| 1. | 3/4/2008 3:01:00 AM | Continue work on a road map for reading instruction. A curriculum team worked on this last summer but was not able to complete this. Teachers (especially new teachers) need to know and understand what is critical to be taught at their grade level and when. A phonics road map has already been established, but skills to teach in whole group and small group reading lessons have not been identified in a formal document. This would be very helpful. Obviously we know what kinds of things we need to cover, but it would be great to have a document to follow as we do with phonics. |
| 2. | 3/6/2008 4:52:00 PM | Yes! I believe that reading and math are the most important classes for elementary kids. If the kids need more help in reading or math, where do I get the time to teach them those skills? I can no longer take it from Health/Guidance. Next year I won’t be able to get it from Social Studies. If we adopt a new science program, I won’t be able to get time from that. Kids that need more practice with reading and math need to spend MORE time with it. If we have to test or check off health, social studies, and science, we can’t even use other times of the day to re-instruct or give extra practice time. |
| 3. | 3/6/2008 4:15:00 PM | We also need to emphasize math instruction, especially for those students who struggle. I believe pacing is too fast and we also need a "Math Recovery" type instruction for those students. |
| 4. | 3/6/2008 6:38:00 PM | Very important, but we do need to remember that we teach math too. |
| 5. | 3/6/2008 10:51:00 PM | ...by giving us TIME to figure out how to piece it together. We ESPECIALLY need some kind of pacing guide for reading. Some days I feel like I'm 'throwing a dart' for what I should be teaaching. The Strategies That Work book was a great help this year though. Before I had that book though, not only did I have to find what to teach, I had to find HOW to teach those concepts to three different levels of groups each day! I'm constantly reinventing the wheel each year in reading and that's frustrating. |