BEST Practices: LAST Call for Round-Robin Reading!

Dear Readers,

Part 3 of this series asked the question "who killed round-robin reading?". The question rises from a similar query posed hundreds of years ago. "Who killed Cock Robin?" refers to Sir Robert Walpole, the first prime minister in Great Britain to occupy 10 Downing Street. The rhyme referred to Sir Robin's downfall, not his death, and has since been parodied to denote the demise of a plethora of programs, agendas, ambitions, etc. 

In that spirit, this series has attempted to build a case AGAINST round-robin reading and BUILD a case for other options: Teacher read-alouds, think alouds/alongs, and paired partner reading. Today, we'll examine guided reading as it might look in a secondary classroom.

In the elementary classroom, balanced literacy includes guided reading. While students rotate among centers created to emphasize comprehension strategies, writing to learn, word work, etc., teachers work with groups of children as they rotate. During this time, students will read aloud from their leveled books while the teacher assesses their progress in fluency, decoding, phonics, etc.

Observers can find a similar model in secondary settings, but I'll wager that most of those circumstances center on expensive programs like Scholastic's Read 180. Some teachers, however, have tried to create their own centers so students have the opportunity to participate in small-group instruction.  Such an undertaking is labor and time-intensive.

As I've contemplated this situation, I decided that incorporating a guided reading experience into a literature circle format might work without investing as much time and energy into the project.

There are so many resources to support teachers in bringing lit circles to their classrooms, but I haven't found one that incorporates guided reading. I don't think it would be all that hard. Again, lit circles require intense training in the associated protocol if we want the groups to function effectively. Once that's established, teachers should be able to move from group to group to work on the needed areas of development.

On occasion, groups could be organized according to reading level as determined by Lexile measurements. Teachers could differentiate instruction by moving among the groups to work with one group that might struggle with fluency issues and another with comprehension concerns. By the end of the hour or block, the teacher may have interacted with 3 to 6 groups.

Books could be either the same or diverse titles, and instruction would be adapted accordingly. Currently, 3 teachers in our district are helping me create lesson plans for advanced readers. While all students benefit from this model, teachers can support students' needs by varying novels or assignments.

I don't think I've ever blogged about literature circles, so perhaps I will do that during this month of 31 posts. If not, the guru of lit circles, Harvey Daniels is scheduled to present at Literacy Promise 2010 (Feb. 17-19), along with a dozen other OUTSTANDING literacy experts.

Before signing off, can you answer who killed round-robin reading? Not the sparrow or the owl; not the fly or the kite. Hopefully, the strong practices shared here will bring RRR to its end!

Best wishes,
Renae

BEST Ideas: Reading DIFFERENT Texts

Hello All!

This little exercise is turning into a habit! But I'm really excited to bring you today's idea because it just dropped into my lap, and I think it has very cool potential for teachers outside the wonderful world of Language Arts!

If you have attended one of the Content Literacy professional development classes over the past couple of years, you know that I share Dr. Roni Jo Draper's research about comprehending "texts" of every size, shape, and design. Dr. Draper reminds us that we "read" music; sea captains once "read" stars to navigate their way across oceans; hunters and trackers "read" signs along the trail; crime scene investigators "read" evidence. You get the point.

Today my friend and colleague Becky sent me a link to a YouTube performance of an "essay" in the making. I know you're saying, "Oh, that sounds EXCITING! Let's all watch someone write up an essay worthy of a DWA knockout score." Au contraire, my friends! Be prepared to be amazed! Unless, of course, you are one of the 4,000,000 plus who have already watched this video. Nevertheless, think of how it can engage students!

This"writer" creates her story in pictures - nothing new there, right? WRONG-O! This is NOT a story board, and her medium isn't pen and ink or colored markers. It's SAND! Okay, I know you've seen some sand art on commercials and maybe on YouTube, but this performance surpasses most others, and it crosses content lines in such a moving way that I had to pass it on.

The following is a description of the performance as described by Mr. OR Ms. Anonymous - you know those people who pass on a million or more email messages about a million or more topics, and we have absolutely NO idea who these people are, but sometimes he or she sends us something worth perusing. This is one of those! As you check this out, think of ways you can incorporate it into your curriculum.

The video shows the winner of 2009's "Ukraine's Got Talent," Kseniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table. [Through her artistry, she tells] how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II.

The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears. Kseniya begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting and holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear, and the happy scene is obliterated. It is replaced by a woman's face, crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again.

The war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman's face appears. She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, and then the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.

This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking at the monument from within the house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man is standing outside, his hands pressed against the glass. He's saying good bye.

The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine, resulted in one in four of the population being killed with 8 to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.

An art critic said he finds it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers "is beyond me." Bringing an audience to tears is the no bigger compliment, especially when the war is used as the subject matter.

Teachers of language arts, history, geography, art, and music could engage their students through this visual, audio, artistic essay about war and its effects upon countries' citizens. Students could record their reflections, supply written words to describe the images, create their own pictures in different mediums, research the time period, write a poem, tell a fictional story. The possibilities go on and on.

Let me know what you think, and SUPER-SIZE your day!,
Renae