Rosie,
We also have Houghton Mifflin for our basal, but I use tons of other
resources. Do you have the newest series that has the leveled readers? Ours
does so it has the on-level, below-level, above-level readers and then the
basal. I also use centers, but generally for 30 min. a day. My coworkers and I
don't like the way they say they "spiral" the teaching of certain things. It
confuses a lot of kids to jump around like that and not fully understand a
concept before moving on. We do TONS of supplementing. My district is fairly
small (5 elementary schools with 3-4 sections at each grade level), but we do a
lot of collaborating. I am in Kansas, near Wichita.
I have to ask, what state are you in? I can't believe in this day and age of
NCLB that one would be tied to a basal! None of the basals hit all the
"almighty assessment items" so we are encouraged to find resources that do and
share them with our colleagues.
I teach second grade, and our school forces us to level the kids for reading
between teachers. So we have one teacher who has a class of 12 of the lowest,
one with 18 of the next group up, a group of 23 on-level kids and I ahve 24
above level kids. Depending on the types of centers you are using, even
children that aren't reading much can do things to help them. However, during
that 60 min. time how many centers are they doing and how many groups do you
teach. That's a long time!
I have found some fabulous file folder games from Evan-Moor that all you have
to do is rip them out, put together, laminate and make copies of the response
sheets. They are very good because they are easy to make and include a
response sheet, even though some are self-checking. We are supposed to be
using things that are "research based" all the time, and research shows that
reading and writing are directly tied together, so it doesn't make much sense
to not integrate them. We've been told that we can't have the kids work
throught the whole writing process during the reading block, just during the
grammar time. Personally, I believe that as a professional, I can choose when
and how I want to make connections as long as my children are showing progress.
I also LOVE reading aloud and instilling in my students a love of books. I
can tell you that while I enjoy most of the stories in the basal, it is merely
a jumping-off point. I honestly believe that most of the kids don't understand
that a story in a basal is a book by itself. They are shocked if/when they
find it in the library!
I've taught K, 1st and now 2nd, and have always found that the books and
authors that I read aloud and "promote" they will seek after. My goal is to
introduce them to a variety of "series" chapter books so they can find
something they like. I usually use Magice Tree House, Junie B. Jones, Henry
and Mudge, Cam Jansen, Arthur, Franklin, and authors like Tomie dePaola, Eric
Carl, Jan Brett, etc. I tie them into my themes or the monthly holidays.
Do you have time at the end of the day or after lunch or something that you
can read aloud to the class for shear enjoyment? Your "literacy coach" sounds
like she has no idea what teaching reading is all about!
Do you use the Houghton Mifflin website www.eduplace.com ? It has some good
tie-ins. I don't like most of the centers in the basal, and try to use others
that I've learned throughout the years. There are several Yahoo groups that
have wonderful center games and ideas, too. At our school and in the district,
the state standards are our bible... we are supposed to find whatever we can
that will help them pass the stupid tests. There are standards that are there,
and then delta-indicated standards that show they will be tested. We're
supposed to spend the majority of our time on those. So there are parts of our
math text that we skip altogether! Testing begins at 3rd grade, and I teach
2nd, so we have a little more flexibility. But I understand the frustration of
"mandates" that tie your hands from actually doing the best job you can.
Eryn
In a message dated 2/1/2007 7:28:55 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
> > "What do you think are the most significant barriers that hinder
the
>development of a successful reading/language arts program?"
> >
> > What do you all feel?
>
>
>I could ramble all day about our current mandates. We are required to
>have
>a 90 minute reading block. 30 minutes is whole group, 60 minutes is
>stations/small group. We MUST teach from the Houghton Mifflin basal.
The
>overwhelming majority of my class reads below grade level, yet I must
teach
> them from
>the on level basal. When they are in stations, the group that works
>independently, while I work with a group, most of them do nothing.
They
>are not
>capable of reading grade level materials, and I am not supposed to be
>giving them
>work that isn't from
