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
Off to read some more!
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