We have seen some amazing results this year in kindergarten classrooms using No More Letter of The Week as a means of introducing and building letter-sound associations in combination with a guided writing approach that emphasizes shared composition and teacher modeling of invented spelling (that becomes more sophisticated across the year). I have been monitoring the data very closely and though this is simply comparison of existing measures, what we see is compelling. In our two classrooms where teachers have fully implemented, in collaboration here are some of our celebrations: The highest levels of letter recognition AND sound association; more than 75% of each classroom meeting mid-year benchmarks for proficiency in reading; in one classroom, all but one child scored 3 or 4 on a four point rubric for writing in use across the district (where, in the past, kinders rarely score higher than 1)--the other classroom has no 1's and about one third scoring two with the rest scoring 3's (both teachers were so in awe of their own results that they asked that the pieces be blind-scored by myself and two other teachers and the results held up); Gentry's Monster test results showed all that 22 of 23 and 19 of 25 children were advanced spellers, performing at end of kindergarten to mid first grade when scored in early January. Those who know me know the challenges of reaching and teaching children in our setting and this has been such an exciting year. I have to say that this, in combination with strategy work, is the most promising news we have had for our early readers in years. And, joyfully, these rooms are still the picture of what I would hope early childhood should be--playful, age-appropriate with a sense of playing at learning rather the kinds of environments that feel as though we are stripping children of childhood.
Lori Jackson District Literacy Coach and Mentor Todd County School District Box 87 Mission SD 5755 ----- Original message ----- From: creeche...@aol.com To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Date: Saturday, February 21, 2009 8:13 AM Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Building comprehension of questions-washeartbreak/response to R... > > > In a message dated 2/20/2009 7:44:26 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, > elwaingor...@cbe.ab.ca writes: > > what does the independent research say about Direct Instruction programs > > Elisa, > I did some research on this exact question in my dissertation. I could write > about it for hours (actually I did!), > but what I found in a very limited nutshell, was that in kindergarten > intervention students, DI works teaching children to decode. It did not make > a > difference in comprehension. In first grade intervention students, writing > workshop worked just as well as DI in teaching children to decode and that > the > children also became better writers! > > I did a lot of reading of the research Amy cited, Project Follow Through, > and it had some major flaws. > DI people rely heavily on Follow Through research, which is now over 40 > years old. > > Nancy > > > **************Need a job? Find an employment agency near you. > (http://yellowpages.aol.com/search?query=employment_agencies&ncid=emlcntusyelp00000003) > _______________________________________________ > 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.
