[LIT] Materials for balanced literacy 4 to 8?

[May Dartez]

Hi Mary,

Well, for punctuation study, I would recommend doing an "apprenticeship 
study"...i.e. you use big books or students work in groups to look at 
examples and ways that students use commas, periods, etc.

For grammar, if your district is interested in a "program," my district 
has adopted a program called "Daily Grammar Practice." At first I was 
very opposed....what I now like about it, however, is that it teaches 
all grammar skills in a circular fashion and only takes a few minutes 
per day, leaving most of class time for writing workshop.

In DGP, students work with the same sentence each day for a week, and 
the sentences review and become progressively more difficult throughout 
the year. On Mondays, they identify the part of speech of speech in 
each word. On Tuesdays, they name the type of subject, predicate, 
direct object, etc. On Wednesdays, they correct the punctuation, 
Thursdays identify the clauses, etc., and then on Fridays, they 
diagram. All of this is supposed to be completed by the time the 
teacher has taken attendance.

Students get points for attempting the task each day and then points 
for correcting their work as the class goes over it. The teacher 
teaches a quick grammar lesson when necessary to help students 
understand certain points. All of this only takes a few minutes each 
day, as opposed to doing "grammar units". Districts close to us that 
have adopted this program 3-12 have been getting very high test scores 
while still being able to spend most of their valuable class time on 
writing.

Something to look at! Good luck with this:)

May Dartez
6th/GA


On Feb 12, 2007, at 5:09 PM, Mary Dovey wrote:

> Please forgive the cross post, but my supervisor seems interested 
> suddenly
> in purchasing a reading series for grades 4 to 8. I'm 
> flabbergasted--to me,
> authentic trade books are the basis for teaching reading. (We use a 
> variety
> of sources for teaching writing.)
>
> This may be a done deal, but I'm going to try to do my best to guide 
> the
> purchase as best I can--if I can. Any and all comments on materials you
> like, things you hate, etc., would be appreciated. One specific I'm
> interested in is what materials you've found that best help teach 
> grammar
> and punctuation, particularly in the context of writer's workshop.
>
> Thanks for all your help, in advance. If our teachers get stuck with 
> some
> lame "series" it'll make my job as instructional coach for literacy a
> nightmare...
>
> Mary D.
>
> P.S. I have samples of Great Source's Sourcebook and Daybook for each 
> grade
> but I'm not certain how helpful they'd be. Anyone use them?
>
>
>
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