[LIT] Management Details

[ReadersnRacers at aol.com]

Kim writes:   I was thinking about switching off by quarter but our quarters 
aren't really quarters.  The winter one is only 6 weeks.  But your way is much 
better.  I can get through an entire unit/genre.

Do you have the kids tape any papers into their notebooks.  I do that quite 
bit.  Do the spines come loose?  I know it sounds petty, but if the kids have 
to replace them halfway through the year it will   get expensive...

Pam writes:   Exactly the way that I have fashioned my workshops - I work 
through genres.   Heck, even the kids are figuring it out.   They are all asking 
what genre we'll do next - it's pretty cool that they are "getting it."

Sometimes they have to use tape.   I just bought a big roll of clear packing 
tape and that seems to fix the spine.   Ironically, I've had to tape each of 
my "classroom" notebooks (I keep an example of what they should have in their 
notebooks) and only 4-5 students' notebooks have needed repair, probably 
because mine is opened and closed so many times each day.   I have had a couple of 
bozos who insisted on pulling out pages and their notebooks fell apart, you 
just can't pull out pages when you have a seam that is sewn in.   Word quickly 
filtered amongst the kids that I am unreasonable and will expect you to re-do 
your notebook if it's demise is due to a student's lack of care.   In fact, they 
lasted well enough that I have had the kids stretch the use of their 2nd 
quarter notebook into 3rd quarter.   Our state testing eats up 2 full weeks and we 
have (when added together) practice tests that take up another week.   With 
losing 3 weeks of time in the quarter, we have managed to use one 100 page 
composition book for the entire quarter.   

I don't have them routinely tape their work in as I haven't been able to 
invest in that many tape dispensers.   I did (with the wonderful help of my math & 
science teachers) train the kids to use Elmer's glue.   3 - 4 dots of glue at 
the top of the page is sufficient to glue a page in.   "A dot is a lot, a 
glob is a slob" has been a mantra of mine this year.   Honestly though, I really 
think that my math teacher is the reason the kids are able to glue the pages 
in correctly (he is fanatical about it according to the kids).   He is the 
reason that we went with liquid glue and not glue sticks (was what I leaned 
towards, nervous about mess issues).   However, I've only have 1 mess made with the 
liquid glue (just recently) and it was deliberately done by a young man who 
was angry that his classroom placement was being changed back into a 
self-contained setting for severely disturbed children.   It was easy to clean up with a 
roll of paper towels and some soapy water and a sympathetic student.

I thought it was a brilliant idea that someone mentioned earlier about 
turning the notebook upside down and writing in the backwards direction to keep 
things separate.   I also like the idea of starting in the middle and working 
outwards in both directions to keep pages separate for different uses.   Something 
I think I'll play around with during 4th quarter this year.





Pam Tempest
Team Neon-6th Gr. ELA
Hudson Middle School
http://nlcommunities.com/communities/tempest

"The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as 
that every child should be given the wish to learn." John Lubbock





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