Reading Teachers Chatboard

Sara On 5/06/14, upcoming interview wrote: > I am currently a first year teacher teaching social studies > and coaching 3 sports. I want to temporarily get out of > coaching afterschool sports so that I may have more time to > possibly pursue a master's degree. I am currently teaching > middle school studies but I have an upcoming intervi...See MoreOn 5/06/14, upcoming interview wrote: > I am currently a first year teacher teaching social studies > and coaching 3 sports. I want to temporarily get out of > coaching afterschool sports so that I may have more time to > possibly pursue a master's degree. I am currently teaching > middle school studies but I have an upcoming interview in > another district to teach 4th grade writing. Any > recommendations or tips for reading to study up on things so > that I wont sound clueless in my interview? (although I have > never taught this content area). Thanks in advance!

If you can get hold of a book called Why Johnny Can't Write. It's short but even shorter might be to read a chapter or two in a book called The Myth of the Lazy Child which is written by a pediatrician who goes through the issues that can make reading and writing more difficult for some children.

Kids who read poorly write poorly. They go hand in hand and so many schools don't seem to get that. Writing is the flip side of reading. There are also kids who do read well but write poorly - a true dysgraphia -as if they've had a stroke.

If you can find an article "Writing: The Great Juggling Act - that's an enlightening article. Lots of writing teachers think teaching writing us just about giving out assignments and having them write. Wrong.

Reading is taking the 'code' that is our written language and 'decoding' it. (You may have had this in a theory class in college) writing is 'encoding' - But the task that ends in a written sentence begins with a thought in the brain. Some kids are not verbal and their problem with writing begins with the fact that they're not very verbal. Then once they have a thought to write, they have to think of what letters represent the words of their thought, put those letters in a certain order to make words, put the words in a certain order to make sense and make some letters uppercase, others lowercase because that has a meaning all its own and then put symbolic marks at the end of the sentence - period, question marks each if which has its own meaning. And then do it all again with the next sentence.

Meanwhile they need certain fine motor skills which not all of them have to enable them to hold a pencil effectively...

Writing is a hugely complicated task - it's why many early cultures did not have a written language - and lately in education we've come to place this rather do or die significance on it. We've ratcheted up the pressure on kids - Kindergarten kids are now expected to be writing paragraphs and they do 'research papers' in 1st grade...

I've gone on too long - sorry. Clearly it's a topic on which I have strong feelings. I've taught remedial writing for years and if kids could be given some breathing room, encouraged without being stressed or scared, half of them would be able to learn to write in their regular classrooms and not need to come to me. I welcome having them but I see so often the fallout from the modern do or die emphasis on writing and the flawed modern methods of teaching writing. Here I go... one of which is 'writing prompts'- it's believed by some that if you can find the right writing prompt that children will be magically unlocked by that prompt and the writing will just flow. Before I climb back up on the soapbox, get someone's I-phone, download the free app Dragon Dictation and speak into it - it's a miracle. Kids need to be helped to use it - and I could help you with that - but for kids with significant fine motor issues or truly dysgraphic kids - that free app can really help. Sorry for this lengthy response - clearly I like to write....

May 13, 2014

Reading

by Angela

Jul 27, 2010

Hello All,

I was just hired for 5th grade reading teacher. I am extremely nervous since my backgound is not in teaching. I am also nervous because the school i will be teaching at, I have been told, has discipline problems with the students. If any one has any advice. I really appreciated it.

angela

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Julie Niles Petersen Hello Angela,

I am a reading specialist and I blog about teaching reading at [link removed].

I also suggest you join Twitter and Facebook if you haven't done so yet. So many great educators and pages share helpful resources on a daily basis. If you need to find some people who are passionate about reading on Twitter, this blog p...See More

Jul 27, 2010

Mae in Texas I suggest you reading Harry Wong's First Day of School. This book will give you some practical ways to establish structure. Teaching is a challenging profession. Read, learn, reflect. My website has a lot of resources you can turn to throughout the year. Take a deep breath and jump in with both feet. That's exactly what I did my first year (taught ...See More

Aug 2, 2010

New to Third Grade..Need reading/writingcenter activities

by teacher_michel

Jul 31, 2010

Helllo everyone!

I am new to grade 3. I've taught grades K, 1, and 2. Now I'm looping o grade 3. I have no idea what kind of reading workshop activities I need for my class this upcoming school year. I'm also looking for a literacy theme.

Can someoneone help me with this?

Thanks in advance.

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Joanne The Reading First Grant in Florida put together a website that has great center activities for 3rd grade reading students. Everything you need is there.

On 7/31/10, teacher_michel wrote: > Helllo everyone! > > I am new to grade 3. I've taught grades K, 1, and 2. Now > I'm looping o grade 3. I have no idea what kind of reading ...See More

Aug 3, 2010

teacher_michel Thanks Joanne!I forgot about that site. . .that is crazy because I was in a Reading First school. LOL!

On 8/03/10, Joanne wrote: > The Reading First Grant in Florida put together a website > that has great center activities for 3rd grade reading > students. Everything you need is there. > > On 7/31/10, teacher_michel wrote: ...See More

Aug 4, 2010

BigIQkids is releasing a page a day for our BigIQkids Book #1 Ugh...You Again! Visit this page weekly as 7 new pages are released. Follow along as the never dull elementary school experience of 3rd grader "Alexis" is brought to life in an engaging online environment complete with turning pages, interactive illustrations and the wit and humor today'...See More

FREE ONLINE CHAPTER BOOK

by Debra Marcionette

Aug 2, 2010

Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Kit

by Kristy

Aug 2, 2010

I need to train teachers in grades 3-5 on using the F&P benchmark assessment kit. I have about 2 hours... Has anyone developed a training plan or training resources that they would be willing to share? I would really appreciate any help!!!

Sarah T Kristy, I am a literacy coach and last year we had to train all k-5 teachers in our district in the use of F&P. I don't think 2 hrs. is nearly enough time if you want them to be able to administer the assessment with integrity. We trained our teachers through a series of 30-45 minute meetings over several weeks. As far as an outline or plan, we...See More

Aug 15, 2010

Writing and Bell work

by B arbara

Aug 4, 2010

Has anyone had students do daily writing as Bell Work? If so, anyone in primary?

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diana I used to have my grade one class write in their journals as bell work once a week. I would usually write a question or an idea on the board, but tell them that they could choose to write about something else if they wanted. I always enjoyed reading their answers and it taught me more about each one of them. It worked relatively well, but it did ta...See More

Aug 5, 2010

Mae in Texas I do writing workshop, so my "bell" work (when the first enter and get ready for the day) is to read a book. Mae

Aug 11, 2010

Entrepreneurship Workbook promotes reading/writing skills

by Adrienne

Aug 4, 2010

A company called, Harlem Hip-Hop Tours, has developed an Entrepreneurship Workbook to teach children the basics of starting a business. The workbook is an ebook that you can print out and use over and over again and only costs $6.99. Students really have to use their reading and writing skills to complete the workbook, and once done, can submit the...See More

Diagnostic test

by new ela teacher

Aug 4, 2010

I will be teaching 6th/7th grade english this year and would like to diagnostic test my students. Can anyone direct me to a comprehensive middle school diagnostic test that I can use???

teaching spelling in a mutliage classroom

by lindsay

Aug 6, 2010

I am a first-year teacher going to be teaching K-2 in the fall... :S I am a bit stressed trying to figure out the scheduke and curriculum at this point...

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to teach phonics/spelling/sight words to this 3 age groups? Any tips would be fantastic!

Thank you!

Grace/IL Take a look at this (link). If you use the assessments provided there, you can easily group your students according to their needs. Phonics is taught THROUGH spelling. Email me with any questions.

Grace

Aug 11, 2010

Block Scheduling Middle School Reading

by Katy

Aug 11, 2010

Our district is now on the 80 minute A/B block schedule plan. I teach reading to middle school students. I am interested in knowing some ideas for how to plan my periods. For example: 15 minute warm up, 20 minute vocabulary instruction, 20 minute comprehension and skills lessons. Does anyone have a schedule for their classroom that works?