Join the Reading Recovery Mailring listed in the English Center at the
Teacher Mailring Center
http://www.teachers.net/mailrings/
Mary/PA - Hello Amethyst
Mary/PA - Tonight we will have an open chat. We can discuss anything pertaining to Reading Recovery that is of interest to you.
Amethyst - Hi Mary. I'd like to talk about RAK.
Mary/PA - That's fine, where do you want to start,Amethyst?
Gigi/MO - Hello, Mary, Kimberly, Amethyst, and Alison!!
Mary/PA - Amethyst, is this your training year?
Kimberly - Mary, what do you feel is the most beneficial way to teach comprehension in small reading groups?
Amethyst - I'm concerned about the variety of activities. We read, reread and make books. I use the students WV as a guide to the sentences in the student made books. Am I on the right track?
Gigi/MO - I've got a quick question!?!
Amethyst - Yes this is my training year.
Gigi/MO - Sounds like you are right on to me, Amethyst!!
Mary/PA - Kimberly, read the text and discuss it. Your leading questions would be focused upon the comprehension skill that you are studying at the time.
Amethyst - But shouldn't there be more variety?
Mary/PA - Small groups are a good setting for valuable discussion
Gigi/MO - Amethyst--You can also do mag. letters with letters they know!! Have them pull them down from the top of the white board quickly!!
Mary/PA - Amethyst, you don't want to get away from reading and writing. That is what we teach. The variety comes in the different reading material and the different writing topics.
Mary/PA - We don't have the time to spend on activities that take us away from reading and writing.
Kimberly - We read and discuss a variety of literature in our small reading groups. Should I be using a combination of reading and using the text and also asking questions where they are expected to go back and read for details?
Amethyst - If we are using the known, shouldn't I include activities that reflect the sounds that they know and the Upper and Lower case letters?
Gigi/MO - Mary--Do you think it is OK to use mag. letters if it is the ones they know!!
Alison - This is my 2nd year of RR. I have several students who have trouble remembering the formation and names of letters. They run through the alphabet song to get to the letter name. Then check their alphabet book for the correct letter formation. They are also very slow to write their letters. We are doing alpha. books, sorts, and tracing. Any other ideas?
Mary/PA - Gigi, in "Changes..." Marie seems to say that in RAK we should be working with whole texts and not letters and words in isolation. So I do this in a very limited way and only as it relates to the whole texts that we are working on in RAK/
Amethyst - Mary, what are some of the ways you relate known alpha. to whole texts?
Gigi/MO - Alison--I play "Your Pile/My Pile" with the letters for letter ID!! It's in the GB but not sure what page at the moment!!
Mary/PA - The letters come into play as we write. Having the child hear the sounds he is able to hear and write the letters he is able to write.
Mary/PA - ML can be pulled into writing for various reasons.
Gigi/MO - OK, Mary!! That makes sense about letters!! I have seen and heard of using mag. letters in RAK and have done it!!
Mary/PA - Alison, are you in RAK or lessons?
Amethyst - The only thing my students have done with mag. letters is to make their name, and form words they know that were on the WV.
Mary/PA - Alison, in lessons, you should have them practice the letter several times on the practice page to get fluency of formation.
Alison - We are in lessons. I did Your Pile/ My Pile with words last year, however my TL wasn't too keen on it. But... what she doesn't know... I think I will try it and send them home. Both students have parents that want to help. Do you think it would be OK to tell the students they need to be able to say them fast, and to not go through the alphabet song?
Alison - Thanks Mary, we do that and find them in text too.
Gigi/MO - Mary--Our Cont. Contact class just started reading "Changes Over Time". We are reading the first chapter for Thursday's class!! I've read the first 6 pages!!
Alison - All of my students this year write their letters bottom to top.
Mary/PA - Alison, focus on one or two letters at a time. It may be too much to try to learn several at a time. Focus on recognizing and writing a letter in different places. Over and over. Also when they practice writing the letters be sure that are saying what they are doing...where they are starting and in what direction they are moving.
Gigi/MO - Alison--I always do Your pile/My Pile with letters but don't really know why it wouldn't work with high freq. words!?! I know a RR teacher that has sent them home!!
Gigi/MO - Mary, what do you think about sending words home!?!
Mary/PA - Gigi, Changes is a very eye opening book for me. It helped me understand writing better. Also changed the way I do RAK.
Amethyst - Mary, can you explain some of the changes you made in the way you do RAK.
Mary/PA - Gigi, I don't see anything wrong with doing that. Sending the words and or letters home is something that the people at home will understand. It's another way to get the children to look at these items.
Alison - Gigi- In which part of the lesson, if any, do you do Your Pile/My Pile. Maybe I wasn't doing it at the right point last year. It's entirely possible.
Mary/PA - Amethyst, in RAK I don't do anything with letters or words in isolation...even though they showed evidence of knowing some of these during the OS. I stay with whole texts.
Amethyst - OK, thank you.
Mary/PA - They have been taught things in isolation in Kinder. it didn't help them to understand how reading and writing work. Focusing on whole texts does help the child to see where the parts and bits that they know fit.
Gigi/MO - Alison--I think they have to know them FAST!! I have a little boy who has to spell his name or his dad's name to figure out the name of some letters!! I told him when he can identify ALL his letters--upper and lower case, I'm going to DANCE ON THE TABLE!! That's what he is working for!!
Alison - I think I will send YP/MP cards home with a copy of letter language for at risk learners, so we will all be using the same words to describe letter formation.
Alison - Gigi, LOL. I think they should know them fast, too. Hope you have some tap shoes.
Gigi/MO - Alison--I do YP/MP during letter and word work time!! I only do this during lessons-not during RAK!!
Mary/PA - In early lessons I don't cut up words. I stay with whole words. We want the child to learn how words look. Later in lessons when the child has displayed evidence of knowing how to learn how words look, I will start to cut words apart. I don't do this soon, I think it adds to their confusions. I do think that sometimes we do things too soon for the children. We want to move on before the child is really ready to do so.
Alison - Thanks Gigi, that's what I thought.
Gigi/MO - Alison--I do give him credit IF he SC a letter name VERY quickly but sometimes I think he only SC because he sees me write down his errors!?!
Gigi/MO - Amethyst--Are you still with us?
Mary/PA - Where is everyone in their programs right now? I'm in week 6.
Amethyst - Yes, I was just thinking about Mary's comment about an activity that will come in lessons. Would cutting up sentences in phrases come before words?
Amethyst - Yes, I was just thinking about Mary's comment about an activity that will come in lessons. Would cutting up sentences in phrases come before words?
Amethyst - Yes, I was just thinking about Mary's comment about an activity that will come in lessons. Would cutting up sentences in phrases come before words?
Alison - Week 5 for most, 6 for one.
Amethyst - I just completed week 1 of RAK.
Mary/PA - Amethyst, I think phrases should come after the child has one to one down pat and knows how to see a word. I don't cut phrases too soon in the child's program.
Gigi/MO - I just started week 8!! That's a scary thought, isn't it?
Mary/PA - Amethyst, where are you located? Does school start late in your area?
Mary/PA - Gigi, well, you test before school starts, right? So you will be ahead of the rest of us.
Amethyst - I'm in Philadelphia. I teach many classes... Res. Rm., M.G., regular K-5. My principal had to get a sub to take over some of my classes. There were delays in getting this arranged.
Gigi/MO - That's right, Mary!! I started my RR students on the 4th and 5th day of school.
Mary/PA - Gigi, at what levels are your children reading?
Amethyst - ...testing coordinator, staff developer, book distributor..
Mary/PA - Oh, I see. Amethyst, are you getting started later than the others in your training class?
Alison - Amethyst-Oh, my goodness...
Gigi/MO - I have 2 kids on level 5, 1 on level 4 (soon to be on 5) and 1 on level 3!!
Mary/PA - Amethyst, what's M.G.?
Amethyst - Definitely !!!!! I have had to double up on the RAK sessions.
Amethyst - Mentally Gifted
Mary/PA - Oh, thanks, Amethyst.
Gigi/MO - Amethyst--Sounds like you are doing 2-3 peoples' jobs!!
Mary/PA - I have two at level 3, and the others are at 5 and six. One I'm moving the 7 tomorrow.
Gigi/MO - Mary--You Go Girl!!
Amethyst - It's all in the organization. lol
Mary/PA - Amethyst, I think you are being spread far too thin. I don't think that's a good thing to do to a teacher. How are you coping with it all?
Gigi/MO - I've got a quick question about helping a student learn responsibility!?! I need some help!! Can I ask it?
Mary/PA - I have 7 RR kids. That's all I have to do. It sure helps me to concentrate
Mary/PA - Gigi, sure, I have several that need the same
Amethyst - Well now I have a sub for many of the classes. We confer daily but she's really not versed in the intricacies of MG and their varied IEPs.
Gigi/MO - My lowest student has difficulty bringing his books back and forth to and from school!! The other 3 students do a wonderful job but this particular one can't seem to do it consistently!! I had his sister in RR 2 years ago so I know the mother knows the process BUT....
Mary/PA - Amethyst, in thinking about your question about cutting phrases...after the child shows good solid 1-1, I have then read phrases in their familiar books by finger framing two and then three word phrases. After the understand this well, I will start to cut phrases in the CUS part of the lesson.
Mary/PA - Gigi, have you given him a strategy for doing this? e.g. tell him to be sure they are in his big book bag as soon as he is done reading them at home?
Mary/PA - Then set the big book bag by the door so it's ready to grab on the way out?
Mary/PA - You can't change the mother, you have to work on the child. Some of the children that we work with only have themselves to fall back on...they are their only support...sad, but that's the way it is.
Mary/PA - Hmm, looks like I'm talking to myself
Mary/PA - Where is everyone?
Gigi/MO - Mary--I've tried but it hasn't seemed to work!! I have a calendar with their books that their parent initials and then I give them a little sticker on their calendar for every day that is done!! Then when they have 4-5 stickers on their calendar they get in my prize bag on Fri.!! That didn't seem to work for him!!
Amethyst - Just getting a glass of iced tea.
Mary/PA - Can you call home before he leaves for school? Remind him to be sure all his jobs are done.
Gigi/MO - Today I got aggravated and took 10 min. of his recess which was probably mean but that is what I told him would happen last week so I figured that I should carry through!!
Alison - No you are not Mary. LOL. I just don't have any suggestions for Gigi. I live in a very small town. I've called the parents when the books aren't brought to school and asked them to bring them. It usually only takes the one call and I don't have that problem again. But, that may not be possible for Gigi.
Amethyst - What about modeling and practicing packing up and leaving his bag by the door?
Mary/PA - Alison, that does work, it's a good strategy.
Gigi/MO - I've talked to the parent 2 times about it but it still seems like it is happening!! I'm not sure they have a phone but I haven't tried to call them in the morning!?!
Mary/PA - Amethyst, that's another good suggestion. Some times we assume they know what we mean by the words we say. Sometimes showing is better.
Mary/PA - Also, showing them gives them something in the visual memory to help them remember.
Alison - Gigi, here's a thought. Do you have a date stamper? I stamp my kids hands with the date every time they have a lesson. It stays on until they take a bath. Could you do that to remind him to bring/pack up his books?
Gigi/MO - Thanks for the ideas!! The modeling MAY work!! Maybe I need to reward him every day for a few times to get him in the practice!! His mother is pregnant with her sixth child and I think she has had 2 miscarriages!! Guess she probably has more to deal with than MY books!!
Mary/PA - Gigi, that does sound like mom has her hands full. You have to work on the child. He needs to be the one to do the remembering.
Gigi/MO - Mary--I agree!!
Gigi/MO - Alison--That's a thought!! Why do you put the date on their hand? Just to remind them they've had a lesson!?!
Alison - It reminds them to use what they know in their classroom and to do their homework. If you had a book stamp, I bet he'd remember.
Mary/PA - I've tied a string around their wrists to remember to bring their books back. It's just a variation of the string around the finger thing.
Gigi/MO - That's a great idea, Alison!! Thanks to all of you!!
Alison - The date stamp is just handy.
Amethyst - Well folks, I need to pack my tote bags for tomorrow. It was wonderful chatting with you all. Bye
Mary/PA - I have a couple of kids who would have stamps going up their arms if I did the stamping...they don't get baths very often
Alison - I need to go, thanks for the suggestions.
Gigi/MO - I need to go also!! Thanks again for the ideas!! You all are GREAT!!
Mary/PA - Bye, Amethyst, thanks for coming. I hope to see you again next time.
Mary/PA - By, Gigi and Alison, hope you can come back next time as well
Gigi/MO - Thanks, Mary for keeping us going!!
Gigi/MO - Hope to see you next time!!
Mary/PA - It's always nice to talk with others. We learn so much from each other. Thanks for coming.
Mary/PA - See you in a couple of weeks.
