[MOSAIC] RWM/Debbie Miller

[Sandra Stringham]

Maybe I'm defensive...and that won't be the 1st time that's been said about me, but I just had to respond to Bella...especially for the students in their pre-service teaching:

I am a  substitute teacher and I 
never hear teachers use schema in a sentence. I also  like how she uses the 
word infer when she teaches or asks a question to the  children.  On the video 
she has a notebook for each child and she is  always writing something down. 
Unfortunately that is not possible with some  teachers. The days are chaotic. 
and it is hard to write comments about each  individual child. I also feel that 
her room is also well organized and she has a  lot of space. Her students do 
enjoy her and the way she teaches. She does  alot of read alouds and shared 
readings with the children.

The teachers on this list serve certainly DO use schema in their sentences....as well as metacognition...inferring, questioning, visualizing, determining importance and synthesizing. That's part of the point of teaching the strategies explicitly:   using the terminology.  Certainly not all of it...we want them to understand how it helps them be better readers.  And I want them to transfer that language to writing and to math.  

I have a notebook for every child and when I meet with them in guided reading, I'm taking a running record every single time as well as noting any strategy use.   I also have  a notebook that I write in  during share time, when we are sharing whole group our strategy work and I take notes daily.

Read Alouds and shared reading...that's all part of balanced literacy.  We do it everyday.   I've had BIG BIG rooms and small, small rooms....it can be done with a little planning....don't let the room discourage what you can do for your kids.

I was fortunate to have Debbie Miller teach a lesson in my classroom a few years ago.  It certainly did my heart good to hear my kids use the terminology as they discussed what good readers do with her....and even more so they could demonstrate the use of the strategy. And the only way they learned it was because I taught them.

So if you are not seeing teachers use the terminology where you teach or the kids, more importantly, can't demonstrate what it is and use it...then introduce them to this list serve and the research that is out there.  

I hate that word never...because it's NEVER true!

Sandi
1st/Elgin IL