Sunday, November 5, 2017
Amy D. Units
This is my first year of using LC Reading and Writing Units. I must say, it's a lot to take in all at once and I do find myself getting lost between the Reading and Writing units at times. This is also new for my 4th, 5th, and 6th graders this year doing an authentic workshop format. They have responded extremely well-especially the 4th graders-and are spending more time than I'd imagined reading and writing independently. There are certain students (mainly 5/6th) who struggle with finding a just write book and sticking with it, but using the conferring model is helping them see that I'm invested in their learning and want to see them succeed. Choice has been a huge factor in achieving buy-in from students, so I try to keep that in the forefront of everything we do. The LC books and lessons are extremely WORDY - although, I was warned, but man, oh man, it takes a while to get through all the words to discover what is most important to use in my mini-lessons. I'm looking forward to year 3 when I feel more confident to deliver all this great learning to my students :-). In the meantime, one issue I've had is getting my online resources registered!!! I tend to find the time to do things like this at home and then my UOS are at school or vice versa. So, it's been tough to register because they make you enter the last word of page such and such when you register. I use the CD's in my room so if anyone has a shortcut to register the online resources, I'd love to know. I have my RUOS for grades 4 and 5 registered. Now, I just need to get the WUOS registered.
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Amy, I can help you during class this week...It is tedious, but I have done it a few times. Check in with me on Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Melissa. Will I need the CD's or can I access online resources for writing without the CDs?
DeleteI am only on my 2nd year of Lucy Calkins. I too struggle with the wordiness for each lesson. I break down each lesson into my own words and have it on one simple sheet to use during a lesson. It touches all of LC's points and I still cover everything I need to without being overwhelmed.
ReplyDeleteOne thing we did the first year we implemented the workshop was to write short version lessons. After the first week of trying to read and teach her lessons each day, we were overwhelmed. We had a teacm, and each week at our meeting, everyone took a lesson. Our job was to read it and summarize Lucy's 9 pages into a 1-2 page lesson that covered each part of the lesson. This was SO helpful because each day you could preview what you were going to teach and your teaching point was there, mentor text listed and any other materials you needed and someone or yourself had kindly summarized the lesson for you. We did this for the entire year, so we have lessons for every unit. If you are working with a team, I highly suggest you do this, it was so helpful.
ReplyDeleteWow, Jessica! This sounds like the answer. Although, being the only ELA teacher for 4th, 5th, and 6th it seems like I'm the team here ;-). Nevertheless....after our merger with WVS this may very well be a possibility so there's hope! In the meantime, I'm sucking up all I can from all of you amazing teachers in this course. Thanks once again.
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