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The Big Fresh finishes its two-week summer hiatus this week with a repeat of an issue from July, 2007, with some new web links added. We'll be back home from our summer workshops next week with new content throughout the rest of the summer. Happy Reading!
Brenda Power
In the Mind's Eye
Stephen Covey writes about how any change or innovation begins first in the mind:
All things are created twice. . . there's a mental or first
creation, and a physical or second creation to all things.
There may be three steps for teachers when it
comes to making changes that endure - that mental or first
creation, followed by the physical or second creation. And then
the students come in, and there is a third phase, a revision of the original plan based on student reactions to our lessons and structures.
In July many of us are moving into the mental work of
considering the first days of school before we begin to set up our classrooms or rearrange learning spaces. This week we've got a feature to help you reconsider your word work program, with suggestions for notebooks and materials to get your creative juices flowing. We've also posted links to some great web resources for planning the first days of school. Enjoy!
Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy
Free for All
Franki Sibberson is revamping her word study program this summer, compiling envelopes for each student that contain various tools and notebooks for building word knowledge. She explains how she is revising her word study plans and the contents of the word work envelopes here:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/396.cfm
Scholastic has posted a terrific collection of features and lesson plans for building a classroom community during the first days of school:
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=296
Carol Davis and Alice Yang of Responsive Classrooms have some helpful suggestions of ways to stay in touch with parents all year long:
http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/newsletter/21_2nl_3.html
***For Members Only
Perhaps no research has had more impact on literacy instruction in
schools in the last decade than the "gradual release of
responsibility" model. This week, Debbie Miller writes about some
of the practical, concrete activities like "turn and talk" or
partner work she uses routinely in her teaching to release
responsibility to students:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/397.cfm
Has there ever been a teacher who is perfectly happy with
the arrangement of the class meeting area? I've yet to meet her or
him. This is the time of year when many teachers are trolling
through the office supply areas of department stores looking for
containers, reconsidering how and where they store materials. In
this two-part video, The Sisters (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) help
new teacher Christine think through how literacy materials and
storage bins can be rearranged in her class meeting area to foster
better attention from students and more independence at the same
time:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/399.cfm
What do an electric toothbrush, a window washer, and standardized
tests have in common? They all show up in Jan Miller Burkins'
latest installment in her Connections series of literacy coach
reflections linked to photographies. "Things Are Not Always as
They Appear" is available at this link:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/398.cfm
That's all for this week!