Oct. '09 Lit C. Newsletter

JEN MUNNERLYN



October, 2009

LIT COACH NOTES

Teaching well is like kindling a flame...creating learners who are so excited about learning that they seem to grow right before the teacher's eyes. --Kathy Patterson

Writer’s Workshop News: We are well on our way to successful implementation of the Units of Study in grades 3-5. By Oct. 15 all grades and classes will have finished and celebrated the first unit: Launching the Writing Workshop. All in all, I think the experience has been positive for both teachers and students alike. To track our work, I’ve been writing a weekly blog post at www.literacybytes.com called “How’s It Going?” These posts have been a great way for ME to reflect on what

we’ve done, what I’ve learned, and how to improve upon it in the future and in our differentiation of these units for next year. At the beginning of this year, I mentioned that I’ve given Fred a proposal for sending several teachers to the Teachers College Writing Institute this summer. I will be giving out a questionnaire to gauge interest in that opportunity, on October 14th.

NEW Staff at ACS

NANDITA- GRADE 3

BETSY- GRADE 1

SHACHON- GRADE 3

Last year at this time Nandita was in Abu Dhabi continued on page 2 enjoying teaching grade 4. Her Favorite Vacation Spot is Pattaya, Thailand. Something which has surprised Nandita about the UAE is the amazing parent involvement in all school activities. Motto or Favorite Quote: “Do unto other as you would like others to do unto you.”

Last year at this time Betsy was in Bahrain teaching grade 1.

Last year at this time Shachon was teaching 160 forth grade ELL/ESL students English...they were teaching her about being patient. Her Favorite Vacation Spot is anywhere she can experience rich culture, good food and a clean hotel room. Something which has surprised Shachon about ACS is the vivid colors painted on Pam’s wall. (Publication office) The room seems so happy! Motto or Favorite Quote: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.”

Her Favorite Vacation Spot is NORWAY! Something which has surprised Betsy about the UAE nothing really...

tool: the Reading Continuum.

Reading Workshop News

As we are working through the daily lessons, the monthly unit plans, and the year-long plan, teachers are asked to modify (change, add, delete, and improve) the lessons so these “tweaked” lessons can be discussed by the larger K-3 vertical reading team before being changed and posted on Atlas.

•••

The units are also “We like it!”, that is supporting our earlyhow I would describe the release day professional reaction of teachers to the development work with the daily lessons I’ve provided Regie Routman kit: for teaching Units of Study Transforming Your Teaching Through Reading in Reading. to Understand. Many of the These lessons are coming “best practice” from the resource: The recommendations from Complete Four by Pam Regie are already part of Allyn. Each grade level has these units. :-) a set of lessons which we’ve GRADES 4-5 WILL BEGIN HAVING been able to directly THESE CONVERSATIONS correlate to our current THROUGH THEIR READING TEAM benchmarks and our REPS: CHRIS AND STAN AFTER CARRIE EKEY’S VISIT IN FEBRUARY. developmental reporting

WORD STUDY WORKSHOP: I went to Doha for the Real Spelling Workshop over the weekend of October 1st. It was EYE-OPENING to say the least. The information from that workshop will be shared as we move into deeper

discussions about word study as a whole group, and especially when Carrie Ekey comes in February. For now, please see my blog for a brief write up about this experience.

Post: “Real Spelling” Workshop

Important Dates in October

Meetings! 1. Regie Routman Session #4- Thrusday, October 1

2.

G3-5 WW Celebration Wednesday, October 14

3. Regie Routman Session #5- Thursday, October 15

4.

KG2-G3 Reading Team Sunday, October 18

5.

G1-3 DRA Results Wednesday, October 21

6.

G3-5 Writing Team Date TBD

TA TRAINING:

Thinking about how

best to support you and your

instructional assista nts this year, I plan to begin offering TA Training once a mont h. Initially the topics co vered will be in line with the wo rk we are doing in Writing (G. 3-5) and Reading (KG2-2). I wi ll be preparing a list of po ssible topics to cover and as king for your input. Ideally, I would occasionally have tea chers participate in the tra ining sessions to help make the techniques and strat egies come alive. More on this soon...

LIBRARY

LEVELED

Oh how this simple project has



become a wild beast!



The leveled library is currently open for



your use. However- we are STILL

leveling books

and organizing the

shelves.The

grades KG-3 teachers

will be given status updates about the

library (and how they can help make it a more useful teaching tool) at our Reading Team Meetings.