Fred J. Acquavita
Independent Reading
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1. Each student will read at least one paperback every eight days.
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2. Upon completing the book, the student will fill out a reading report form.
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3. As soon as the form is completed, the student will attend a student-teacher reading conference.
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4. Once a week the student will attend a book-sharing group meeting.
Independent Writing
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1. Each student will complete one writing project per day. This will be placed in the student’s writing folder.
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2. Once every two weeks the student will attend a writing group to share one or two of his/her writing projects.
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3. Each day the student will do free writing in his/her journal. This may be done in or out of school. Every Wednesday the journal must be handed in to the teacher. The teacher will hand back the journal on Fridays.
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4. Every student will participate in the Writing Workshop. The Workshop will be conducted on Mondays and Thursdays. The length of the workshop will be commensurate with the topic presented.
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5. At least once per week the student will attend a student-teacher writing conference. In many instances this conference and the reading conference will be combined. The duration of this conference should be 10 to 15 minutes per student.
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6. At the writing conference the student will also share his/her personalized spelling dictionary. This dictionary will be handed in every Friday and passed back to the student on Monday.
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7. After the writing and reading conference the teacher will complete the student record form.
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Once the program and its requirements have been fully explained to the students, the typical day should follow this structure: as soon as the students enter the classroom, they should follow this schedule,which will be posted in the room.
Independent Activities
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1. Independent reading
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2. Reading report form
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3. Daily writing project
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4. Journal writing
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5. Language games
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6. Individual skill worksheets to be assigned to students by the teacher.
While the students are engaged in independent activities, the teacher will be engaged in the following:.
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1. Reading and writing conferences
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2. Small group instruction, i. e.,
Words in Color
, etc.
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3. Book sharing group meetings
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4. Writing sharing group meetings
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5. Working with groups of students on group projects, i. e., writing a newspaper, practicing a play, conducting, interviewing, etc.
Mondays and Thursdays the whole class will be involved in the writing workshop.
While the overall structure will remain the same throughout the year, the content will change according to the interests and needs of the students. For example, at the beginning of the year independent activities consist of six activities. By the end of the year this may be increased to include such things as typing practice, work with the tape recorder, and penmanship practice.
This structure is designed to foster students working independently and to free the teacher to work with individuals and small groups of students without interference. The Independent Activities are activities that do not require the aid of the teacher. It is hoped that this structure will force students to seek the aid and cooperation of fellow students.