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Craft Lesson Teaching Writing K-8 pgs 105-138

The last part of Craft Lesson Teaching Writing K-8  has a question and answer segment and an appendix. The questions provided answers to questions that I had while reading the book. It explains how to fit mini lessons into a language arts program. I already use mini lessons in my reading workshops but it gives other ways to fit them into a daily schedule. This reading also gives ways to help your students become involved in the lessons.

Organization is very important in the classroom and several suggestions were given on how to keep the lessons organized. It suggests to use a  notebook and keep a list of the lessons that have already been taught. I found the ideas in this book to be a great assest to my language arts program. I have already started implementing some of the mini lessons into my workshops and I look forward to using the new ideas that I learned during this reading as well!

Craft Lessons Teaching Writing K-8

This week I read Craft Lessons Teaching Writing K-8 pages 14-43. These pages were focused on lessons that can be used in kindergarten through second grade classrooms. This chapter focused on different mini lessons lessons that build a strong writing and reading foundation. The mini lessons gave a topic. It then gave the resource material need for the lesson, the discussion, and how to teach it. I found these lessons very useful. I would like to have a copy of all of these lessons for my files. One of the lessons focused on cause and effect. It used the story Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse as a story to use to help teach this lesson. We have read this story in the classroom a few times this year and my kids love it. I am going to teach this lesson to my class using the story and see how it goes. I enjoyed these lessons and I am excited about teaching them in my classroom!

Craft Lessons Teaching Writing K-8

In the first chapters of Craft Lessons it focuses on setting the table for writing in the classroom. In order for students to become better writers they need time. It is very important that students have time to write every day! Conferences between the student and the teacher are also very important. This book gave a few tips on what to do during a writing conference that are helpful to the teacher. One of the tips is to be positive. I think this is very important especially as young children are learning the how to write. They need to build their confidence in what they are doing.

The first chapter also focuses on literature as an important part of a writing workshop. It also gives ways that literature can be used as a model to writing. Another important thing that this book discusses is the importance of rereading. Children often want to turn their work in as soon as the finish. It takes a lot of effort and time to teach them to reread before turning it in. I think that this book has a lot of insight that I will be able to use in my classroom.

Fish Sticks pages 78-122

In the last part of this book Rhonda has a tragic loss in her life, her step daughter is killed in an accident. During this time her new boss, Mrs. Scallpell, comes and helps Rhonda. This  makes  Rhonda to look at her in a new light. Rhonda's employees also step up while their boss is gone from work. The team focuses on the three principles that help Takara Too stay in business. These principles are  Find IT, Live IT and Coach IT. These three principles can be applied in any profession. We also need a vision as teachers to help our children be successful. We have to be willing to take action in our classrooms!I enjoyed reading and watching the staff at the hospital grow as a team.

Fish Sticks pages 38-77

After Rhonda leaves the sushi resturant she goes back to work and looks for ways to uplift her employees so that they will have the IT vision. She asks them all questions about their work and tries to understand what they feel and what they are thinking. She tries to make all of the staff, new and old, feel a part of the team. She takes some of them back to the sushi resturant so that they can experiance and see the vision that she saw when she first went. The staff seems ready for a change and for something new. I think this story applies to all professions, teaching, nursing, and working in a resturant. When we start our career we have so many goals which we can lose sight of if we let ourselves get caught up in other things. We have to remember why we are here doing what we are are doing. We have to stay focused on that so we can make an impact on our students lives.

Fish Sticks! pages 1- 37

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a very easy read and one that I feel we can all identify with. The story is about a lady named Rhonda who is now in a lead position at her hospital is having a hard time keep her employees spirits up so they can react to patients in an upbeat manner. When a patient needs help the nurses are ignoring the calls or taking their time before they help the patients. I often feel that as teachers if our morale is low it really effects our students as well as the rest of the people that we work with. I look forward to reading on in this book to see what Rhonda does to help her employees.

Revisiting The Reading Workshop

Chapters seven and eight of Revisiting The Reading Workshop  focuses on independent reading and different types of assessment that can be used in reading workshops. One thing I thought was very interesting is that it said to share your passion for reading with your students. I agree that it is important that they know how much their teacher enjoys to read and that reading can be fun! It also gave different ideas for reading such as partner reading and flexible groups. It gives ways to confer with a student and get their imput on the books they read such as writing responses. Chapter eight focused on ways to assess a reader and see how much they have accomplished. It is important to make sure each student has a book that is on their reading level. I use our library leveled readers for this. There are many ways to assess readers such as running records and observation checklists. I give my students an oral reading test weekly so I can keep up with their progress. I think these chapters gave a lot of examples that I can use to help better assess readers.

Revisting The Reading Workshop

The next three chapters of Revisiting The Reading Workshop  focused on ways to set up mini lessons. It took three different types of mini lessons, procedures, reading stratigies and skills and literary elements and techniques, and gave ways to set up mini lessons on each. The purpose of these lessons and all the planning that goes into each one is to empower the student which I believe is very important. At times the material seems to hard in a first grade classroom but I do agree with the author that younger students need a lot of modeling before they can complete tasks in workshops by themselves. These chapters also gave an example of twenty days of lessons which is useful to people who want to set up workshops and have never done them before. It also gives stratigies and skills that need to be covered. The most useful information that I received from this reading is the list of books. It gave a list of books and what skills they cover. I am excited to read these books and find the different skills they cover and then use them in my workshops.

Revisiting The Reading Workshop

Chapters 1-3 of Revisiting The Reading Workshop explains how to set up workshops and also why they are important to use in a classroom. Chapter one tells about the parts of a reading workshop. It also compares a class with a reading workshop to a class without one. It explains how to come up with mini lessons for the workshop. It says to observe what your students need. It also gives ways to let your students respond and reflect. Chapter two went into how to get the workshops together. The teacher needs to know what she needs out of them. It also went though top priorities such as on task behavior. It also gives ways to set up the classroom and to organize your library. It also talks about how to get parent involvement. Chapter three goes into how to plan mini lessons. It tells how to structure the lessons by involving the students. It also gives different ways that the students can be involved in the lesson. They can have story partners, give thumbs up and thumbs down or take notes. It also says the ending is very important and gives ways to dismiss your students. After reading the first three chapters, I believe some of the concepts are too hard for first graders, especially beginning first graders. I use reading workshops in my classroom two to three times a week. Chapter three did have some good pointers for setting up mini lessons. I also agree that parent involvement is very important in the classroom. This book did have a few good ways to get the parents more involved in workshops.