher John B. Sliney Elementary School 23 Eades Street Branford, CT 06405 (203)481-5386 X310 FAX (203)483-0749 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of HERBERT Suzanne Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 10:44 AM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group; Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] just right books? I am so thankful to hear your thoughts, as I actually thought I was going crazy. The push is coming from the principal and all is being based on the DRA and reading continuums. We actually had Bonnie Campbell Hill come and do workshops here with us and she was fantastic, and I loved what she said about Literature circles in that it supported all I had been doing and many others in the school but let me give you a picture of what is happening. Some teachers were struggling with LIT circles, I offered to run some professional development on strategies in the classroom, moving beyond the 'roles' and some of the older thoughts about how these run. The principal said no and the reason, 'she didn't want people to be overwhelmed as after all we are just starting with DRAs and levelled books'. Now, for me, the kids know their levels and if you look at their scores on a beginning DRA and the end DRA, sure there has been development and there would have been regardless of the DRA. It's the way I teach reading I believe. I get 'guided reading' for younger classes, I get it. But, once your kids become really good, independent readers aren't you doing more of a 'lit circle' type thing. I don't know but I agree with what you are saying about levels. And then, they are just pulling titles from everywhere, not really matching it up with units, trying to include fiction and non ficiton and ordering this all online. The emphasis on good practice seems to be less important than dotting the i and crossing the t. I was told yesterday by the language arts coordinator that I could not order books for guided reading that the kids had ever seen before. They had to be new texts to the students. Now, I have a rotating library of 100 books in my room every two weeks, where am I going to get titles the kids haven't seen, or browsed through. I've decided to just 'be quiet', do as I'm told and do what I know to do best, but to have these discussions with you a n d to listen to your comments is just such good professional chat for me. Thank you so much. I have a friend who teaches in Armenia and she just had a consultant in from the STATES and it was ll the same thing, DRA, levelled books, reading continuums....and if you look at all the big international schools in our area, it's the same. But, I feel so isolated not being able to talk to people on a large scale about what they are doing and how it is going. Thank you for all the help. I love hearing from you all. Suzanne -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Renee Sent: Thu 4/24/2008 9:28 PM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] just right books? I'm sure I will get some flack for this, but in my opinion once a student is reasonably adept at figuring out text, worrying about *levels* is silly, unless the student consistently chooses books to read that are way too easy or way too hard. I think it's real easy to get nit-picky about these things. I remember about ten years ago or so, the Reading Recovery teacher at our school saying that with a third grader past a certain level (RR, maybe level 17 or so) it was not necessary to do running records anymore, and yet these days it seems like people are doing running records on sixth graders at level bazillion. Why are we making more work for ourselves? For what reason? Renee On Apr 23, 2008, at 9:17 PM, HERBERT Suzanne wrote: > It would be great if there was some feedback on this. We are > levelling 40 percent of the books that we should be using in the > classroom for reading. I would assume that literature circles and > silent reading, the children will take their own choices. I teach > fourth graders, and out of my 18 kids, 15 are independent on DRA Level > 50. So, I'm thinking, how essential is it to stick to 'levelled > books' if this is the case and why wouldn't you just encourage wider > reading and child choice? I haven't in the past been into 'exact' > levels for guided reading, somewhere in the 'range' and then lots of > other reading instruction. We're an international school, and a bit > isolated in terms of these types of conversations. At the moment we > are just following directions blindly but now all these types of > questions are starting to be asked. Any ideas/advice/thoughts greatly > appreciated and I so appreciate the chance to speak with you all. > Suzanne "We are here to infiltrate space with ideas." ~ Ramtha _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org 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. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org 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. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. 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