Lori- I also teach kindergarten. I have not used "Letter of the Week" in years! We immerge our students in letters - focusing on the letters in their names initially. Our K - 2 does use Wilson Fundations, but I do not do all the activities. I pick & choose. I also introduce upper & lower case together. I typically begin guided reading groups in November with my kinders. If I were you, I would certainly talk with the new principal to see if you could make some changes in your classroom. You might want to look at Building Blocks by Dottie Hall & Pat Cunningham.
Linda http://teacherweb.com/OH/Union-SciotoElementarySchool/LCollins/index.html --- On Sat, 7/5/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] kindergarten To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Date: Saturday, July 5, 2008, 10:39 AM Susan and Kendra, I feel that I am stuck at the present time with the letter of the week because it is what "the team has always done". Being the new kid on the team I rearranged the introduction of the letters but did not give up on the system. We have a new principal starting this fall so I am hopeful that he will want to look at some different ways to do things. Kendra...as far as your question about thinking strategies with kindergarteners, I was determined not to "dumb down" the thining strategies that I did with my first graders so I taught my kids what schema was and why it was important. I carefully chose books that would demonstrate how we use our schema (tooth losing books were a hit) I also taught making connections and started to teach the difference between a surface type connection and connections that help us to understand what we are reading. Many of my colleagues said "you are using the word schema with kinders?" YES! It is kind of a goofy word so they remember it! What will be interesting to me is to see what happens when my kinders get mixed with the other kinders in first grade. Will what I taught them stick? Will it make a difference. I have a friend in first grade who is going to help me with that observation. Baby steps I guess! Lori LoriQuoting [EMAIL PROTECTED]: > Kendra, > > K teachers in my school do not do letter of the week at all! They > also do not use fundations. They are using reading and writing > wokshop entirely and meeting children for guided reading in groups > using Jan Richardson's approach to Guided Reading. It is working > great! I teach 2nd grade and we are seeing a much higher percentage > of students coming to first and second grade on graed level because > of the great work they are doing in K. I am also one of the > reading coaches at my school. Some of the teachers had a very hard > time moving away from letter of the week. Once they saw the > difference and what their children were capable of doing they have > not looked back. > > Good luck, > Susan/TN _______________________________________________ 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.
