[etni] Re: Extensive reading

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In our Junior High School (Ginsburg HaOren, Yavneh), the kids in the eighth and
ninth grade do three book tasks each year, one each semester.  The seventh
graders do two.  All of the kids are required to bring the books to school for
approval and we write the titles down.  Then, during the period from the
assignment of the task through the submission of the completed work the kids
bring their books to class every lesson to read for part of the lesson.  When
the submission date looms near, we devote one or two double lessons to
bookwork.  That way, we can help the kids with the work and they don't have to
go to private lessons to get it done.  Furthermore, we encourage the kids to
finish the work a week early and submit it for corrections and then submit a
corrected version for a grade.  I know that this warps the grade a bit but it
really motivates them to do their own work and to learn from it.  The rubric
for checking the work includes reflection and comments from the kids which is
mandatory.  Work in class is taken into account for the grade.  I allow the
kids to read just about anything that's a book.  If there is a movie on the
book I encourage them to see the movie to help them with the book.  I also am
not opposed to kids reading a book in English that they have read in Hebrew.
This especially goes for the "Goosebumps" series that's very popular for some
bizzare reason.  It is not difficult to tell from their work whether or not the
book has actually been read.  The reading in English has an enormous impact on
their writing.  Also, with every book task, a list of ten new words they
learned from the book must be submitted.   They copy the sentence from the book
where the word appears and write their own sentence.  This way, if a clever kid
really manages to get  away with not reading and I don't manage to figure it
out, at least they learned 10 new words.
      Our books are from the school library and from the "Books for Israel"
project.  The stronger kids prefer to read "real" English books written for
kids their age rather than the abridged levelled books.
       Just so there are no illusions about our school and the kids we teach --
40 kids in a class, broken everything, very mixed socio-economic backgrounds
and only 2-3 English speakers in each grade level.
      If anyone is interested in the tasks and rubrics we use, you can contact
me off list.  I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible -- things have
been unusually hectic lately.
Bye,
Michele

Jane Berman wrote:

> **** ETNI on the web http://www.etni.org.il   http://www.etni.org   ****
>
> I agree that it's very difficult to keep tabs on the kids' extensive
> reading if the books aren't actually read in class.
>     While checking my yod-aleph class' extensive reading quiz last night, I
> had an idea which I'd like feedback on, although it may sound silly. What
> about giving the kids a list of books they may not "read" for extensive
> reading purposes--e.g., "Animal Farm," "A Catcher in the Rye," "Lord of the
> Flies" and the other books they will have read in Hebrew for their Hebrew
> Lit class required reading. The "Harry Potter" books should be another
> no-no, since kids who can't string an English sentence together try to
> persuade me that they've read a 500-page Harry Potter book in English. What
> do you think about this, or does it smack too much of censorship?
>     Jane Berman
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