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Reading Workshop

Chpater 7 is about getting readers to an independent, confident stage of reading. Students are responsible for sharing with each other in conferences. The environment of the reader must be conducive to reading.  Teachers need to be passionate in their approach to reading or students will pick up on the discconnect between subject and teacher.

 Conversations are very critical in this stage of development.  Teachers are given a checklist to go by and several conferring strategies to help with the dialogue.

 Chapter 8 focuses on practical ways to assess the workshop. Anecdotal records, checklists, running records, analysis, oral retellings, written retellings, reading logs, and journal responses are the ongoing assessments provided. The rubrics of instruction at the end of the book are extremely practical and easy to recreate. 

Reading workshop

Chapter 4 has a lot of mini-lessons that are broken down to accomodate specific grade levels. I liked the mini lessons supplied.  This is to support the first several weeks of instruction for a novice at the Reading workshop experience.  

The fifth chapter focuses on  specific reading strategies and skills. Visualizing, making inferences, and looking ahead are just some of the skills mentioned. There are a lot of books listed as resources, some are actually in the media center.  Students are very independent in this setting and are expected to utilize the books to further their growth in reading.

Chapter 6 has a variety of mini-lessons that focus on literacy elements such as setting, characters, and cause and effect. Students would also learn about writer's purpose, symbolism, and figurative language.

The BEST Reflection on The Reading Workshop EVER!!!!!

Chapters 1-3

I have used Reading Workshop and am a proponent for this wonderful program.  This book provides an excellent framework for those new to this approach to teaching reading.  With Reading Workshop you are actually facilitating the reading process.  Students take a great deal of ownership in their journey towards proficient reading.

Reading workshop has been divided into three sections: Basic Elements, Organization and Management, and Planning. I found the breakdown very beneficial to the novice Reading Workshop practitioner.  The most important aspect of this program is to allow the students to read.  A large quauntity of time must be allotted to Reading Workshop for it to be worthwhile to the students. A teachers role in this program is make long-term and short-term goals to accommodate reading growth.  Long-term goals are those that lay out the major ideas and concepts to be covered over the span of the year.  Short-term goals should address the mini-lessons that are covered in the duration of a week. 

The overall ambiance of the reading environment should invite independent and communal reading.  Reading in this environment, the Reading Workshop environment, is a living, dynamic subject that continually evolves with each reader. Autonomy of the learner should be nurtured via the workshop experience.  Students read independently, with a buddy, and in small groups.  Within these groups students complete tasks that are designed to utilize concepts covered in mini-lessons.  The repetition of these tasks are constantly sprinkled with new tasks and assignments to keep readers' interests piqued. 

The workshop community should also involve the community, especially parents.  Parents can play a key role in the success of the program.  They can help with the facilitating of the program by listening to read alouds, monitoring on-task behavior, and asking key concept questions to individuals and groups. 

Reading workshop affords ownership to the readers.  All reading selections are selected by the readers.  Teachers can assist in this selection process by picking book sets (trade books) of various levels and high quality to add to their classroom library.  Classroom libraries are the main source of books for the Reading Workshop so careful selections should be made.  This is where teachers have control over the program, along with the 15 minute mini-lessons. 

In conclusion, the Reading Workshop is a wonderful experience for both student and teacher.  It affords time and one on one interaction for the developing reader.  The Reading Workshop also provides an environment where readers can discuss strategies and utilize active reading to further their reading development.  I encourage all teachers to implement some form of the Reading Workshop into their pedagogic practices.  You will not be disappointed!

Yours brother in Academia Mayhem,

Gary Allen Jones, II

Conclusion to Student Centered Math

Chapters 9-12 discuss the presentation of mathematical conceptual knowledge to be implemented in a student-centered environment.  Most of the examples given are accompanied by an array of strategies, i.e. in Chapter 9 a general plan of instruction is allocated for the instruction of measurement comprehension.  I find the three summarized in this chapter to be true.  Students do need to use comparisons when measuring to make the measurement relative.  Using model units to portray measurements is also imperative for a visual representation of the conceptual knowledge.  This provides an appropriate amount of duality to mathematical perspectives needed in developing successful students.

The most important of the lessons proposed in these chapters is application.  Students need to utilize these concepts and apply the attained skills authentically. Chapter 12 was my favorite because it dealt with probablity.  The 12.4 activity was one I will use in my class.  I enjoy implementing hands-on learning experiences.  There are many creative activities dispersed throughout the chapters that seem very simplistic in pedagogic approach.  This book would be a good classroom resource if we could keep a copy in our room.  However, once we turn this book over to the media center I fear it will be a resource not many will check out. 

Is there any way we could keep this book indefinitely, as a temporarily-permanent fixture (oxymoron) in our repetoirre of resources.  At least until I become accustom to some of the best activities proposed.

Student-Centered Math

Chapters 5-8 proposes to allow students to come up with their own methods of solving mathematical problems using self-generated algorithms.  They propose that it is okay for the student to manifest algoritms and prove these algorithms successful via trial and effort.  The use of formal algorithms are not a ulitmate priority, but they are to be only aids to the students autonomous methods.  There are several examples of how to allow this process to flourish in each of the chapters.  I already am a proponent of informal algorithms in mathematics.  The Saxxon style of math seems somewhat an antithesis to what is being proposed.  Saxxon is very strong on adherring to formally taught algorithms and does not allocate time for the type of authentic self-discovery that is presented within Student-Centered Math.  I however, I agree with the methods professed in the chapters of this book. They seem to mirror those set by the NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics).

 

Chap 1-4 Student Centered

Student-centered mathematics is the way mathematics should be taught on a daily basis.  This book is a proponent of constructivism in the presentation of mathematic education.  Comprehending math means students must be engaged in authentic mathematics, with cognatively appropriate instruction.  Teachers must present the conceptual and applicable nature of mathematics to fully faciliate student mathematical comprehension. 

The schema children acquire prior to entering a teacher's class should act as catalysts to new mathematical endeavors.  Numbers are an important part of a child's life before they enter a classoroom.  Students use numbers constantly and need to build new schema upon their existing foundation of numeral sense.  Teachers need to facilitate the encounters of new mathematical concepts via authentic, applicable activities.

The main goal of mathematical education is application.  Children should be able to implement their knowledge of mathematical operations in authentic situations.  Proficient students show mastery of the basic functions of mathematical operations. Some children have several ineffective strategies to compensate for a lack of mastery of these basic operations.  Teachers can help all children develop effective means of acquiring a mastery level of all the basic mathematical operations and functions.  It can be done.

Craft Lessons Conclusion

Pages 65-73 in Craft Lessons focuses on ready to use activities that seem very pragmatic. The activities are accompanied with resources such as book titles and material lists where appropriate.  Craft Lessons was a simple read.  The writing process is presented in a nonitimidating way.

Thr Craft of Writing Well

I really enjoyed this selection of Craft Lessons as it primarily dealt with creating better writers, for grades 3-4.  The authors actually provide helpful strategies on how to teach writing in a way that seems very unintimidating.  Each strategie is presented with a corresponding book and an example of how classroom discourse would take place.  I personally love the writing aspect of the curriculum and thoroughly enjoyed the way Fletcher and Portalupi begin with the brainstorming and imaginative aspect of writing and venture on to methods of teaching conclusion and resolve.

There is a stigma that seems to innately attach itself with the process of writing that happens at an early age.  Aspiring writers tend to shy away from their own voice and feel the need to mimic that of their teacher or worst yet, write without the presence of voice at all.  The Craft proposes that writing practioners can lead young writers in finding their unique voices while demanding syntactically sound writing. 

The way to do this is to make the revision process a pleasing and rewarding part of writing.  One suggestion is to introduce "story surgery".  During the editing and revising phase of writing, young writers are often discouraged to edit because they see it as a lot of work.  The thought of writing all of their work over just to include a few missed words, phrases or information is a big turn-off to revising.  The story surgery method eliminates the need to write everything over.  All the student needs to do is tape a strip of paper with the new or corrected material beside the sentence/paragraph it will be added to in the final copy. 

Another great tip provided in this selection was to teach writers that replacing generalities will ultimately liven their writing.  Students tend to leave a lot out of their writing because they assume their audience already knows the information.  Some students tend to be self-centered in their writing because they are not at a cognitive level of third-person perspective where others' views about them are noticed.  Writers start becomming aware of their peers perspectives around the end of third early fourth grade.  This is when writing to an audience can be nutured.  To write an effective story the writer must not take for granted that the audience knows key details in their story.  Practioners should scaffold how substitutions can be made in the writing process.  Phrases with vivid images bring the story to life and make stories a visual pallete for the mind.

This was an incredibly well written selection and provided a great amount of practical advice for easy implementation in the classroom.  Some of the strategies merely supported what I already practice in my classroom.  Some of the strategies, like story surgery, I will endeavor to utilize.   

Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8

Craft Lessons, by Ralph Fletcher and Joann Portalupi, prescribes fundamental writing practices and conceptual knowledge of a writer's development for practioners of writing.  To effectively implement a writing program that produces proficient writers the pedagogical approach of the practioner must incorporate a writing process.  The authors of Craft Lessons have created such a process to guide students in their approach to writing; Conceive--Craft--Correct, the Triple-C process. 

The first C emphasizes the brainstorming aspect of writing.  Within this stage of the writing process creativity and innovation can be focused via student-teacher conferencing and student-student conferencing.  According to Craft Lessons conferencing is vital to the successful development of a writer.  Conferencing should be incorporated into every stage of the process to ensure correct practices are being utilized by each individual writer.

During the crafting stage of this writing process there is one major theme highlighted, time.  Students should be allotted time to explore the writing process. Educators should plan a portion of the academic day solely for the purpose of writing.  The old adage, "Practice makes Perfect", definitely predicates the belief that the more students write the better they will become at writing. 

Craft Lessons suggest that most students skip the revising, editing, rereading, and self-critiquing aspect of writing and proceed from rough draft to publishing.  Our task as educators is to get our students to incorportate these important attributes in their everyday writing practices.  Craft Lesson's first chapter foreshadows a plan for impementing such a task.