- Short (500-750 words) engaging short stories that do not "baby" the reader. I've repeatedly scoured the aisles of the used bookstore, looking for an anthology that might prove useful, but there is this ginormous gap between fourth grade and tenth grade readers. Many of my English I students are abysmal readers, and I'd like to model and then practice reading strategies as we go through these stories, but that makes a story that already seems long to them even longer. I'd like a few stories - maybe half a dozen - that I could get through in a single class period. Stories that take 3-4 days play havoc with understanding, given our absentee rates!
- DOL paragraphs that focus on a single point of grammar or mechanics. The ones we have now have different types of mistakes scattered throughout the paragraph and the students get lost. If they know what they're looking for, they can focus and practice more easily. I have one on homonyms and I'm typing up a capitalization one in between sentences here.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Things that might be helpful
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Just wanted to pass along an idea that I used for the first time this year. I had pulled some of the short "This I Believe" essays from the NPR program website by the same name. I copied some of the stories for students to read. We read stories, listened to them, critiqued them, then wrote our own. It was amazing! After the students wrote them, they presented them to the class and then mailed them in. You'll find them at www.thisIbelieve.org. Every Monday, my students ask me to pull up the website so they can listen to the newest story.
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