A note from Mary...

Thanks B-C for having me as a guest in your Study Group.
I feel as though I have gotten to know you all through your Blog site,
and it was great to meet you in person. But who the heck is Big
Daddy:)
Your postings in response to such a wide variety of readings are
honest, personal, thoughtful, and reflective.
You connect with one another through the sharing of ideas and
selves--don't you wish our students could feel the same power of
response to class reading?
It is apparant you have a learning community here--thanks for lettting
me join you for a little while--
Keep reading, learning, and growing--
Mary

Thanks to our Witness book club for bringing the poem for two voices back to us. Lindy and Maria, I loved the way you two captured the essence of the book through your poem for two voices.
Our visit from Dr. Styslinger really helped us to remember who the most important voices in the school (and textbook adoption committees) should be...THE STUDENTS'. The web-site activity reminded me of how easy it is for struggling readers to get lost in text and text structures. I would like to try that activity with students at some point in time.

If you would like to take a look at my copy of The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, it's available. Do you all remember reading the first chapter of that book at the very beginning of the year? My how we have changed since those first meetings.

Many of you had questions about doing a word sort. If you would like me to help you with one in your classes, just let me know. We will practice one at our next study group session too.

Post your comments about our February 26 study group session and your reading to this thread. (Thanks for visiting us Mary!)

So my DRTA strategy was not as successful as I had hoped it would be... since I gave you all Wilhelm's directions, I am sure you will be able to take it and adapt it to suit your students' needs. If you try DRTA with your classes, please let me know how it goes or let me come watch maybe you could show me how to do it right!

What do you think about what Wilhelm had to say about teachers being at a disadvantage because we are the experts?

Did your students' lexile levels surprise you? There is other information we can look at in our MAP Toolbox. Take a look at that information and see if any of it would be helpful to you.

After reading Chapter 7: Building a Community of Learners, tell me what you think about building community in your classroom. Has this reaffirmed some of your thinking or changed it in any way?

On a personal note: I would like to say that you all are awesome!!! Thank you for being such a great study group!!

Please post your comments for our February 12th class and reading assignments under this thread.