advice/help needed for new position

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Remedial Reading Chatboard

advice/help needed for new position

by ret

Apr 18, 2011

I will be a Title 1 Reading teacher next year K-5. Any advice you could give as to getting started, what I might need, etc.

1. What things would you consider 'necessities', things you couldn't teach without?

2. What are the pros/cons of a this position vs. a classroom? I have 27 years experience in the classroom K-5.

3. Setting up my room I will have 1/2 the size of a regular classroom. I am not complaining, I just need advice on how to best utilize the space.

4. Bulletin board ideas? I will be working with K-5 , I will have one bulletin board and one small dry erase board.

Thanks for your help!

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Cathy Great lists, Patty and Mel.

I'd add "magic tape" (post-it makes it, I think - it's "correction tape"), magnetic letters and small letter cards, and diagnostic assessments to follow-up on your Universal Screenings. There are some available online if you don't have $ to spend. A phonics assessment, the "Names Test", PA assessments, reading ...See MoreGreat lists, Patty and Mel.

I'd add "magic tape" (post-it makes it, I think - it's "correction tape"), magnetic letters and small letter cards, and diagnostic assessments to follow-up on your Universal Screenings. There are some available online if you don't have $ to spend. A phonics assessment, the "Names Test", PA assessments, reading inventories come to mind. Make your markers the thin Crayola (non-permanent) type. I highly recommend "Rewards" from Sopris for multi-syllable work for the older students. In fact, if anyone else uses it, I'd be interested in talking about it. FCRR.org has excellent activities. I particularly like the phonemic awareness ones for the K's. I think word sorts are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I don't use a lot of distractions on my walls. A short vowel cue and a cd for 'd' formation, along with any cues for what I might be working on with a student or group. If you can get trained in Reading Recovery, or take a similar class meant for the classroom teacher (here it's called "Observing the Young Learner"), you will find it invaluable. Books can be leveled easily at scholastic's BookWizard. If you're not a member of paperbackswap.com, give them my email address and I'll get a free credit for referring you (anyone!) along with the benefit to you of getting titles you're looking for, for just the cost of postage. Cathy [email removed]

----- Original Message ----- From: Patty Brohard To: Remedial Reading Teachers Mailring Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 6:17 AM Subject: Re: advice/help needed for new position

Needs: The Comprehension Toolkit Primary and Intermediate versions (available through Heinemann), TONS of post it notes, a set of small dry erase boards, lots of dry erase markers, sentence strips, chart paper, notebooks for reading response journals (get those at back to school sales for $.10), lots of pencils (even though you should ask students to always bring a pencil to your room), erasers (the erasers on the pencil tops always mysteriously disappear). Folders for take-home reading. I only do take home reading with my primary students, though, because the upper grades already have enough homework and our books take several days to read so I don't have as much turnover with upper-grade books. Markers (get a bunch when they are on sale at Target in late July). Highlighter tape is GREAT for marking text. I use it a lot with second grade and beyond.

Bulletin board: I use this to display my anchor charts because space is limited in my room

baskets: organize books by level. I also have one basket per group with my plans and materials for that group. It is labeled on the front with the time and students in that group and makes it much easier for a sub to find what they need when I'm out. I just keep everything I need for that week in there. Lakeshore has great upright style blue baskets for this that are a bit wider than typical magazine holder baskets.

I'm sure I left out lots. It's 6:15 a.m.! ;) Hope this helps. Good luck!

Apr 20, 2011

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Grace/IL You might also checkout my website (below). There are several free resources available there plus some really inexpensive supplementary materials. If the children come to you without decoding skills, you might look at the research page to see what improvements occurred when I taught my children structured spelling. I've just had some powerful feedb...See More

Apr 20, 2011

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Sara On 4/18/11, ret wrote: > I will be a Title 1 Reading teacher next year K-5. Any > advice you could give as to getting started, what I might > need, etc.

How will you meet the kids? In small groups in your room? As individual kids?

Either way, a positive attitude is the first necessity - aren't you lucky to have this opp...See MoreOn 4/18/11, ret wrote: > I will be a Title 1 Reading teacher next year K-5. Any > advice you could give as to getting started, what I might > need, etc.

How will you meet the kids? In small groups in your room? As individual kids?

Either way, a positive attitude is the first necessity - aren't you lucky to have this opportunity though?! I did a sideways type career move in my own teachign career and it really refreshed me and added gobs of good stuff to my general knowledge banks and all of it helps the rest. Sideways career moves like this one give valuable perspective - you will know things that reading teachers who have not been classroom teachers will never know.

As to physical things - books. Even the sight of warm, friendly children's books on a warm and inviting shelf or two is inviting of their interest in reading and affirming of the fact that reading is about books - not worksheets, not whiteboards, not phonetic drills. Reading is about books (of course poetry, plays etc etc) and too many weak readers simply come to see reading as the laboriously cognitive act of decoding words on worksheets or on a page.

We read for the sake of books and for the sake of gaining the information the writing provides. I'd even have... more than books, come to think of it. Cups with writing on them (not MacDonald's) Cereal boxes! They have writing and it's often good information about nutrition. Magazines, and dare I say, I'd even have a comic book or two. Reading is reading. Greeting cards - I'd definitely have greeting cards - some of those are great fun and all of them are reading.

With all of that, you'd communicate a message about the diversity of what we read and the presence of reading even outside of books. And you'd 'change it up a little' - kids come to expect more of the same, more of the same because so often that's what we present them with - more of the same - when actually their interest and attention in invited by changing it up a bit. We get to read greeting cards in Reading Workshop? Whyever not?

I found when I went to work in a workshop setting, it was less work than classroom teaching - need I say more? I missed at first the sense of community that I fostered in my classroom but - it was less work, need I say more?

bulletin board - I'm never great with those, I just fill in with something colorful and I try for intruiging. One year I put up a picture of Stonehenge, the Parthenon, and the Great Pyramid at Giza and asked "Which one of these is a clock?"

They liked that the best and clamored for more. I used to have these great posters from NCTM that had shapes on them but anything intriguing I find gets their thinking juices flowing, it puts some gas in their tank and sets a nice tone for anything especially reading.

Have fun. I use the phrase 'stronger readers'rather than 'better readers' and it is fun to watch children who have been defeated by reading become stronger readers. > > 1. What things would you consider 'necessities', things you > couldn't teach without? > > 2. What are the pros/cons of a this position vs. a > classroom? I have 27 years experience in the classroom K-5. > > 3. Setting up my room I will have 1/2 the size of a regular > classroom. I am not complaining, I just need advice on how > to best utilize the space. > > 4. Bulletin board ideas? I will be working with K-5 , I > will have one bulletin board and one small dry erase board. > > Thanks for your help!

Apr 22, 2011

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Laurie On 4/18/11, ret wrote: > I will be a Title 1 Reading teacher next year K-5. Any > advice you could give as to getting started, what I might > need, etc. > > 1. What things would you consider 'necessities', things you > couldn't teach without? > > 2. What are the pros/cons of a this position vs. a > classroom? I have 27 ye...See More

Apr 23, 2011

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Laurie On 4/23/11, Laurie wrote: > On 4/18/11, ret wrote: >> I will be a Title 1 Reading teacher next year K-5. Any >> advice you could give as to getting started, what I might >> need, etc. >> >> 1. What things would you consider 'necessities', things you >> couldn't teach without? >> >> 2. What are the ...See More

Apr 23, 2011

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