[LIT] Book reports back in style?

[Lucinda Marcello]

Hi Pam,
Would you share more information about your Reading Journal Letter? How is 
the format organized? How do you work it in your classroom? Are there 
resources online for this or did you create it yourself? Thanks for your 
help.

Lucinda
7th Grade L.Arts
Secrist Middle School
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pam" <readersnracers at aol.com>
To: <lit at literacyworkshop.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 8:00 PM
Subject: Re: [LIT] Book reports back in style?


> Tena wrote:
> Do you require book logs and book reports on independent reading? Do
> you require genre focus on independent reading. Pros? Cons?
>
> Pam writes:
> No & Yes. No to book logs (this year) as my reading teacher requires
> it. Frankly, I was glad to drop that battle. I do require a book
> project (in lieu of an old-fashioned report) and in an attempt to keep
> things differentiated with choice and interesting. Probably closer to
> what I remember doing that the kids think is a grind (or at least the
> majority do) is a reading journal letter. My excellent readers &
> writers don't seem to mind it too much. My struggling readers dread it.
> It requires quite a bit of sifting for meaning and making of personal
> connections with a text. I also continue to require it as I have
> consistently had students who report at the end of the year that they
> feel they learned more from RJL's than anything else we did. I've also
> had students return and tell me how useful that knowledge was in high
> school. So, I continue to insist.
>
> I admit that I'm already questioning whether it's a battle I'll want to
> face next year or not. I'll be on a new team due to a reorganization at
> my school and there will not be any self-contained ESE. Everyone,
> irregardless of their disability and reading/writing levels will be out
> in the mainstream. To say that I'm nervous just doesn't cover it. I get
> how to accomodate those who can only write a paragraph and not a page &
> half letter. What do I do for the student who in an emergent reader and
> can't write a complete sentence without help WHILE I'm trying to teach
> the 6th grader who is bored out of his/her skull as they are reading at
> a high school level? My district doesn't allow for our students to be
> tracked or separated by ability. This means that unless I go subversive
> (can only happen if my team agrees anyway), I will have that range of
> gifted to non-reader with behavior extremes all at the same time.
> Anyone got any suggestions who have lived through this "blending" of
> abilities without another adult in the room?
>
>
> :o) Pam/6th gr./FL
> An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how
> much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do
> know and what you don't.
> Anatole France (1844 - 1924)
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TLP <tlinsb71 at gmail.com>
> To: Lit Site <lit at literacyworkshop.org>; MT <MiddleTalk1 at LISTS.NMSA.ORG>
> Sent: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 9:16 pm
> Subject: [LIT] Book reports back in style?
>
>
>
> Do you require book logs and book reports on independent reading? Do
> you require genre focus on independent reading. Pros? Cons?
>
> After eliminating the book report, suggesting, but not requiring
> genres, ( especially for my struggling readers who are whipping
> through Alex Rider, The Bluford and Maximum Ride series) and having
> book talks replace the book report, my kids are clamoring for a good
> old book report project. I know they read (cause they do it with me!)
> but when will I learn that no one way is the best way! --Thus the
> Face-Book report ( far from old fashioned but still reporting the
> basics from a book..just in a unique way)
> Tena
>
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