Shared Reading

One of our favorite periods during the school day is our shared reading time.  After lunch, students return to the classroom and sit in our reading circle, anticipating our next exciting story.  We use shared reading time to discuss, comment, and respond to the story, and we use a lot of thinking, comprehension and communication skills.  After the story, we follow up with a shared writing activity. 

I've always been a firm believer in a balanced literacy program, but shared reading time has always been a stumbling block in a high school self-contained classroom.  On one hand, in order to be effective, shared reading has to be engaging to the listener.  In order to be engaged, the story should be at or slightly above a student’s receptive language skills.  But in current best practice, curriculum must also be “age-appropriate”, therefore in most cases that means adapting novels that most high school-aged students are assigned to read.  Think of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Catcher in the Rye” with one line of simple text per page, and abridged to about 10 pages.  I want to presume that my students have the competence to understand the complexity of the story when it is so drastically abridged, but I can’t help but think there is too much that is lost when the story is simplified to that reading level. 

As luck would have it, I came across a writer and blogger that “gets” what reading and passionate learning should be about.  Pernille Ripp often reads picture books to her 5^th and 7^th grade students.  Many of the books she suggests have complex themes, but the illustrations and readability of the text helps scaffold the content for emerging readers.  My students really enjoy all of the stories we've read so far this year, and each time we read, a little more “air” is breathed into the story.  They pick up on inferences, deepen their understanding of the theme, and find new topics of interest.  Our conversations about the texts are becoming deeper and broader.

If at some point we receive funds to purchase curriculum for our classrooms, I would love to take a look at some new comprehensive literacy programs.  The Start-to-Finish Core Curriculum by Don Johnston is one program that looks promising.  This year, my district will be purchasing the Unique Learning System for our students in October.   It covers all core subject areas with literacy-based instruction.  But I think we will continue our shared reading of picture books because it has been so instrumental in demonstrating to my students that literacy is important for learning, enjoyment, and sharing with others.

Illustration from Pete and Pickles by Berkeley Breathed.  Pete is vacuuming a gravesite with a tombstone that reads “Paprika Dear Wife”.  Storm clouds are brewing around a house on a hill in the background.

Today Students We Are Learning About...

I popped over to the California Department of Education website because I was curious about an issue with the Alternative Assessments for California.  California rolled out its participation in adopting the Common Core Standards much more deliberatively than most states.  Many states that implemented the standards a few years back are now starting to rethink their participation.  California just field-tested the Common Core Assessment, called CASPP, for the last two years.  Next year will be the first year that the assessment will actually “count.”

On the other hand, students with the most significant disabilities take an alternate achievement test, which is called CAPA.  Since the CAPA test is based on the old California Standards, it will no longer be used.  California had planned on participating in year two of a state consortium field test, but because of a missed deadline, that won’t be happening.  Therefore, teachers of students with the most significant disabilities are left without an applicable set of standards to teach to.  California will try to cobble together their alternate assessment by borrowing from other states’current tests.  Knowing how fast government can work, it should not be a problem to have the test in place by May when the testing frenzy starts.  I, for one, hope there are many questions about unicorns and fairies, since that is my theme for this year since I don’t have a standard curriculum to follow (just kidding.)

Anywho, I came across this PowerPoint of talking points in support of Common Core, just in case you happen across any naysayers or a probing reporter.  We wouldn’t want any negative press raining on our Common Core parade, would we?

The Common Core Conundrum

The first day of school bell has rung and you know what that means:  emails requiring strongly suggesting that we attend Common Core Standards training and implementation professional development days.  Last year, I went to six days of training for the High School English and Mathematics standards, which meant missing six days of instruction with my students.  You’re probably asking, “Isn’t that a good thing?”  Well, no, it’s not.  I hate being away from my students.  The information provided by the consultants was specific to students performing at-grade-level, meaning ninth through twelfth grade students.  There was no discussion of how to change the standards to be useful and accessible to my students.  There was no information on how to make curricular adaptations to plan lessons for my students.  What an incredible waste of resources and opportunities!  The new Common Core Standards might be the best thing since sliced bread, but our students need a great deal of modifications and adaptations, not only to the Standards themselves, but how they access the information with physical, vision, hearing, cognitive, and behavioral difficulties. 

One thing that really gets my goat is that the consultants rarely even mention the fact that there may be learners with differences.  If the supposed “expert” consultants don’t even acknowledge the fact that there are students with differences (who, by the way are taught a curriculum aligned to these standards) education in this country will continue to be “us” and “them”.  With “them” having all the major players at the table making decisions, and “us” fighting for acceptance as equal participants in society.  Learning differences do not make a student’s education any less valuable, nor does it negate the fact that they are intelligent and can learn.  We’ve got to stop using one yardstick to define intelligence and value.  We need to do more than just acknowledge the fact that we are all different and special.  We should embrace the capabilities of all learners.  We should make sure that everyone has a place at the education table to support "college and career readiness.”  Every single learner has value and a place in our society. 

I believe this dear students, because a day without you is a day without sunshine.

Dear Students,

It is the day before I go back to work, and three days before I get to see you again for the start of the 2014-15 school year.  I miss you all and can’t wait to see you.  Will you have stories to tell me about your summer vacations?

I have been working most of the summer, but I’m not complaining.  You are all worth it to me, and I want to make sure we have a great year.  We have moved to our new school, and the new campus will bring us opportunities and challenges.  We will face both as we always do: together!  You will make many new friends, we will find new places to visit in our community, and we will use this new challenge as a way to grow and learn.

One of the curricular modifications that I have been working on is expanding our reading and writing areas.  Last year, all of you made incredible gains in your reading abilities when we really started focusing on the basics with systematic instruction.  This summer, we launched our shared reading time.  It was so fun to think about the author’s purpose and make connections to ourselves and our world when we studied the books.  Do you remember the stories we read?  We read The Summer My Father Was Ten by Pat Brisson, McElligot’s Pool by Dr. Suess, The Rules of Summer by Shawn Tan, Moondogs by Daniel Kirk, and Pete and Pickles by Berkeley Breathed.  Which was your favorite?  We are going to continue to have daily shared reading time with some really good, fun, interesting books.   But you have to promise to keep a secret.  Please don’t tell Mr. Hunt about all the books I ordered this summer with his credit card!

Yesterday, I looked over all of the stories you wrote this summer.  They were fantastic!  I am so proud of how well you are doing with our new writing curriculum.  No more tracing for you!  Each of you have an authentic writer’s voice, and together, we will continue to develop that ability.   I am sending you this letter on a blog post.  A blog is a personal web page where you can share your thoughts.  Here’s another secret…I don’t like to write!  I don’t think I’m very good at it.  But I’m going to tell myself the same thing I would tell you.  Can you think of what that might be?  You’re right, I’m going to say:

“I don’t think I’m very good at writing YET.  I just need more practice.”

This blog will be a way for our class to practice our writing.  I’m counting on you to help me.  Your stories are too good not to share!  Remember how hard we laughed at Michelle’s story about the poodle that ate the lipstick?  And how all of Frankie’s stories about Shadow the Cat made sense when he drew the picture to go with the story? Even though our writing block is difficult, I think we will also have a great deal of fun sharing our stories.

So by working together as a team this year, I know we will accomplish great things.  I want you to know that you all inspire me by your willingness to keep trying even though some of the things I ask you to do are hard.  You all are unique and special, and I want to shout that from the top of the world!  There are many people who will seek to measure, rank, and sort you by the result of a test that tells nothing about all the wonderful qualities you have and the joy you bring to the world.  Don’t let the artificial measures of others stop you from discovering all the greatness within yourself.

So here’s to learning from our mistakes, big daydreams like Marco, learning the rules of school, finding out the thing we most want is what we already have, and best friends like Pete and Pickles.  Here’s to the best school year ever!

Mrs. Freddy