Notes From Teacher "They've done it Again" During this summer was a mandatory training for the new Treasures language arts (reading, writing, speaking) program's implementation this fall.  What a harrowing experience.  Once again, the assault of LAUSD's overly complicated and lost-in-translation language arts series pounding my vacation brain.  Everything the district and/or state comes up with is always 'too much,' overwhelming, and downright unnecessary.  Welcome to Treasures!   One of our instructors said, "If you can do 5% of the program in the first year or so, you're doing well." That should tell you something right there.  It creates panic in the minds of intelligent people. No, reading and writing implementation should not, need not, really is not, a difficult task.  Children should write, there should be mini lessons on writing, children should read, discuss, think about, and share with others about what they've read through various forms like plays, projects, stories, board games, wrapping paper to name several ways.  This program steals the time away from real reading and writing.   September 10, 2011 Having done Treasures' "Smart Start" for 3 days I find there are elements that are useful, but it really comes down to the same thing; read, write, talk about, share, and examine words through "word study". The class isn't really reading yet we're going through the routines in the program so that the week after next when we do read we'll know how to comprehend, figure out words we don't know, and write. Well, I don't have time to wait so after implementing Treasures, I do literature circles so that we can read instead of talking about reading. The students have been introduced to 2 jobs thus far; Literary Luminary (or Passage Picker) and Connector. Next week we'll do Discussion Director, Vocabulary Enhancer (or Word Finder), and Artful Artist. Can't wait! Oh, the whole class is reading My Father's Dragon so they can all learn together how to 'do' Literature Circles so when they do pick their group books they will know what and how to do it!

Home - Creative Kids' Corner - Books - Links - Notes from your Teacher - Site Map