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Fishsticks (page 77 to end of book)

This part of the book discusses the third element of this process which is coaching.  For coaching to be successful, everyone has to be open to "helpful" criticism from coworkers.  In addition, coworkers need to know how to be tactful and sensitive of each other.  Coaching is supposed to help not caused ill feelings between workers.  When the three elements were used together in the book it made for a successful system for the hospital.  However, the important thing to remember which the author keeps going back to is that you have to do things to keep the momentum going.  No system can be successful if people get use to it and the excitement dies.

Fish Sticks (thru page 77)

This section of the book was about keeping the motivation going after the new wears off.  The hospital administrator in the book is trying to find ways of keeping the nurses motivated after the program has been in place for a while.  She is given the advice to listen to her employees and really let them know that she is interested in what they think.  A new administrator comes in and wants to change things and take away all of the cute and fun things they were doing.  The staff decided that change did not always have to be bad and that this change might keep their motivation going.  I think it is important to listen to the "workers" in any profession.  They are the ones who work in the "trenches" every day.  They are the experts and a lot of the time the people in charge forget this.  It takes the cooperation of all to make things run smoothly.

Fish Sticks (thru page 39)

This book has some good ideas in it.  It is about a woman who is promoted to a position previously held by a real "go getter".  The person who held the job before, was very successful in creating a good working environment and this woman is afraid she cannot keep up this level of motivation.  She learns that the some successes come from putting the customer first and doing little things to make them happy.  I totally agree with this because nothing puts me off of a business/restaurant more than poor service or not being treated well.  From previous hospital experiences, I would think this would be very important in that environment.  The only thing I did not like about the book was the simplicity of the language.  The conversations between the people seem very juvenile.

Craft Lessons ( pages 29-43)

More Craft Lessons to use in the K-3 classroom.  Lessons include cutting and pasting stories on pages and adding illustrations, using time transition with cue words such as the next day or later, using talk bubbles instead of quotation marks, finding new ways to write about old topics, describing the setting, staying on the topic, cause and effect, describing characters, writing through a mask, see-saw patterns, repeating a word or line and using surprise endings.  I am very interested in using these lessons in my classroom to put a new "spin" on writing.  I have already used some of the lessons with some success, however, with first graders it takes a lot of repetition to improve their writing skills.  We will keep working on it.

Craft Lessons (pages 15-29)

This section of the book gives Craft Lessons for teachers to use to teach writing.  The authors suggest teaching children to write using a beginning, middle and end.  I recently introduced this in my classroom.  As a group, we wrote a story with each part.  I gave examples of familiar stories out of order to show how important it is to have a beginning, middle and end. I am trying to encourage them to write more and give more thought and detail to their writing.  This book deals with how to help with this problem.  The lessons concentrate on matching words with pictures, nudging students to move beyond "list" stories, using specific details, using details to create "mind pictures", using illustrations to convey information, using your voice when you write, pacing your story and using a strong lead.  I plan on using some of their suggestions in upcoming weeks.  One suggestion I plan on trying this week is to give them three pieces of paper - one for their beginning, one for the middle and one for the end.  I hope this will encourage them to write more complete storie that are not limited to one page.

Craft Lessons Teaching Writing K-8 (pages 1-13)

This book is an attempt by the authors to help teachers by offering lessons to teach writing.  They do not want teachers to depend on these lessons but use them to help explore what children can learn about writing and understand behaviors of certain grade levels.There are four beliefs about writing: time, response, responsibility and literature.  Writers need to write on a regular schedule, teachers need to respond to students about their writing, students need to feel ownership and they need challenging literature to show them a variety of styles.  The most important thing is to talk about literature and its elements. 

I am very interested in reading more and deciding if these lessons will be appropriate for my classroom.  I agree with the authors about how children learn to write and already incorporate a lot of these ideas in my teaching of writing.  However, I am at this time, trying to teach my class how to write a story that has a beginning, middle and end and flows from sentence to sentence.  I can use some new ideas or new ways of teaching these skills.

Revisiting the Reading Workshop (chapters 7-8)

Chapter 7 goes into detail about the reading part of the Reading Workshop (independent reading, conferring, responding and sharing).  Some of the things teachers should do are demonstrate thier own love of reading, have an orderly environment which has rules of voice levels and material use, and help children choose the correct book.  Activities during workshop time are story chats (to get them to think about what they are reading), guided reading groups (to help understanding of text) and flexible grouping (to work on specific skills certain students need help with).  This chapter goes into great detail about conferencing with students:when to conference, what a teacher's role is, different types of conferences and what questions to ask, interventions for certain behaviors and forms for documentation of conferences.

Chapter 8 helps teachers with assessment and reconciling the report card grades with workshop grades.Cheklists and rubrics are provided and running records are recommended.  If you have clear checklist and ideas about how you are going to assess using workshops there will be less questions/problems when grades are assigned.

There are a few ideas in this book that I can use in connection with the workshop system I already have in place.  I like the list of books used for mini-lessons.  The books were well matched with the skills that need to be taught.

Revisiting the Reading Workshop (chapters 4-6)

Chapters 4-6 give ideas on topics for the mini-lessons, characteristics of a good learner and sample mini-lessons.  These chapters also give more information on how to conduct workshops.  These chapters gave me a better understanding of the workshops and confirmed my belief that this would not be appropriate for first graders until October or November.  I like the choices of books to teach certain skills.  The eight reading strategies are also helpful.  Good readers should always be asking questions while they are reading and improving their comprehension skills.  The mini-lessons and teacher conferencing should strengthen these skills.  Although I still prefer the way I do workshops for first graders, I do see some ideas that I can use.  I particularly like the 5 finger rule.  As you read, put a finger on a word you don't know and if you use five fingers the book is too hard.

Revisiting The Reading Workshop (chapters 1-3)

Chapters 1-3 give an overview of what Reading Workshops are and how to organize the workshops.  The workshop block starts with a mini-lesson and read aloud followed by an hour of independent reading, response and reflection and sharing.  This program is compared to traditional reading programs. The major differences are in Reading Workshops the students are responsible for choosing their reading material, they write contantly and use alternate forms of assessment.  Chapters 2 and 3 show how to set up a classroom library and how to plan for a mini-lesson.  I use a form of reading workshops in my classroom that I feel is more appropriate for first graders.  The plan in the book seems to give the students too much unstructured time.  In addition it does not seem appropriate for beginning first graders who  mostly do not read or write yet.  I believe there are some good components in the Reading Workshop but it is more appropriate for older children. It should be used as a framework that teachers can use and tailor to their their own styles.