Harry the Chinchilla

Meet Harry the chinchilla. Harry does not read, but he likes books. He likes to chew them, along with magazines, Ivory soap, woodwork, and curtains. He is not really evil, just curious. Still, I have had to redo my bathroom thanks to his bad habits, and may end up having to do it again.

Reading First and the Art of Teaching Reading

Reading First was created as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Reading First provides funds for schools to establish reading programs based on "scientifically based reading research." Five essential components of reading instruction were identified in the Reading First legislation: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. An interim report on the effectiveness of the Reading First Programs was released in April of 2008. The good news: On average, Reading First increased instructional time spent on the five essential components. The bad news: on average, estimated impacts on student reading comprehension test scores was not statistically significant. There will be a final report in early 2009 which will give the relationship between the degree of implementation of scientifically based reading instruction and student reading achievement. Opinion alert: I do not believe there is such a thing as scientifically based reading instruction. Teaching reading is an art. I do believe there are more effective and less effective methods of teaching reading, and a less effective way focuses on discrete skills, and reading small amounts of text chosen by the teacher. A more effective way emphasizes student engagement with text, student interest and motivation. Skills are taught, but they are a tool to achieve the goal of creating accomplished, eager readers. Stay tuned for the report due in 2009. I will keep you posted!

Literacy for All

Last week several Bartlett staff members attended the Literacy for All conference sponsored by Lesley University. The conference has been held for many years in Providence Rhode Island. I have been attending since 1980. In those days it was called the Lesley Kindergarten Conference and was held in Randolph Ma. I have seen some top notch names in early childhood education over the years at this conference including Mary Baretta Lorton, Don Holdaway and Regie Routman, to name a very few! Nowadays there are sessions for middle schoolers as well as kindergarteners, but the presenters continue to be excellent. This year Tony Stead impressed me with this thoughts on non-fiction reading and writing, and especially his emphasis on the importance of promoting independent reading in the classroom. One quote from Mark Twain sums up the importance of this reading time : "The man who does not read books has no advantage over the man who cannot read books." As a classroom teacher, and reading teacher, my greatest satisfaction is having students who love to read. Check out Tony's new book : Good Choices for lots of ideas in efficiently promoting independent reading in the classroom.

Reading on the bus creates calm...who knew?

OK, busy teachers, moms, dads, kids, and especially bus drivers. Not enough time to read? Did you ever think about book buddies on the bus? A bus driver in Wisconsin, faced with too many rambunctious students, calmed them all down when she paired them up and passed out books. The older students read to the younger ones, and peace prevailed. What do you think, Mrs. Evans? Could it work on Bartlett bus runs?

Halloween

Yesterday was pumpkin carving day at the Starvish household. What is the worst part of carving pumpkins? Cleaning out the yucky stringy stuff on the inside. Still, the finished product(s) is pretty impressive, don't you agree?

Guest Author

On October 29th, author Jennifer Ericcson is coming to talk with students about her books. Teachers have read these wonderful picture books to students, and your child might love to own one of their own. For information on purchasing a book or two, click on the image to the left.

October News

Wow - October already. My new first graders are busy learning words and reading books. My third grade group has settled on Tale of Despereaux as their first book. This is good news for me, because I haven't read the book yet, and Kate DiCamillo is one of my favorite authors.

In writing, Mrs. Crete's and Mrs. Rioux's fourth graders invited me in to help with their first piece of writing - interviews of their classmates.

Speaking of writing check out our Celebration of Learning bulletin board in the front hallway. This month we are featuring pieces of writing that demonstrate the writing trait of Ideas. Good writers choose topics (ideas) that they know a lot about, and can include interesting details.