[MOSAIC] appreciating reading

[MrsJRoman at aol.com]

Dear Sarah and all,
 
I teach sixth grade students with special learning needs.  I spend a  lot of 
time at the beginning of the year on classroom procedures and  modeling my 
expectations.  This is a very critical area especially for  my students. I do a 
modified reading workshop where I start with a variation of  the Daily Five and 
build stamina.  Students read self selected books, read  with a partner, read 
to the teacher, have a  drawing activity or written  response and have an 
activity relating to the vocabulary of the reading that  they are doing with the 
teacher. I keep things fast paced and even the most  struggling of my readers 
are engaged in learning.
 
I use Lit Circles but do not start until mid-year. I use Clock Partners to  
build community and challenge accountability. I use tons of picture books for  
comprehension, literary elements, writing style and as a springboard for 
written  responses. We use Reader's Theater both canned and class generated.  We  
re-write the endings of books or place them in different settings.  We do  lots 
of author studies and use a variety of genre.
 
Some books and resources that I have found extremely helpful in addition to  
Mosaic of Thought, Strategies that Word, Reading With Meaning  and  any of the 
Fountas and Pinnell books are :
 
Starting With Comprehension - Andie Cunningham - this book is  written for 
very young learners but I have found it very useful for making sure  my students 
start with very basic comprehension skills. My students come to me  very 
adept at word calling with zero comprehension so it is vital to give tehm  the 
basuc building blocks to get them started.
 
The Daily Five - this book was also meant for much younger readers  but I 
have used a lot of the basic principles to making sure that students get a  
variety of reading experiences and yet build their reading stamina and grow them  
as readers.
 
I Read It But I Don't Get It - Cris Tovani
 
Do I Have  To Teach Reading - Cris Tovani - Tovani's books are  great because 
she struggled with comprehension all the way through hisgh school  so she can 
really speak to our middle and high schoolers who are struggling with  the 
same issues.
 
Bringing The Outside In - Sara Kajder - this is another great  resource for 
older readers.  She has a lot of great ideas for different  ways to approach 
learning vocabulary.  She does a lot with visualization  and using digital 
cameras to capture meanings of words in action in everyday  life.
 
Hope this was of some help.  If you have additional questions, email  away!
 
June
_mrsjroman at aol.com_ (mailto:mrsjroman at aol.com)