- Sara Kajder, Educational Leadership
This sounds all well and good, but "just like writing a traditional book report," I think there's a good chance that I'll lose a lot of students during the writing process. Many of my students will not begin most of their assignments. Some of them will care enough to write a first draft. Thus far, only one of them in a year and most of a summer, has ever written a second draft of something. The fact that he wrote a second draft was fantastic, but there was really no writing process involved. Aside from a few spelling mistakes I corrected that he rewrote, the first and second drafts were virtually the same thing. There was no "process," no editing, no rethinking through it. Though I think the book trailer will go over much better with students than asking them to write a traditional report, I don't actually know that my students will be willing to take the time and put in the effort to complete them, or for that matter, to even start them. I need a way to motivate them before all that goes into making a book trailer can happen.
"By most accounts, literature circles have been a valuable addition to many kids' school experience, helping to grow more self-sustaining lifelong readers."
This sounds all well and good, but "just like writing a traditional book report," I think there's a good chance that I'll lose a lot of students during the writing process. Many of my students will not begin most of their assignments. Some of them will care enough to write a first draft. Thus far, only one of them in a year and most of a summer, has ever written a second draft of something. The fact that he wrote a second draft was fantastic, but there was really no writing process involved. Aside from a few spelling mistakes I corrected that he rewrote, the first and second drafts were virtually the same thing. There was no "process," no editing, no rethinking through it. Though I think the book trailer will go over much better with students than asking them to write a traditional report, I don't actually know that my students will be willing to take the time and put in the effort to complete them, or for that matter, to even start them. I need a way to motivate them before all that goes into making a book trailer can happen.
"By most accounts, literature circles have been a valuable addition to many kids' school experience, helping to grow more self-sustaining lifelong readers."
- Harvey Daniels, What's the Next Big thing with Literature Circles?
I think this quote has a lot of truth to it. The more a teacher can encourage student-led reading, the more a student will continue to read on his/her own. I also love the idea of having students reading together in class, but not a core novel. My concern is that because I have a transient population of students, that even if they are doing the right thing when I ask them to, none of them will be on nearly the same page as their literature circle at the same time. I am unsure how to conduct such a group when I might have a student leave before he/she finishes the book. Do I ask this student to write a report on what he/she has read of the book? Also, what do I do for students who refuse to read and consistently put their heads down during reading time? I want to help students grow into these self-sustaining lifelong readers, but I don't know that literature circles are the way to go for my situation.
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