[MOSAIC] Update-not enough time

[Stephanie Ann Vander Voort]

I want to thank everyone again for all of the suggestions I was given  
about integrating quality strategies instruction into my short  
lessons. I have been implementing many of your suggestions for about a  
week and a half now (since the students have returned from winter  
break)?My lessons have been going so well! I talked to one of the  
teachers that I work with and asked if I could keep the same group for  
a few days in a row instead of switching to a new group everyday. She  
agreed, so now I don?t feel so rushed to get through the books she  
wants me to work on with her students in such a short block of time.  
So far we have been working on questioning. The kids love it. We  
talked about how all good readers ask themselves questions to help  
them to better understand what they are reading.  As we went through  
the book, we wrote down a list of all the questions we had and the  
pages they came from. At the end of the book we looked at all of the  
questions and decided if they were answered and where the answer came  
from(later in the book, someone else knew the answer, ect). We still  
need to talk about how asking all of these questions are helping us as  
readers and then start weeding out the types of questions that don?t  
really help. I am very impressed with what we have done so far and the  
questions my students have been coming up with. I am looking forward  
to working more with questioning and other strategies. Since the  
students are getting better at their questions I think that next week  
I will give them post it notes to keep track of their own questions.  
Does anyone have any other suggestions for scaffolding this strategy?

With my younger students, I have started using many of the sorts from  
Words Their Way.  This has been going very well also. There are so  
many different kinds of sorts to do that the students are continually  
engaged and don?t lose interest. I also love that the sorts can be  
adapted to fit the level of each student. I work with some students  
with picture cards and have them sort by initial sound, final sound or  
short vowel sound. If anyone had done any sorts with students that  
work well I would love to hear about these too!

Thanks again for all of your help so far!