Comments on: The Trains Run On Time: Have a Schedule http://creatinglifelonglearners.com/?p=103 Just another WordPress weblog Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:03:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Daniel http://creatinglifelonglearners.com/?p=103&cpage=1#comment-162 Daniel Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:27:37 +0000 http://www.needleworkspictures.com/ocr/blog/?p=103#comment-162 Matthew, I am a first year teacher in a PI 5 school and I am struggling with Open Court and just behavior in general. I teach in Sacramento in a pretty tough school. I teach second Grade and I would like to get some more ideas on how you run your classroom. Do you use any certain classrrom management system that you could share? I like your idea about having them take the test in groups, especially when I have 5 non readers in my class. Matthew,

I am a first year teacher in a PI 5 school and I am struggling with Open Court and just behavior in general. I teach in Sacramento in a pretty tough school. I teach second Grade and I would like to get some more ideas on how you run your classroom. Do you use any certain classrrom management system that you could share? I like your idea about having them take the test in groups, especially when I have 5 non readers in my class.

]]> By: Mathew http://creatinglifelonglearners.com/?p=103&cpage=1#comment-161 Mathew Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:23:10 +0000 http://www.needleworkspictures.com/ocr/blog/?p=103#comment-161 When teachers feel that there is too much focus on phonics versus comprehension, generally they are spending too much time on the phonics section and not enough time on the comprehension section. There is a comprehension section of about equal weight to the phonics section. In addition, effective teachers bring in additional literature. Elements of the program like the Concept/Question Board and handing off discussions lead directly to increased comprehension but those tend to be some of the least frequently used elements of the program. The comprehension test comes directly from our manuals and involves some simple recall questions as well as a few inference and vocabulary based questions. I always have a few non-readers in my classes and so I have the students complete these "tests" as a group and do not grade them as tests. My reasoning is that if you can't read and you're working on your own you're just sitting there doing nothing but when they work as a group the taking of these tests is still an educational experience with students helping each other. Afterward we correct our tests together and we talk more about any questions that groups got wrong. When teachers feel that there is too much focus on phonics versus comprehension, generally they are spending too much time on the phonics section and not enough time on the comprehension section. There is a comprehension section of about equal weight to the phonics section. In addition, effective teachers bring in additional literature. Elements of the program like the Concept/Question Board and handing off discussions lead directly to increased comprehension but those tend to be some of the least frequently used elements of the program.

The comprehension test comes directly from our manuals and involves some simple recall questions as well as a few inference and vocabulary based questions. I always have a few non-readers in my classes and so I have the students complete these “tests” as a group and do not grade them as tests. My reasoning is that if you can’t read and you’re working on your own you’re just sitting there doing nothing but when they work as a group the taking of these tests is still an educational experience with students helping each other. Afterward we correct our tests together and we talk more about any questions that groups got wrong.

]]> By: JenSpates http://creatinglifelonglearners.com/?p=103&cpage=1#comment-160 JenSpates Fri, 05 Oct 2007 02:12:10 +0000 http://www.needleworkspictures.com/ocr/blog/?p=103#comment-160 I don't know a lot about Open Court, but I had the opportunity to go to L.A. a couple of years ago and observe in some classrooms at two different schools and Open Court is what they used. What I found was that teachers either loved it or hated it. The ones that didn't care for it so much told me that there was way too focus on decoding skills and not nearly enough on the comprehension strategies. I took a look at your weekly schedule and noticed that you did have a comprehension test in there. I'm wondering what exactly that looks like. I don’t know a lot about Open Court, but I had the opportunity to go to L.A. a couple of years ago and observe in some classrooms at two different schools and Open Court is what they used. What I found was that teachers either loved it or hated it. The ones that didn’t care for it so much told me that there was way too focus on decoding skills and not nearly enough on the comprehension strategies. I took a look at your weekly schedule and noticed that you did have a comprehension test in there. I’m wondering what exactly that looks like.

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