independent reading

Making Literature Circles Work

Submitted by crazycatgirl on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 11:16

I'm wondering if anyone has any great resources for literature circles. I feel that I don't know how to do them very well and my students certainly don't know how to do them either. I'd like to teach a unit on how to do literature circles.

It might just be two weeks or a week for the whole class and more weeks for the groups that will do literature circles.

I'd like to teach this to my 3rd and 4th graders who are above or not extremely below level. All the kids who are at a L or higher I believe would benefit from thinking deeply about their reading and discussing it.

Daily Five Independence: Listen to Read Center

November 21st, 2009 | posted by crazycatgirl

Well, as I continue with the Daily Five, I have been amazed how motivating the Listen to Read center has been for students. Most curiously, the ten year olds seem to love it as much as the first graders. Though of course, the ten-year olds require different listening materials for the most part.

Using Independent Reading as an Instructional Tool

November 10th, 2009 | posted by crazycatgirl

I'm planning on having a reading unit on responding to literature in the coming month or so. Now, I'm trying to decide what unit to follow. I've tried a few units now including a Teacher's College reading unit and parts from our Pegasus curriculum.

Reading Chant: How to Introduce Accuracy, Fluency, Expression and Phrasing with the Reading Chant

October 17th, 2009 | posted by crazycatgirl

Lesson Subject:

Language Arts

Lesson Topic:

Independent Reading

Grade Level:

Grades 3-5

Learning Target(s)/Objective(s) for This Lesson:

SWBAT state/know and define the different expectations for reading independently.

Good read! from Tim

October 6th, 2009 | posted by VES Professiona...

This article appeared in the Sunday 08/30/09 NY Times.

This article is mostly about one teacher's application of writing workshop a la Nancy Atwell's In The Middle.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/books/30reading.html?_r=2&em

I was fortunate enough to hear Nancy Atwell speak in like 1991 at a Capital Region Reading Association Conference at the Desmond Americana. She had really long hair then and she was all Portlandy and cool. I loved her descriptions of her students' writing development during her writing workshop.

The Daily Five: Trouble with Stamina

September 23rd, 2009 | posted by crazycatgirl

Many of you in the Seattle area may be familiar with the Daily Five, written by the Kent sister teaching duo. Since my school and much of my district is moving to Writers' Workshop, the Readers' Workshop model is also gaining in popularity. Several of us are now implementing the Daily Five as our reading workshop. I love the Daily Five because it involves really teaching kids the routines, and I have some challenges with bringing all my kids on board.