I agree that to engage students reading the whole story is the way to go and that a mini-lesson should be a quick 10 minute lesson. So, during my morning meeting time, I read the entire book. I model thinking through the read aloud--all the while I know I'm setting them up for the mini lesson later in the day. Then during our reading time, I can do a quick 10 minute mini-lesson and reference back to the book--perhaps rereading a part of it. Other times, I too combine the read aloud with the mini-lesson and do this all before the reading block. As long as you are reading aloud to your students to engage and model, teaching the strategies, and then allowing for plenty of time to independent read/practice I don't know that there is a "right" or "wrong" way of doing that or scheduling. It it doesn't even have to be the same routine from day to day. I think when you know there is joy in reading for your students--you need to hang on to it any way you can.
Melissa Zey Third Grade Teacher Farmington Elementary School 651-463-9032 [EMAIL PROTECTED] It's my job to surround kids with the best models; authors to whom they can apprentice themselves, books they can lose themselves in, characters who tell them they're not alone, words that make them think and feel and learn. -Linda Rief ________________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of STEWART, L [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 4:11 PM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Text-to-Self Mini-Lesson Question I just finished a mini-lesson unit on discovering the author's message and then the children just naturally started making "stronger" connections to the text through the message. At the same time we covered an author's study. I have been reading books by Eve Bunting: The Wall, Going Home and A Day's Work. The kids have been so engaged in their turn and talk conversations. It has lent itself to text connections as well. (I know you are only supposed to teach to one objective at a time but...). I still want to read one more to them, Smoky Night before I stop. I don't understand the advantage of picking up one of those books and just reading a portion of it. How is this "building lifelong readers" when I only read a small portion of a beautifully written picture book? I know time is of the essence, but how can we really not have enough time to engage our children in reading before we send them off to do it on their own. I am hanging on to this joy regardless of what the experts say! -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Deaneen Pashea Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 11:34 AM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Text-to-Self Mini-Lesson Question -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] kshop.org] On Behalf Of jan sanders Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2008 7:16 PM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Text-to-Self Mini-Lesson Question Hi Meghan- I am confused with the comment "it should take several days to get through a= mini-lesson doing think aloud for the students with one picture". To me a= mini-lesson is just that -mini. It has one teaching point and should take= about 10 minutes. I use a read aloud to model my thinking as a reader. Y= ou do not have to read the whole book in one sitting. I model the strategy= I want my students to try, have them try it in a turn and talk with a partn= er, and then restate what I want them to try during independent reading and= send them off to practice it. I do believe it will take several days for t= he students to be able to fully take on the strategy. When teaching schema= , I would often get frustrated with the surface, go no where connections. T= he character has a dog, so a child says I have a dog -however, the dog is no= t meaningful to the story... So now I ask my students to figure out why the author wrote the story -what= is the message. Then they work on making a connection to the message of th= e story. Example: The message is you should try an be friends with people= who are different than you. I have a connection with this because when sch= ool started there was a new kid here from Georgia and he had no friends. Pe= ople thought he was weird because he talked "funny". I made friends with hi= m and you know what -he doesn't talk funny -he just sounds different than me= . I also learned over time, that if you want students to get better at somethi= ng they need LOTS of practice time. My independent reading time is 45 minut= es. By the way, I teach 3rd grade this year. I was a literacy/math coach f= or the past 7 years. Jan We must view young people not as empty bottles to be filled, but as candles= to be lit. -Robert Shaffer ----- Original Message ----- From: Pitzer, Meghan L.<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org<mailto:mosaic@literacyworkshop.org> Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 10:48 AM Subject: [MOSAIC] Text-to-Self Mini-Lesson Question Hi! I am just beginning to "teach" Reading the Mosaic way. I have read t= he book and absolutely love it! I began with a schema lesson and started ri= ght in to introducing text-to-self connections. I was reading aloud a book= to the class that I could make connections with. I was getting through a p= icture book per lesson for 7 days. I then talked to a good friend of mine o= ver email who was floored that I was getting through that much! She says th= at it should take several days to get through a mini-lesson doing think alou= d for the students with one picture. I was just wondering if someone could= give me some insight as to what more I could be doing to make the lessons g= o a little deeper and some ideas of books that are great to model this strat= egy. I feel that I am not being as effective as I could be. Any suggestion= s would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Meghan Meghan Pitzer 3rd Grade Teacher Clay Springs Elementary (407) 884-2275 x2233 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The information contained in this e-mail message is intended solely for the recipient(s) and may contain privileged information. Tampering with or altering the contents of this message is prohibited. 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