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| Students reading articles for our persuasive writing unit. |
One of the best principals that I ever had always said January
through March is crunch time. He use to call it that because it was the
time before spring break. Now with state testing, I still see this time frame
as crunch time. My focus is always on how to build a stronger and more
consistent literacy workshop block of time. My first shift is thinking
differently about my literacy block NOT three isolated blocks (reading,
writing, word study) but as a two-hour block of time with mandatory components.
I know I have fallen into the trenches of seeing two hours in thirds not as one
large block of time. I really need to shift my thinking about time, and I
plan on implementing three mandatory components.
1) The first 15 minutes are spent finishing our current read
aloud: How to Steal A Dog, which is one of my all time
favorite teams. Thank you Barbara O’Connor for this beautiful story and
connecting with our class through our twitter account @bes228
2) Word study: I firmly believe building
strong instruction around vocabulary is crucial to be a strong reader and
writer. I am going to continue to focus on integration of word work
throughout reading and writing workshop. There is more power to the punch
when the lesson is based on a need that I observe during writing. Yesterday,
I worked with a few students about forming past tense verbs and the rules of af
add "ed." Relevant and real time is my new motto.
3) Thinking as a
Reader/Writer weaving these areas into more of a fluid time in workshop.
With time always being an issue, I have been thinking about how to link reading
with writing more than I have been in the past. We are currently working
on our persuasive writing, and the students are reading several
articles that I have collected. For example: Should Cereals Contain Toys?
Should Students Be Paid for Their Grades? After we discuss the
article, we then locate the persuasive strategies and the students write
their ideas into their writer's notebook for their PW.
I am excited to make these changes especially with thinking
about my time in my Language Arts block differently. Instead of thinking of my
two-hour block of time in thirds, I am thinking it as a whole 120 minutes with
the continued focus on stronger reading, writing and word study integration.
Thanks for this post! I was just talking with my literacy coach yesterday about the constant struggles I have with my literacy block. So many components--read aloud, minilesson, guided reading, indiv conferences, word study, etc. So hard to fit that into the time I have allotted. Some great ideas here!!
ReplyDeleteA visual that Vicki Vinton showed in a session once really stuck with me. If a unit of study is a rectangular box with reading on the left and writing on the right, the there's a line drawn diagonally from top left to bottom right. This shows that the unit will begin heavy on reading and end heavy on writing. But it's a blend, or a continuum, not compartmentalized.
ReplyDeleteThank you I love that analogy. So often I got caught up with just getting everything in - quality is so much more important.
DeleteInteresting how our thinking evolves...I especially like the analogy Mary Lee shared, and the idea of thinking about our units as a continuum. Both teacher and students benefit from this type of learning environment, I think.
ReplyDelete