What a great discussion this has been about strategy teaching. Your ideas will be so useful to me to mull over and share this summer as my district tries to figure out how reading workshop and guided reading will look in the middle school (I teach 6th).
I agree most with the idea that what kids really need to know -- the big picture -- is that reading is thinking. Conecting and visualizing and activating prior knowledge and so on are just different ways of thinking. Anyhow, t his weekend I read my students' written reflections on their independent reading, and there was lots of evidence that they knew how to think their way through a book. But the thing that came through strongest and was a bit of a reve lation to me was that those whose reading habits changed the most this year and those who read the most all expressed the idea of becoming emotionally involved in the books they loved. They fell in love with a character or hurt for a character and felt sincere joy when somebody they cared about succeeded. Beginning in the fall, the kids who come to me should already be using the lingo of reading comprehension strategies. So I'm thinking that the big idea of my reading instruction next year will be "Read with your brain turned on and your heart open." Reading certainly is thinking, but it's also feeling. Dave Hoh 6th grade, NJ _______________________________________________ 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.
