I am currently reading Mosaic of Thought and finished a section regarding schema. I am excited about this coming school year when I can start introducing these key concepts to my children right from the start. It's going to be a very exciting year. (This year was pretty thrilling as my goal was Writer's Workshop)
Goal for school year 2007-2008: Reader's Workshop
1. 6-8 weeks teaching the 7 strategies of comprehension under the umbrella of Metacognition.
(Check out the book Mosaic of Thought, tremendous book)
2. Having Reader's Workshop back to back with Writer's workshop- Students will use post-it notes to respond to what they are reading and hopefully they will want to try to try writing the way the author did!
3. Doing a lot more accountable talk!!!!!
I am most excited about the concept of schema. I am expecting my students to make connections from text to text, text to self, and text to world. Most importantly I am excited about the literary talk to that will be happening in my classroom, with FIRST GRADERS!!!!!
I got to thinking about classrooms where teachers are not allowing students to talk about what they read. They are still answering the questions at the end of the stories in their basals. I'm bored just thinking about it! Are these teachers just not knowledgeable about the research dealing with comprehension? Or, do they just want to skate by, knowing, but not doing. Do they do the traditional method because "by golly that's what I taught for years and it's worked!"
Sometimes, we have to do things for students that steps out of our comfort zone. Sometimes not everyone is going to fit into the box we have made for them. In my corporation where we are "failing" by the state's standards we have to start doing something different. We all need to step to the plate and do whatever it takes.
There is a really great poem by Penny Kittle about the disappointment teachers can feel regarding certain teachers. This is at my partner in crimes blogspot:
http://www.jenteacherslife.blogspot.com go there and check it out.
