This is the first in a series of posts in which Dina Strasser, who blogs at The Line, and I correspond about our experiences using a workshop approach to reading instruction:
Dina,
I like your suggestion that we use our blogs to compare notes about teaching in reading workshop classrooms this year. I appreciate your observations [...]
We’re into the second week of school here this year. I’m still in the early getting-to-know-you period with my class, and we are all more or less on our best behavior, but judging from what I’ve seen so far this is going to be a good year. It’s my 27th in the classroom, and you’d [...]
This is testing week, and I’ve been listening to what the kids are hearing about the tests.
“Relax; just do your best.”
“The tests give us information about how we can help you.”
“You will not be held back or get a bad grade on your report card if you don’t do well on the test.”
“Some questions [...]
For several years I have looked forward to the day when education policy would move beyond the utopian delusion that all students will would be proficient by 2014, a day that still appears to be a long way off. There’s a new ed.gov website set up for teachers, to help “…all students read and do [...]
I’m trying something different this year. I’m not assigning novels and telling everyone which pages to read, having class discussions about the themes, providing background knowledge, making vocabulary lists, or asking “comprehension” questions that I mark for a grade.
This year, everyone in the class reads what they want to read, and they read without [...]
I’ve been thinking about our school district’s mathematics pacing guide lately. This past week we gave the required mid-year math assessment to make sure the kids are on track, and I’m seeing the predictable result: Some are; too many are not. So, what now? The pacing guide doesn’t say. It isn’t a teaching tool, you [...]
The Gates Foundation is developing national education standards and tests because the state-by-state standards have caused a “‘testing crisis in this country,’ in which tests are losing credibility among teachers, who see them as so low-quality that they are useless.” No kidding.
The truth is, that’s exactly right, but not for the right reason. They think [...]
Here on the edge of the edge of the continent, my family’s view of the 2008 Olympic Games is a little fuzzy since we’re too far out of town for cable service, and the rabbit ears antenna won’t pull down the local broadcast signal. We do (as of 6 months ago) have a decent wireless [...]
Unlike David Brooks, I don’t believe that Education is The Biggest Issue – as he conceives it, anyway. Brooks says, “America’s lead over its economic rivals has been entirely forfeited, with many nations surging ahead in school attainment,” because of an “educational slowdown” around 1970, which resulted in too few skilled workers to meet the [...]
It’s been a week since school let out for the summer, and I’ve been been thinking about what happened in the classroom this year. Decompression – it happens every May. Long bike rides are key: 30 miles yesterday, 20 today, 50 miles tomorrow, if it doesn’t look too much like rain. Two-lane country blacktop with [...]
My name is Doug.
I'm from the government.
I teach your kids.
