Reading About Reading

I'm so excited!  I was tracking my page views (really not expecting to see anything) and SOMEONE out there looked at my page!  So cool!

It has been 19 years since I taught Grade 1 - I've taught Grade 1 kids since then, in Music and French, but not the full curriculum - and I haven't kept up with what's current in literacy teaching.  I hate to say it, but the Grade 1 teacher at my current school hasn't really kept current either, and I can't see myself emulating her style.  That's why I've enjoyed reading so many great blogs over the last few weeks - and it seems that one great blog leads to another; I have close to 20 bookmarked right now!  These, combined with other searches on first grade literacy and browsing in teacher's bookstores, have led me to some resources I've really enjoyed reading.

One of the first things I found was this study about effective literacy instruction.  So much of what it said made sense! I was happy to find out about Learning to Read: Lessons from Exemplary First-Grade Classrooms by Michael Pressley et al which references the study (has some of the same authors) and describes some real classrooms and routines in detail. I can definitely see myself doing what some of these teachers are doing.

At my local teachers' store I came across The Great Eight: Management Strategies for the Reading and Writing Classroom by Pam Allyn, Jaime Margolies and Karen McNally (note:  I am not promoting any specific places to buy these books, just linking to them where I find them!).  Again, there were many ideas in here that I can see myself adopting.  I particularly like the section on organizing small-group learning.  Their ideas about management tie in very nicely to the Michael Pressley book.

I was visiting the US on Thursday and went to a great teachers' store there.  I decided to look for the book The Complete 4 For Literacy, also by Pam Allyn.  This seems to be quite a flexible method for teaching reading and writing.  I was looking at my provincial curriculum outcomes and can see how they fit into what Ms. Allyn is talking about.

Since I'm on Spring Break right now I've had time to devour these books (staying up late and getting up early, and reading!).  I am really anxious to get down to actual planning for the year.  My new school is just opening this year and has NOTHING in the way of resources yet.  When I met with the principal, prior to my formal interview, she talked of wanting to get hiring done early so that the teachers could be in on the process of planing and ordering.  I'm expecting that that should be happening fairly soon, so I do want to have some idea of what I'll be teaching and what is out there.

On that note, I have some questions for anyone who might possibly be reading this:  are you familiar with the books I've mentioned above, and if so, what did you think of them?  And, as far as leveled reading goes, do you recommend any particular series of leveled books?  I've seen several different series mentioned in the various reading I've done, but there are no experts like those in the trenches classroom!

Off to read some more!

Here I Am!

After reading some amazing first grade blogs, I have decided to try this out myself!

Who am I?  I'm currently a Music/Kindergarten teacher in a small independent school somewhere in Canada!   In September I will be changing schools and changing teaching assignments - yes, I'm going "Back to Grade One" - my teaching career started in a Grade 1 class, and I'm excited about going back.  It's very difficult right now to have my head in my new classroom (BRAND NEW, I might point out - the school is just opening in September) and my feet in my old.

Why the move?  My initial teacher training was in early primary, and I taught Gr. 1 for three years, then Gr. 2 for one.  After that I stayed home with my kids for a few years, and then ended up getting a job teaching Music and French - two great interests of mine, but neither of them fields I had specifically trained for.  However, desperate times call for desperate measures - on both my part (I really wanted to start working again, at that particular school) and the school's (we are kind of a remote area, and it was hard to find specialist teachers willing to come).  I DID enjoy the nine years that I taught those two subjects, but over the last few years I've yearned to have my own classroom again.  I got a taste of classroom teaching when, two years ago,  I was asked to job-share a full-day Kindergarten class, in addition to teaching Music.  My experiences there only made me want to teach full-time Kindergarten even more!

At the start of this year I decided I was going to start the process to help me transfer to a new school.  Lo and behold, the very day I went to tell my principal what I was going to do, I found out that this new school had posted positions for Kindergarten and Grade 1!  I got the process in motion, went through the interviews, and at the beginning of this month I was offered the Grade 1 position.  Initially I was a bit disappointed, but the more I have looked into teaching Grade 1, the more excited I have become.  I really want to be the best Gr. 1 teacher I can be, and I'm thrilled to have all the help out there!