25 in the collection
Surprise
October 15, 2006
Surprise is the title of my newest Houghton Mifflin first grade literature unit.
Or phonics Direct Instruction scripted driven reading program. . . or whatever it is. The first theme was a surprise to me, ha ha, with greats like, Sam Cat, A Big Pig, The Mat and my favorite about finding "a big bat" The Big Hit. (I cringe still on the line, "Pat finds a big bat.") The last theme was All Together Now an amorphous thing that seemed, in the teacher manual, to talk about belonging to a class and then used a cat that jumps on things, a mat animals should not walk on, a story of a pig that eats a fig and wears a big hat, and a story of getting a hit as examples. I wound my way through this mess with second language learners, many with no English and they found it all difficult to contextualize.
The stories were really about short i and a and 12 letter sounds and the meaning was besides the point, unless you consider this question. . . "Who wore the hat?". . . duh. . . Big Pig. . . a fine comprehensional connect. The meaning making is "delayed" until another period in their lives once they "get" the words down, I'm deriving. But nice they threw that theme in there for those of us who don't know what to do to start a year, or as I was sagely told. . ."You might do too much of your own thing." Yeah I wanted to work on friendship, community, read books like The Kissing Hand and Rosemary Well's Yoko's World of Kindness, make All About Me books and color in them, I wanted to make dioramas of our homes, make maps, talk community, create books and stories and start reading by starting writing. And I wanted to have what they call here realia or real contexts for understanding for my first grade....but All Together Now actually was a buzz for the District mandating scripting, pacing, and essentially taking teacher control away so on the same day in every spot the same thing is being taught in the same way...All Together Now...
That should scare folks. Why it does not I do not know.
I went walking a week ago for the first time with my husband. . . . I mean he agreed to go for the first time a week ago, I've been walking since early July trying to scare cancer off. . . we found a snake skin. I had to relent and agree it was just the skin because he insisted. And pointed out the lack of the bones which was irrefutable. What I think it is, is the skin after it was gutted by an animal or crows but he won't agree. I have it ready for tomorrow to initiate this Surprise unit. But what got me typing was the dragonfly I found yesterday when he wanted to walk with me again. There it was in all its incandescent (though dead) beauty lying by the side of the road and every part in perfect order. Bigger than my hand. I think it hit a windshield. So two Surprises for the first grade. Two times he lectured me about being crazy enough to pick up stuff others leave by the side of the road. . . true. . . . . that's what he has to deal with anymore.
But as a 1st grade teacher for my kids I notice that their exposure to actual content is way down in an under performing setting in the scripts, or as the federal assistance guy said, "First they need to read" as if we were in mutually exclusive universes. . . and certainly I won't want to interrupt, "The cat sat, the cat sat on the mat. . ." with something like writing what Jessie wrote Friday, "My techr loves me, she took my jakit to me and I was worm at reses bekas she got it to me."
Yes, that doesn't have everything spelled correctly and that would be bad. Invented Spelling is bad it heralds us back to an approach that starts with child first, person first and works out through this to me, to us, to this place, to community, to state, world, nation through meaning making constructs. Jessie needs to haul her word ring around and get a good "I see" sentence in place. What I like about this thing I call an Open Door is somewhat what I am attempting in my Sarah way in my writing, just connecting first to me, then to child, then class, school, District, nation. I'm trying to practice what I preach. . . and that dragonfly was a terrific piece of weekend connection. I want child, home, person, life, school to meet at a crossroad inside my open door in room 10 and look in a jar at something beyond my making. A piece of the glory that is nature. A piece, if you will, of life. . . . Simple stuff really. I hear teachers talking about shutting the door and doing what "they know is right." I'm for Opening the Door and doing what is right.
And if you have any good Surprises or specimens handy for Room 10, we'd love to look.
2006-10-27 07:32:45
INDEX OF SARAH'S NOTES
Pages: 2
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