Oh my gosh! Where does the time go? I have so much I want to post and so little time! I hope to get my act together this summer, but I am teaching summer school, so who knows! Ha!
I did attend a conference with Irene Fountas as one of the keynote speakers. She was amazing. She was so inspirational and had a lot of good advice about how we think about and teach literacy. Some of the big take-aways for me were:
- a SHARED ownership for each student (in other words: Johnny isn't just the classroom teacher's responsibility or the special educator's responsibility, rather he is everyone's responsibility)
- remembering to make literacy a joyful experience for students
- services need to be cohesive
- evaluate the effects of what we are doing
- the expertise of the teacher is crucial: she needs to make good teaching decisions while teaching
- let's get away from the term best practices and think about effective practices, because who is to say what is a best practice when considering individuals
- and my favorite: support students in how to be literate in life
If you can, check out the book: The Continuum of Literacy Learning Grades PreK-8 A Guide to Teaching by Gay Sue Pinnell and Irene Fountas; and think about attending the Literacy for All conference in November in Providence, RI.
If you are on summer vacation, I am jealous!! Ha!! Seriously, though, may you enjoy every second!!
Don't forget to come back soon to the blog. It is definitely a work in progress!
