Hi Jennifer, Yes, compromise seems to be the word of the day. If only the feds would discover that word and compromise with teachers not business executives...
Thanks for explaining about the lengthy word work time. It sounds like there are ways to get around it. Given what I know about D5 and the Sisters, this makes sense. I do look forward to reading the CAFE book. Elisa Elisa Waingort Grade 2 Spanish Bilingual Dalhousie Elementary Calgary, Canada The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart. —Helen Keller Visit my blog, A Teacher's Ruminations, and post a message. http://waingortgrade2spanishbilingual.blogspot.com/ Elisa A lot is folded into that word work time...including spelling, handwriting, vocabulary instruction, etc. This framework is new to our teachers and what I am recommending to them that this time is NOT about decontextualized drills..etc. I would expect that if we are spelling words with ed endings for spelling this week, we would be reading poems with ed words in them, etc. They should be reading during this time too. We do have to use the Harcourt Storytown series and they actually recommend more time for word work. I was on the committee that made the allocations for minutes of instruction and believe me, compromises were made all around. What I think you will like about CAFE is that it provides a structure for you to keep track of your conferences and to record student needs. To me, that is the best part of it...it will totally streamline what I did as record keeping for reading conferences and keep me far better organized. It is just so practical and doable. (Of course, I haven't done it yet...but I am excited to try it and see how it works for me!) Hi Jennifer, I do a lot of observing/conferencing as my modes of assessment at the beginning of the year and I'm planning on sticking to that for the most part. I may do some spelling assessment earlier than I usually do this year so that I can get my kids started on their individualized work work. I start my reading workshop in English with read to self also and move on to the other choices: read to someone, and listen to reading. I do a separate writing workshop that I introduce on the first or second day of school. I will include work work lessons here for the most part. I plan to start with metacognition but just lots of modeling even before that as well as setting the tone of all the wonderful literature, both fiction and non fiction that is out there for us to access. I am planning to read the CAFE book before school starts to see if and how I can use any of this through my mini lessons connected to comprehension instruction. It seems like I will be able to just from reading others' comments on this but I don't want my reading workshop to become too rigid and inflexible. We'll see. 45 minutes for word work every day seems like a really long time. Everyone I've ever read on this topic advocates no more than 10 - 15 minutes/day and some even less than that. What was the thinking behind that? Just curious. Elisa **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222846709x1201493018/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=115&bcd =JulystepsfooterNO115) _______________________________________________ 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.
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