[MOSAIC] Question for the group

[khannan76 at comcast.net]

In regards to a nation of readers that hate to read...

I have seventh graders at a school I am new to.  The school here is very gung ho 
for a certain unnamed point driven program.  Needless to say, I am not in favor 
of bribing kids to read.  HOWEVER, in an effort to stay "one of the 
team,"  I gave the kids the initial placement test, and am giving them the 
choice.  My kids have to read 150 pages of their "just right" books each week.  
I take Status of the Class every day.  I have them doing Interactive Journals in 
which they apply the strategies we are learning as a class (I have to use the 
adopted literature anthology, so I use it as common text and teach the 
strategies from it), to their novels.  If they WANT to take the quizzes and get 
the points and earn prizes that the school in general that's fine.  If they 
don't, the real grade comes from pages read and the responses written.  I've 
noticed that some kids in the middle years need a tangible reward for reading.  
So they have the option.

Just my two cents worth...


--
Kimberlee Hannan
Language Arts Department Chair
Sequoia Middle School
Fresno Unified School District