Catherine Martell, Shannon Hood

& Kamila Al Marhubi

Principle #6: Effective teachers organize for literacy instruction

Overview

• Introduction

• Popular reading programs

• Basal reading programs, literature focus units, literature circles, reading and writing workshop

• Wrap up

Intro

• Organization is the key to success

• Combination of approaches

• Building on personal literacy

• Classroom organization

Literature Focus Units• District or state approved award winning, high

quality picture-book stories & novels

• Everyone reads the same books and responds together as a class

• Teachers sometime read aloud if book is too difficult for some children

• Children create projects to extend understanding

• Teachers support learning through explicit instruction and reading & writing activities

• Teachers choose the books so children may not be interested

Literature Circles• Small groups of children read and

respond to stories or books

• Teacher selects 5 or 6 related books and collects multiple copies

• Teacher gives a ‘book talk’ to introduce the book

• Children choose their own book and work independently

• Children learn to respond to books and develop responsibility for completing assignment

• Some children may choose books that are too easy or too difficult

Basal Reading Programs

Commercially produce reading programs

Textbooks, workbooks and instructional teacher’s editions

Less work for teacher - good or bad?

But can it teach children to love reading and writing?

Image from www.wikipedia.org

Reading and Writing Workshop

authentic reading and writing

freedom of choice about what to read and write

conference with teachers

mini-lessons: strategies and skills, reading aloud

independence and responsibility

reading and writing at different levelsImages from www.google.com/images

QuickTime™ and aH.264 decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

The Very Messy Classroom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW_Kyrc9ztU

Discussion questions

• What is wrong with this scenario?

• What could the teacher do differently to be more organised?

Thanks!And remember, organization is an ongoing process that

presents a challenge for all teachers