I'm not so sure there is any great -or even very good reading series out there... We too used HM and I did not like it. The stories for the most part were good, however, the lessons that went with them were crazy!!!!! They expected you to do so much in one day you would need 2+ hours to get it done, and even more time to teach it well. If your district is screaming for you to use HM with fidelity (I came to hate those words) then woe is you. Our district was screaming, but my smart boss knew the power of readers' workshop and didn't harp on us about fidelity. We are a Title 1 school and our scores were solid, but the district office didn't want to hear it, and screamed fidelity again the next year... the craziness goes on. Under the "fidelity" method we had 2 schools (both Title 1) go into the improvement category for NCLB. A great reading series would be one that had all the skills and strategy lessons in a separate binder and didn't try to attach them meaninglessly to stories - comprehension, phonics, spelling, grammar... Then the teacher could use it as a reference,, following the state standards. For those that worry about all the skills getting taught... there could be a matrix you highlight. By the way, I don't know of anyone who finishes the text by test time anyway, so did those students get "ALL" the skills and strategies taught? Our district tried 2 years ago and the pacing was so fast, the on grade level students had trouble keeping up. Jan, also from CA We must view young people not as empty bottles to be filled, but as candles to be lit. -Robert Shaffer
> From: christine.pres...@verizon.net > Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:37:46 -0800 > To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org > Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Reading Series > > We have had Houghton Mifflin for about the last 6 years. I like it a lot. I > have taught 3rd, 4th, and 5th using these books and resources. The Practice > book is great and the spelling words are grade level appropriate. I like the > stories and how they intermingle the Social Studies for each grade level, > especially here in California. > > On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 8:24 PM, Yingling <yingli...@frontiernet.net> wrote: > > > We have begun looking into adopting a new reading series. What reading > > series do you use? And, do you like it or not and why? Anything you could > > tell me would be helpful because we're not even sure where to start. > > Thanks, > > Jenni > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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. > > > > > > > -- > Chris > _______________________________________________ > 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.
