Curriculum Structure for Reading Apprenticeship. Guide to Mentors

For over 25 years, Ruth Schoenbach has developed programs, curriculum, and professional development to help students become more successful readers and writers.  Ruth Schoenbach’s Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI) teaches teachers how to work with any curriculum, to learn how to do it differently and more actively read, it teaches the way to work with whatever you work with.

 

START WITH WHAT INTERESTS THE STUDENT

•  Interest based
•  Discussion is key
•  Activity is personal
•  Reading and writing is shared

First stage:

 

- We will talk about things we are happy and excited about, things that are difficult. In reading, comprehension, writing or in pictures.

- Practice with teacher
- Insider/ outsider: How teachers had to learn something, want children to talk to assess where child is.
- Have you ever seen a book or movie or TV you really liked?
- At home, what do people there read? What are your feelings about that?
- What do you like to do?

 

Second stage: personal reading and writing history includes family.

 

- Let’s write a story about things you like to do…will you write it or shall I?
- Let’s read this together…me, you or read together
- Then and Now: feelings about reading and writing:

•   What’s hard?
•   Writing story?

Third stage: LEARNING TO CHOOSE A BOOK: Their view counts.

 

- Look at some books and magazines…
- Put into piles : Like/ Don’t like.
- Choose 5 things
- Pick 1 or 2 we’ll look at together, talk about them:

• o the cover, pictures, interesting?
• o Pictures, some chapter titles
• o What’s it about?
• o Have you ever read others like this? (detective, science, etc)
• o Converse before reading
• o Surfacing prior knowledge
• o Would you like me to read? You read? One page me, one page you?
• o After finishing: Talk about it: like, dislike, anything like that in your life?
• o CONVERSATION IS VERY IMPORTANT.
• o Shall we write something about the story?
• o What could happen next to the person it’s about?
• o Or tell a story about you.
• o GO BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN TALKING AND READING, TALKING AND WRITING, READING WHAT YOU WROTE.

ONE TOOL TO TEACHING READING WHICH IS EASIER THAN LEARNING ALL THE SOUNDS:

 - ONSET: Beginning sounds of words

- RIME: Endings of works like –ant, -tion, -ment

 

- GOOGLE THIS: 30 ONSETS, 50 RIMES

  

- Usually this is easier than the basics from A to Z.

  

- Find these words in what you have written (with endings, beginnings, e.g.,

•  walks – ed
•  jumps – ed
•  whispers – ed

 THIS IS TEACHING KIDS TO BE LANGUAGE EFFECTIVE.

 

- Learning meanings of parts of words as well, e.g.,

• o Do – undo
• o Do – redo

- How words fit together

 

IF KIDS SPEAK SPANISH, then read and write in Spanish – VERY IMPORTANT

 

AND TEACH PARENTS - This solidifies knowledge they have achieved.
(A good read is Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

 

Have lots of books available.

 

Volunteer plan – mentors, administration of students to mentors, grant writing, film component, field trips, telenovela production, and whatever else volunteers come up with as possible extensions of their interests.