This innovative book by Debbie centers on small group reading instruction and how to get more control from your lessons. It is planned around the five reading components intellectual capacity, effortless when reading, phonics , and terminology -- and makes available sensible tips, sample lessons, lesson plans and models, ideas for correlated literacy work stations, and links to whole-group training.
The book is effortless to read and structured to support /challenge teachers to make tasks based on what their students need As a result the tasks at the “work stations” from classroom to classroom or even from year to year in the same teacher’s classroom will in no way be precisely the same. This is one of the fortes of this text. Diller presumes that teachers are rationally prepared to make verdicts which fit the burden of district and state benchmarks and core curriculum guiding principles to the different students in her/his classroom.
Work stations demand that students take more accountability for their erudition. Chapter 1 gives gradual direction not only for students but also for teachers. Letting go of control over responsibility is often intimidating. Diller makes available not only the how to but also the sustaining supposition. In other words she presents teachers with the language to talk about why they are doing what they are doing as well as her proficiency in step by step realization of work stations.
An imperative building block of the work stations as envisaged and put into operation by Diller is the demarcation of instruction. The final chapter provides insights and espousal for that separation. For example, she reveals the concept of creating a clipboard whose exterior is enclosed with layered index cards one for each student. The student’s name is written on the bottom right-hand corner and taped to the clipboard so that the name fits just above the last one taped on. This clipboard is a prepared space to document the individual requirements of students as you monitor them throughout the day. To get you on track the writer presents a set of examples of things you might record. You then use these annotations as you make choices about the tasks in particular work stations. A further strong point of this chapter is the set of literacy stage charts with four columns marked: If you see this, immediately teach this, then have the child put it into practice at this literacy work station, and suggested activities at the work station. Support for grading, interaction with parents, and keeping running records make this chapter rich with far-reaching support.
At the outset, it presents functional, pragmatic ways to comprehend your expectations for literacy centers, and countless ways to familiarize them with students. The provisions for these centers are not time consuming for the teacher to make, the work stations will be in line with the curriculum. Her strategies for putting a stop to and supervising center conduct are fantastic! She outlines some tremendous mini-lessons to both gain knowledge of and augment the literacy centers. Reproducible are incorporated to go along with some of the centers, as well. One valuable characteristic is that each work station has enough tasks in it to help keep the students listening carefully. The centers are fun for the children, and they are reading and/or writing in them! I highly recommend this book to K-2 teachers.
Was this review helpful?
|