Elizabeth Meyer-Chapman
Subjects Matter
Chapters 7-9
The theme of chapter 7 was “Students feeling valued”. I totally agree that a sense of community and a predictable classroom structure are key components to better reading and higher student achievement. A feeling of trust breeds a feeling of confidence. What teacher doesn’t agree with that one?
Chapter eight concentrated on examples of and step by step instructions for conducting independent reading workshops in content area classrooms. Included in the instructions were possible pitfalls a teacher or group might experience along the way and suggestions on how to rectify them. I found the suggestions, tips and instructions informational and I had a few light bulbs go off as to why I dreaded planning for and co-teaching reading workshops. Now I have some actual tools to use and I will use them. Just about the time I get frustrated with picking one of the longer books to read a chapter like this come along and it reaffirms my choice.
Chapter ten delves into book clubs of all forms. The most enticing book clubs combine two powerful educational ideas which are collaborative learning and independent reading. This is something I would like to work up to but this coming school year I will concentrate my efforts on explicitly teaching some of the new reading strategies I’ve learned to students and conducting successful reading workshops. I see myself using this book often in my individual planning and co-planning.
The protocol we used today was coding. I was the facilitator and actually picked this strategy for the group. I can’t say that I found it as useful as I would have hoped. I found myself wanting to annotate more than code. I realized quickly that not all protocols will work for all kids or adults. I accommodated for my own weaknesses by writing the codes on a post-it so they were right in front of me as I read. I didn’t like having to stop and say now which code belongs to this passage. But then again with practice and experience maybe I will find value in this protocol.
I really liked how you were honest about the struggles you were having with coding because recognizing that can help to relate to the students when they are having struggles.
ReplyDeleteI wish you would have included more information on some of the pitfalls when planning for workshops.
I like how you talk about how useful this book is. It makes me what to pick it up after reading so much about it. You say you would like to try book clubs, but want to focus on explicitly teaching the strategies. Is there a way to do both?
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