Wow, Judy! When you say green, you mean GREEN. I didn't mean to insinuate that you are leaving these new teachers to their own devices...I know better! :-) I just thought you might kill two birds with one stone. If you study comprehension strategies WITH the newbies, they get the background knowledge and you get the professional development that comes from the discussion as well. You know how you learn more about something by talking about it with peers? Well...maybe they are not ready for all that yet. Maybe what is best is to find out what the newbies think they need and start there. I still think that the tenants of Ellin's new book, To Understand, could and should be shared with them when they start to learn about teaching comprehension. Suppose, when they are ready, they learn to teach visualizing...couldn't they learn to teach some of the dimensions of understanding at the same time? Couldn't it be integrated into the lesson? I really don't know these new teachers, and I can't say I have tried to teach these dimensions of understanding to many of my own staff yet...so maybe I am really off base. It just seems to me that what Ellin is arguing for is NOT an add on...it should be an integral part of strategy instruction to begin with, shouldn't it? I think that the What's Essential model would be the best place to start with new teachers since isn't that the biggest problem new teachers have??? They never know what to teach first.... Please understand, Judy, I didn't mean to offend you! When I post a response, I can only respond to the information you include in each post. From hundreds of miles away, all we know is what you have originally written. Thanks for clarifying...and good luck! Jennifer In a message dated 9/28/2008 2:25:19 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
LOL, well, I didn't want to mention it, but you're right...classroom management is the #1 challenge for these darling newbies right now (and one is being criticized by parents for lack of). The coach began modeling lessons for them last week with the intention of showing how we manage our kids. Of course they're teaching, but there are so many hurdles just on Step #1. For those who think we two vets aren't helping the newbies, LOL, my district has been a forerunner in Collaboration and the collaborative model. We meet as a grade level for 3 hours once a week (kids at art/music/PE) with one meeting a month coached (used to be 2 coached before this year's budget cuts). We do lesson study and read together and learn together, but, ladies, these new teachers are GREEN. I work in a WONDERFUL school--believe me I know I'm blessed--where all teachers are very very very hard-working and dedicated. The new teachers work long hours and are trying very hard, but they don't even know what priorities are yet because they're so busy pedaling. Are we helping them? You bet! In addition to Collaboration time, we meet once a week to help them...and they're in my room daily with questions. We had 175 applications for these 2 positions and we value our newbies; maybe I'm wrong in thinking we can only pile on so much, but we didn't want to have them start te aching comprehension strategies when they haven't read ONE text yet. My friend and I revere (and use daily) Keene, Miller, Harvey/Goudvis, and Fountas/Pinnell. Daily. How can we expect these new teachers to teach comprehension strategies WITH NO BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE? Lest you think I'm not trying, we had our first Collaboration on Thursday and we came up with our first cycle's focus: How does shared reading deepen comprehension? We plan to work on it with them, but it's hard for all of us. Do you think we should just push them into comprehension strategy instruction when they have NO prior knowledge and have done NO reading? Do you think they'll learn better by doing? Thanks, Judy **************Looking for simple solutions to your real-life financial challenges? Check out WalletPop for the latest news and information, tips and calculators. (http://www.walletpop.com/?NCID=emlcntuswall00000001) _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list Understand@literacyworkshop.org http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
