Of all the arts, writing should be among the most democratic: The goal is for students to improve their writing and simultaneously develop myriad approaches to writing that empower students to effectively evaluate and improve their own writing and thinking. To this end, students will participate in writing workshops of at least forty-five minutes three to five times a week.
Click here to see a demonstration of the Reading Salad lesson by a real teacher. Tanny McGregor's book brims with ideas, lessons, and projects that make abstract thinking visible and concrete for our kids, so they can undestand their thinking and think to undestand.
The strategies described in this book are not merely reading strategies; they are thinking strategies. If we teach thinking strateges out of text before teaching them within, our kids just may have a more seamless tansition as they use and apply strategies flexibly in their reading.
So that's how I spent the rest of the afternoon I know it sounds crazy but the ideas are actually quite clever, and I can see how they would be helpful to students. So, in light of my concern expressed in my earlier blog that we're making kids work too hard by keeping ideas and information abstract, is this find serendipitous or what?
I'm using concrete objects to craft 'launching lessons'; lessons that unleash new paths of thinking, lessons that support lots of student-to-student talk, lessons that can be referred to again and again, lessons that kids will remember and think about long after the school day is through.
I recommend you give this book and its ideas a try. Short - only pages. There is lots of white space, and there are plenty of photographs.
A teacher flipping through the book won't be frightened off. Written in teacher-friendly language - no dictionaries required. Full of ready-to-use instructional activities. These include new classroom-tested activities for teaching inferring, visualizing, synthesizing, questioning, and accessing schema.
I have a large plastic container filled with every idea from the book. Today we looked at paintings by Vermeer to practice our questioning skills, amazing questions from kids who a few days ago were asking the most literal questions. It has made the lessons in the other great books mentioned so much easier because the preteaching of the strategy in concrete ways made the more abstract lessons possible.
As you can tell I love this book and tell the teachers I work with I would replace this book if someone "borrowed" it from me. Okay I'll stop gushing now. The anchor or wall charts are included as pictures, most of the high-interest lesson activities have multiple options for a lesson and analogy.
For example, you can teach determining importance by straining noodles from a pan, showing what's in your purse or using a flashlight in a dark room and link the concrete experience to an analogy. Chants or songs are also a part of learning the strategies.
I used all of her suggestions, which I felt were wonderful! As I presented those lessons, I began using Level E, F, and G books so that students would be able to focus on the process.Fall Twitter Chats: #TCRWP.
Wednesday evening, at pm EST, the TCRWP community of staff developers and colleagues host an hour long chat session about various topics to help teachers think about how to implement reading and writing workshops K Click here to view Twitter chat schedule.
Nov 20, · Yes! I am back. I can't give this blog up yet. I am determined to post things on a more regular basis. In my county, we use the Units of Study-Lucy Calkins to Author: First Place in 2nd Grade.
“The qualities of good writing are complex and nuanced. But they can be named, and I’m convinced they can be taught. Of all the arts, writing should be among the most democratic.
Readers need a balanced approach to language arts, one that includes a responsible approach to the teaching of writing as well as reading. Units of Study for Teaching Reading, Grade 2 Lucy Calkins et al.
Units of Study for Teaching Reading, Grade 3 Lucy Calkins et . Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing, Grade 5 with Trade Book Pack A Workshop Curriculum. Lucy Calkins Teachers College Reading & Writing Project. Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing, Grade 2 Trade Book Pack Lucy Calkins Teachers College Reading & Writing Project.
Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing, Grade 3 Trade Book Pack.