Hats off to PS 142 in NYC for taking an innovative approach to reading instruction: building background knoweledge through city field trips to the parking meter and parking garage. This investment promises to pay huge dividends in the future!
THis is AWESOME! WHat I love about it is the use of digital literacy. I think it's a great example of the kind of stuff that we could be teaching kids how to do to share the information they learn. WIth regard to teaching reading and writing, I see possibilities for teaching point of view and subtle persuasion. Lots of potential. Very powerful. How's that for a new kind of report? It requires analysis and synthesis of information. That's what we need to be teaching kids!
Interesting...I wish it were longer. This would be good for part of a morning meeting or when they write about their favorite and least favorite color. I wonder if there is more research on the origin of names,,,
High fives, thumbs up, and verbal encouragement were as much a part of his time as anything else.
Adjust to different personalities.
Nate would take one person to the other end of the pool while everyone else was able to practice in the shallow end.
Nate smiled a lot.
Smiling goes a long way and we should do this more when teaching writing.
When kids did something they weren’t suppose to, they paid the consequence. He made his explanations clear and the consequence for crossing a boundary evident up front.
Give challenges.
Since Nate is a swimmer himself, he is able to constantly push each person to become stronger.
Give a small amount of whole group instruction and a lot of time for practice. His instruction with the whole group was a matter of minutes. Then he watched them all attempt the teaching point. Then he would call them together and refine his instruction. He never “instructed” for more than a few minutes at a time. He knows learning happens by doing.
Teach the big things first.
He made his teaching important by focusing on the things that would make the biggest difference.
Ignore the mess. Learning something new can be messy. Nate ignored the mess. Instead he focused on encouragement and teaching one thing. As a writing teacher I need to ignore the mess a little more.
End with fun.
Give a reminder at the very end. As they were drying off, he would say to each person, “Now what are you going to think about until you come back?” He would give one reminder. The really big thing he expected of each person.
Celebrate BIG from time to time.
At the end of all the lessons, we had a pool party.
Reading is changing. Sometimes it's hard for people to imagine how, this article takes a historic look at how reading has changed and begins to imagine where we are going. Very exciting. Much food for thought
Hear ye! Hear ye! Did you know that TC is now allowing people to purchase tickets to their calendar days! Wow! This is new and they are relatively inexpensive--$50 for the day.
In these days of "grade level complex text" it will become increasingly important for us as teachers to key into lexile level. This site makes it easy for teachers in NYState to find grade level appropriate articles for virtually anything they teach.
Interesting. It seems intuitive to me that if kids aren't reading that we should give them an entree by valuing their choices but lots of people need studies to believe in it.