Make Every Minute Count

Limit the work you take home...I appreciate this comment. Teachers need to be able to spend as much time and patience with their own family as they do with their "school family." In order to do this, we might consider having students write more often, provide ongoing feedback as they are writing and not feel the pressure to rubricize every piece of work the students do. We can do this by building in table, peer, and individual conferences. I remember in my fourth grade classroom, I had a "Writer's Workshop" set up with structured routines and procedures. I knew the components that needed to be in place, but looking back I think I worried more about the procedures being in place than just supporting my writers! I would conference with Tom, Jerry, Susie, and Sean on Tuesday because they were scheduled for that day instead of relaxing and just supporting my writers through table conferences, peer conferences, and individual conferences when they were NEEDED.

One thing Regie mentions in this chapter is the elimination of daily worksheets and isolated exercises. I completely agree with this section. I agree philisophically, but I also saw with my own children, how the isolated worksheets didn't transfer to real reading and writing for them!