tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8477663145600904028.post7225536654260254017..comments2024-03-23T02:43:48.042-07:00Comments on Right Down the Middle: ELA Summer Book Club- Chapter 3Andreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09555709660514396543noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8477663145600904028.post-43198988128758394492013-06-24T15:27:08.921-07:002013-06-24T15:27:08.921-07:00I am so jealous of your classroom library. That is...I am so jealous of your classroom library. That is amazing! Andreahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09555709660514396543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8477663145600904028.post-13578862959973297892013-06-24T15:26:32.198-07:002013-06-24T15:26:32.198-07:00Mine, too, has for the most part been centered aro...Mine, too, has for the most part been centered around fiction. My students are more successful with fiction books. With the implementation of the CCSS, I knew that I would have to shift my focus (although my focus should have shifted earlier). I had a hard time this year getting my students to "buy in" to non-fiction books. <br /><br />They can check out two books at a time from our school library. I began to make the requirement that one book needed to be fiction and the other book non-fiction. This seemed to work. I also supplemented a lot of informational reading into our curriculum. Andreahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09555709660514396543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8477663145600904028.post-37109550561241353062013-06-24T09:11:17.630-07:002013-06-24T09:11:17.630-07:00I am always on the prowl for non-fiction texts. I ...I am always on the prowl for non-fiction texts. I try to find books and magazines that will support my science and social studies curriculum. That way I am double dipping... ha ha. But, I have over 500 non-fiction books in my classroom that I have been collecting for 13 years. It takes time. Scholastic is my main go to, but Amazon will have some killer buy 3 get 1 free deals!Mr. Hugheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06426578721128357285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8477663145600904028.post-48106761681988390912013-06-24T09:09:12.267-07:002013-06-24T09:09:12.267-07:00I am SO guilty of having the Fiction centered clas...I am SO guilty of having the Fiction centered classroom- until two years ago when our students had to start taking a reading test MONTHLY to monitor their reading and comprehension. They were performing horribly. I got with the test administrator and looked over the tests. Well. low and behold, they were ALL NON-FICTION! My kiddos were not prepared for this kind of reading. They lacked the skills to do so. DING DING! Mr. Hughes decided that he should put just as more OR MORE emphasis on non-fictional texts. It was amazing the difference it made after a couple of months. YES MONTHS! I started doing 15 minutes of fictional text reading and 15 minutes of non-fiction text reading each day. This built until they were doing 20ish minutes of each.<br /><br />Now I am the writing teacher, and don't have the ability to focus on reading skills as much, but I made a HUGE effort last year to focus more on informational type writing in my classroom, knowing that if they could write it, they would better be able to read it.<br /><br />WOW! That was a long answer... ha ha. Apparently I feel passionately that we need a balance, or, even stronger emphasis on non-fiction. However, it is important not to throw fictional reading out the window!Mr. Hugheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06426578721128357285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8477663145600904028.post-15926899769647688562013-06-24T03:22:07.537-07:002013-06-24T03:22:07.537-07:003. Where have you found good sources of informatio...3. Where have you found good sources of informational texts?Andreahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09555709660514396543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8477663145600904028.post-75616640155467096452013-06-24T03:19:08.010-07:002013-06-24T03:19:08.010-07:002. How have you incorporated informational texts i...2. How have you incorporated informational texts into your language arts classroom? Andreahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09555709660514396543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8477663145600904028.post-57641301331512053882013-06-24T03:18:32.946-07:002013-06-24T03:18:32.946-07:001. Has your classroom been centered on fiction, or...1. Has your classroom been centered on fiction, or have you always had a good balance of fiction and non-fiction in your classroom? Andreahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09555709660514396543noreply@blogger.com