********************* *The Ed-able Newsletter* ********************* A Practical Bi-monthly Educational Guide for Teachers, Administrators, Homeschoolers and Parents Volume 1, Number 3 Oct./Nov. 1994 Notices THE ED-ABLE NEWSLETTER must be distributed free of charge with the original contents intact. Parts may be reprinted quoted, or adapted as long as proper credit is stated. Individual articles may bear the copyright (c) of their original authors, who should be contacted directly. All items found in this newsletter appear with permission from the original authors. Contents Contact Information The Ed-able Newsletter Membership Information The Ed-able Newsletter Membership Application Form The Ed-able Newsletter Membership Discount Companies The Ed-able Newsletter Overview Articles Implementation Plan for Incorporating Integrated Learning by Mike Barney Writing Process Implementation Chart by Dr. Steven Mahoney Build Your Own Putt-Putt Golf Course by Denise Welch Becoming an ESL teacher by Bill Abbott A Day with Byrd Baylor Views Let's Read Draw to Learn, Dinosaur Edition, in the Classroom Dabbler, the Next Step A Hop, a Skip, and a Jump An Integrated Learning Workshop Freebies - A Free Emergent Level Book Poetry - The Flower by author unknown Upcoming Conferences Picture Books for the Bi-Monthly Theme: Holidays Contact Information For more information about submitting articles, membership, questions about the newsletter's contents, feedback or you have a book you would like us to review, please write: to THE ED-ABLE NEWSLETTER The Ed-able Newsletter 77025 Florida Ave Palm Desert, CA 92211 or E-Mail CompuServe: 74372,3446 AOL: Readable Internet: readable@aol.com The Ed-able Newsletter Membership Information Since teachers and other educators spend a lot of their own money, we have devised a way for educators to get a discount, by becoming a member of this newsletter. The benefits for joining, as opposed to only reading this newsletter? You are placed on our exclusive mailing list and can take advantage of our group discounts on educational materials from a wide variety of educational companies. You will receive special notices promptly through your E-mail accounts. Most importantly, there is NO MEMBERSHIP FEE. This is just another way of helping educators educate. The Ed-able Newsletter Membership Application Form Name: Address: City: State: Zip: Country: Phone: Position: E-Mail Address: You can copy this page and E-Mail it to Compuserve 74372,3446; America Online Readable and Internet readable@aol.com or mail it to: The Ed-able Newsletter New Membership 77025 Florida Ave Palm Desert, CA 92211 The Ed-able Newsletter Membership Discount Companies The following is a list of companies who presently give our members some type of discount and or support the ED-able Newsletter. Each company decides what their discount will be independently. If your company would like to offer a discount to our members, please contact THE ED-ABLE NEWSLETTER through E-Mail or our street address. A monthly membership update list is provided to the following companies. If your name is on the list you will receive a discount. Make sure you mention THE ED-ABLE NEWSLETTER. Companies who offer discounts and/or support in this project: The Readable Book Company, 77025 Florida Ave, Palm Desert, CA 92211 1(800)582-0147. 10% discount. The Readable Book Company is also the main sponsor of this newsletter. They have allowed us to use their resources to provide an informational and practical newsletter. Even though, they have donated much time and energy to this newsletter, they would still like to give members a 10% discount on any purchase. PHantastic Phinds for Phys Ed, 72532 Edgehill Drive, Suite #2, Palm Desert, CA 92260 (619) 341-3438. 10% discount. Phantastic Phinds for Phys Ed is an innovative physical educational company. They publish a secondary newsletter for Middle School and High School PE teachers and have a catalog full of teacher materials for all levels. Moover, 318 Grant St. Redlands, CA 92373 (909) 792-8629. Moover is innovative physical educational company for elementary classroom teachers. They develop products for active learning. Their newest teacher book is a comprehensive program to teach basic locomotor skills to children ages 5 to 8. Pacific English Language Institute, 1050 Foothill Blvd., San Luis Obispo, CA 93405 (805) 543-9080. Pacific English Language Institute has a specially designed curriculum for students who wish to study English. They offer housing and a great English language program. The Ed-able Newsletter Overview THE ED-ABLE NEWSLETTER is written for people like you who want the latest possible educational resources for their children. Whether you are a teacher, an administrator, a parent, a homeschooler or even a concerned citizen, our goal is to provide practical Educational resources. THE ED-ABLE NEWSLETTER will help by providing you with easy-to read, practice information. We'll focus on what new ideas and materials we like. We will provide tips to help you educate your children. We'll try to make your experience educating your children a successful one. ED-able newsletter would like to thank the staff at the Readable Book Company for taking over this non-profit newsletter. The first issue was put together with lots of help from different sources. The ED-able newsletter support staff decided that it would be better if the Newsletter was published through one source. The Readable Book Company has offered it's facilities to the ED-able Newsletter. The people at The ED-able Newsletter look forward to working with The Readable Book Company staff on this project. If you read this newsletter and feel your input would be valued by our readers, please submit your articles, ideas or Letters to the Editor at: The Ed-able Newsletter 77025 Florida Ave Palm Desert, CA 92211 or E-Mail us at Compuserve 74372,3446; America Online Readable and Internet readable@aol.com Articles ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Implementation Plan for Incorporating Integrated Learning ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- by (c) Mike Barney, Primary Teacher and Writer, Landau Elementary, 31-310 Landau Blvd., Cathedral City, CA 92234, (619) 324-8141. Mike is presently a first grade teacher. He has published several children's books with the Readable Book Company and Modern Curriculum Press. The following is an integrated learning implementation plan for elementary school teachers. This plan could take 6 months. I suggest that you implement it slowly. When I am trying something new, I usually pick one day out of the week to implement it. This gives me a chance to adjust to the new idea and get familiar with it. Step 1 Selecting a Theme A theme can be an event, issue or problem. Themes can include events in the students' lives. It is important that the theme is relevant to students, interesting and crosses all curriculum areas. Step 2 Explore the theme for all curriculum areas through brainstorming The standard curriculum areas are: math, language arts, social studies, art, science, music, and PE. List all the objectives or activities that could be taught under your chosen theme. Step 3 Lesson Plans Sequence your lessons to correspond to lessons in the same area in other subjects. For example, if you are teaching about cities in social studies, during your math block you might graph things found in a city. Subjects are still taught in individual blocks of time. Step 4 Integration Time Select a period of time in your day to integrate. The period of time should be between 1.5 hours to 3 hours. The longer the period of time the more you can integrate in a day. Step 5 Shared Reading This is your whole group reading time. Begin by reading a story. Next, choose a subject to integrate with the story and plan an activity. For example, if you are reading a story about cities, you might have the students build a city for a social studies assignment, using the information gained from the book, personal information and information for other sources. Step 6 Integrate More Subjects At this point it is up to the teacher to begin to integrate more subjects. For example, you could integrate the above activity by having the students label their city (writing), investigate how they might put electricity in their city (science), and play a city game which city kids might play in their city (PE). Now, that you can integrate your school day, here is a sample lesson, I used with my for my first grade class. This was written for one day, but it took two days to teach it. An Example of an Integrated Lesson Theme: People Topic: Neighborhoods Social Studies: Before starting this lesson, collect picture books about the city or neighborhoods. Pass out the books to students in groups of 4. The students freely explore the books as you walk around the class and ask them questions about the books. This prepares the students for the activity and it helps to plan out the direction of the activity. In one case, the students noticed that some of the streets in the books had litter on them. In this case, I changed the activity mapping of the neighborhood, to how can we help our neighborhood activity. Next, the students should be brought back together. As a whole group, have them brainstorm a list of things found in the city (writing). As you write the words on the board, ask the students to help spell them (phonics). Next, write the sentence, "My dog stops at a ___________." (from a book I wrote, My Dog) Using the words from the brainstorming list, have students place each word in the blank and read the sentences (reading). Finally, have students play the game, Pick Up Your Own Litter. During this game the students are divided into two teams. Each team member is given a crumpled paper. The object of the game is for each team to throw the litter on the other team's side. The team with the least amount of litter when you blow a whistle, wins (Physical Education). After the game, brainstorm ways to reuse the litter. The class decided on making, Junk Robots (Art). For this activity, the students needed to collect reusable trash at their homes. This was their homework assignment. The next day during shared reading time, we made the Junk Robots. Finally, the students wrote the pattern from the day before on a speech bubble and filled in the blank (writing). End this integrated lesson by reading, Apt 3 by Ezra Jack Keats (reading) and singing the song, Wheels on the Bus (music). ------------------------------------------------ Writing Process Implementation Chart ------------------------------------------------ The following, Writing Process Implementation Chart was designed as a three column chart for easy referencing. Since The Ed-able Newsletter is only presented in text form, it was not possible to keep it in the original three column design. Steve put this Writing Process Implementation Chart together to help his teachers at his school site to self evaluate their own Writing Process program in their classrooms. The Ed-able Newsletter thought this chart would be helpful for it's readers to evaluate their own Writing Process (The Editor) by (c) Dr. Steve Mahoney, Principal, Landau Elementary School, Palm Springs Unified School District, 30-310 Landau Blvd., Cathedral City, CA 92234, (619) 324-8141. Steve is presently a principal at Landau Elementary School. Component 1: Use of the Writing Process Ideal The writing process is used daily. A variety of prewriting activities are done regularly by whole group, small group and individual students. All steps of the writing process are used regularly. Several pieces are taken through the publishing process each month. Students often get to choose their own topics. Writing topics are integrated across the curriculum. Students write in at least one curriculum area each day. Acceptable Students participate in the writing process two or three times each week. Prewriting activities are done with the whole group. All steps of the writing process are used regularly. One piece of work is taken through the writing process each month. The teacher usually selects writing topics. Some integration is done. Not Recommended The writing process is used less than twice each week. Some steps of the writing process are left out. Less than one piece of work is published each month. Teacher selects all writing topics. Component 2: Time Commitment of Writer's Workshop Ideal Students participate in Writer's workshop 3 to 5 hours each week. Acceptable Student's participate in Writer's Workshop 1 to 3 hours each week. Not Recommenced Students participate in Writer's Workshop less than 1 hour per week. Component 3: Teacher Behaviors During Writer's Workshop Ideal Teacher conferences with several students or groups of students each writing period. During monitoring, teacher interacts with each student individually at least every other writing period. Teacher assist students with their individual writing each writing period. Teachers present regular small group or whole group mini lessons on topics that kids are ready to learn or need reviewed based on observation made while assisting students. Acceptable Teacher conferences with several students each week. During monitoring, teacher interacts with students who are asking for help. Teacher assists students with their individual writing each writing period. Teacher presents whole group mini lessons on topics that kids are ready to learn or need to be reviewed based on observations made while assisting students. Cooperative groups are sometimes used enabling students to work together on their writing projects. Not Recommended No conferencing is done. Teacher monitors behavior without monitoring students. Teacher provides little assistance during writer's workshop. Lessons done related to writing do not focus on students' readiness. Often they follow textbook focus. Cooperative groups are not used Component 4: Sharing and Responding Ideal Sharing and responding takes place throughout all stages of the writing process. Completed works are shared and displayed. Class books are compiled and made available for students and others to enjoy. Classmates, parents, teachers and friends respond to published works orally and in writing. Acceptable Published works are shared. Some sharing done during other stages of the writing. Completed works are shared and displayed. Classmates respond to published works orally. Not Recommended There are few opportunities for sharing. Only "the best" works are shared No opportunity for responding is provided. Component 5: Editing and Revising Ideal Students learn basic editing symbols and revision skills appropriate to the level of the writing. Students edit and revise their own work regularly. Students edit each other's work regularly in pairs or small groups. Teacher assists with editing and revision during writing conference. Acceptable Some editing symbols and revision skills are taught. Students edit and revise some of their own work. Students sometimes edit each other's work. Teacher assists with editing and revision. Not Recommended Students are asked to edit without being taught skills. Teacher does all the editing. Students recopy teacher corrected work. Teacher corrects collected work only. Component 6: Publishing Ideal Each student publishes several pieces of work each month. Different types of writing, both assigned topics and student choices are published. All students have an opportunity to publish on a computer if one is available. A variety of illustration techniques are taught and are evidenced in student works. Acceptable Each student publishes at least one piece of work each month. Assigned whole group writing is published. Some students have an opportunity to publish on a computer if one is available. Some published works include illustrations. Not Recommended Less than one piece of work is published each month. The first copy is always the final copy. The computer is not used for writing. No emphasis is given to illustration. ------------------------------- Build Your Own Putt-Putt Golf Course ------------------------------- by Denise Welch, 101 Tips, Tricks and Hints for Teaching Physical Education; Phantastic Phinds for Phys Ed, 72532 Edgehill Drive Suite #2, Palm Desert CA 92260, (619) 341-3438. (Reprinted with permission) Have your students start collecting the following items from students or friends: aluminum cans in various sizes to use as holes, old garden hoses used as boundaries for each hole, cardboard boxes as backstops, large sheets of plastic to make the putting surface smooth, golf balls or other small balls, sticks with paper flags to mark each hole and newspaper to be crumpled underneath the plastic to form obstacles or hills. If you don't have enough clubs to go around, have students play using the inside of their foot to hit the ball. Now, let your students set up each hole in a different way using the items above. Finally, students can have fun playing on each others hole. ---------------------------- Becoming an ESL teacher Choose the right study path for a quality teaching position ---------------------------- by Bill Abbott, Director, Pacific English Language Institute. San Luis Obispo, California completed a BS degree in Journalism/English from the University of Oregon in 1982. He also has an MS with a concentration in International Comparative Education and a special emphasis on Sport and Physical Education. Bill is also working toward another Master's degree in TESL. Bill has been an ESL instructor and director for PELI since 1989. He is active in international education with memberships with CATESOL, TESOL, NAFSA, and the Comparative Education Society. Bill taught English as a Foreign Language in Sweden and Japan. Teaching English as a second language (ESL) at any level can be a rewarding and challenging experience. The benefits include the simple joy of sharing cultural differences and international understanding in the classroom and the excitement of seeing students progress in their English skills. Acquiring the proper credentials to teach ESL at any level, however, requires planning and soul searching on the part of a prospective ESL teacher; deciding early the level of instruction one would like to teach is absolutely critical to getting a job in ESL. ESL instructors come from a wide range of educational backgrounds. An undergraduate degree comprising a wide range of subject matters is excellent preparation for prospective ESL instructors. An individual considering a career in teaching at the elementary, secondary, or high school level should consider a subject area that satisfies state credentialing requirements. A TESL student wishing to teach at the college or university level must concentrate on prerequisites required to enter upper level TESL courses. The prospective TESL student should also learn about languages, linguistic methodology and cultural anthropology. For all prospective teachers, learning a foreign language can help a great deal in securing chances for employment later. A strong liberal arts background at the undergraduate level will allow the individual some flexibility in choosing the next step in their TESL education. Following completion of the bachelor degree, the next step in TESL education is critical for the prospective ESL teacher. The prospective teacher should have already chosen between teaching at the elementary level, high school level or the college level before beginning graduate coursework. The credentials required for an instructor at the college level will vary greatly from the requirements of a lower level ESL instructor. While the high school instructor will follow a prescribed track for the teaching credential, the adult or college level ESL instructor has some choices to make that will greatly affect his or her marketability in securing desirable employment. The following are specific concentrations a prospective ESL instructor might consider when choosing the next educational step: The CLAD certificate for K-12 Teachers The state of California requires the Crosscultural, Language, and Academic Development (CLAD) Certificate on multiple- and single-subject teaching credentials for teachers who want to teach ESL and English language development. The CLAD program usually requires 18 to 20 units of study in the following areas: Language Structure and Usage, Language Acquisition, Cultural Diversity, Applied methods in teaching ESL and other electives. The certificate is offered a selected Universities of California and California State Universities. The TESL Certificate The TESL Certificate Programs offered at colleges and universities provide specialized training in Teaching English as a Second Language. While the intended audience for the certificate are current teachers of ESL or teachers with a teaching credential, the certificate is also recognized at private institutions in foreign countries. It is very important to note that the TESL certificate will not qualify an instructor to teach at the college level without an M.A. in TESL. Essentially, the TESL certificate should be considered the minimum academic preparation for an ESL instructor. The TESL certificate normally takes about 20 to 30 units to complete depending on the university. Prospective students should consult their local institutions and school districts for additional requirements. The objectives of the TESL Certificate are as follows: 1) To assist teachers in developing a style that is suitable for the ESL classroom. 2) To provide up-to-date knowledge of ESL theory and practice. 3) To train instructors in preparing materials for ESL skill areas. 4) To present techniques for effectively applying ESL methods and materials in a variety of teaching situations. M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages This M.A. is usually part of a major field of study such as Education or Linguistics. The TESL M.A. usually consists of 30 to 40 units of study and includes the following courses: Theory and Methods of Second Language Teaching, Principles of Linguistics, Techniques in teaching listening, reading and writing to Second Language learners, and other courses such as Psycholinguistics or intensive English grammar for ESL and EFL teachers. The M.A. in TESL will allow the graduate to teach at the college or university level in the United States and in other countries. Finally, many TESL graduates go on to pursue PhDs. The following is a brief inventory of the possible employment situations for qualified ESL teachers and their preferred educational requirements*: Level Basic required credential Recommended Specific ESL training Private ESL school in a foreign country B.A. in liberal arts TESL Certificate -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- College or University in foreign country M.A. TESL TESL experience -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K-6 Teaching credential CLAD/BCLAD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7-12 Teaching credential CLAD/BCLAD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adult Education B.A-English/Liberal Arts ESL teaching experience -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Community College M.A. TESL TESL experience -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- University M.A. TESL TESL experience -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Private ESL Institute M.A. TESL TESL experience -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Requirements may vary from state to state and country to country In closing, a prospective ESL instructor should take a personal inventory to decide the most desirable level of instruction. In today's high cost of education and lack of accessibility to information regarding TESL programs, one must fully research all of the educational possibilities available. Making a decision on which level best suits oneself might be the most important decision in the an ESL instructor's career. At any level, the successful ESL instructor will combine a strong sensitivity to international cultures and a skillful ability to explain details of the English language in a clear and concise manner. The rewards in teaching ESL to international students are paid on a daily basis. The field of TESL is an exciting and wonderful opportunity for a person interested in working with international students. ----------------------------- A Day with Byrd Baylor ----------------------------- Byrd Baylor is currently promoting her new book, _The Table Where Rich People Sit_. She was in Palm Springs, CA at Moorten Botanical Garden where she talked to about twenty people about herself and her new book. She is a quiet speaker who is down to earth. She lives in the Arizona desert in an adobe house with no electricity or a telephone. Actually she has a telephone, but it doesn't work. She calls this the perfect place to live because she can see the mountains and nature at her door step. She doesn't spend a lot of her time writing. She spends most of the time taking animals out of traps and posting no hunting signs on land she doesn't own. Her bio reads like one of her books. She is down to earth and loves the nature she writes about. Her writing is a slow process. She doesn't use an outline and she doesn't rewrite. She figures that is why her writing process is so slow. She spends a lot of time with kids and helping them to write. When she first started helping kids, she was surprised to find out that most kids make up things to write about. She encourages them to do what she does and take events that happen in life and write about them. Her new book is based on her childhood and how her father looked at life. She read her new book, _The Table Where Rich People Sit_. It is written from the point of view of a small girl. The girl's family isn't rich, but her parents think they are the richest people in the world. Her parents value sunsets and the changing colors of the mountains. By the end of the book, the girl finally sees how rich they are. It is great for all levels (1-8th grade). It would be great for a desert unit, career unit or an environment unit. Her New York publisher thought the people in the book didn't have goals. She told them that they just have different goals than you. The ED-able Newsletter highly recommends this book. (The Editor) _The Table Where Rich People Sit_ by Byrd Baylor. Illustrated by Peter Parnall. Published by Charles Scribner's Son, 866 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022. ISBN 0-684-19653 Views -------------- Let's Read! -------------- Finally someone is publishing emergent level books that can be copied for the whole class. I have found in my class, most of the student aren't being read to by their parents. It is up to the students to read to themselves. But most books published, are not for emergent level readers. Let's Read allows the teacher to copy the book as many time as they would like. There are directions on how to make big books. Plus it's not just filled with fourteen emergent level books, they also include sentence strips for retelling the stories, pictures for sequencing the story and word cards for building vocabulary. Also some generic teaching ideas for all the books are included. The books are captivating, use natural language, are predictable and have a repetitive pattern. The books are grouped into 6 themes: Places, Oceans, Animals, Jobs, Needs, and Weather. There are plenty of books to choose from for each theme. The publisher has provided the word count for each book, to assist the teacher in leveling the books for her class. Packed with 178 pages of emergent level books, this book is a must for today's primary teacher. _Let's Read! Set 1_ by Mike Barney. Published by The Readable Book Company 77025 Florida Ave, Palm Desert, CA 92234. (800) 582-0147. -------------------------------------------------------------- Draw to Learn, Dinosaur Edition, in the Classroom -------------------------------------------------------------- This product was first review in the last issue. In this review, we demonstrated at the program in a class. The first two paragraphs are for the last issue. DRAW TO LEARN, DINOSAUR EDITION is designed to turn a home or classroom computer into an interactive art teacher. Other drawing or paint programs depend on the manipulation of objects on a computer screen using a hand-held mouse. DRAW TO LEARN, on the other hand, focuses on art and drawing fundamentals that can be applied by children to sketch pictures of people , animals and objects. DRAW TO LEARN, DINOSAUR EDITION, is based on real-life drawing instruction techniques. The program tutors children on the rudiments of drawing shapes and forms that are the basics of an elementary art education. Each drawing lesson is led by a whimsical, computer-generated drawing character called Rembrandt Worm (TM). Rembrandt Worm outlines each move so that children can pencil basic geometric forms in a step-by- step process. Eventually these initial construction lines evolve into finished, detailed drawing of animals and other objects. They break each drawing into it's parts. For example, a head may be from several circles and ovals, legs are formed by several connected ovals and their body parts are combinations of circles, ovals and lines. I was right. DRAW TO LEARN is perfect for the classroom and even better for the one computer classroom. Since most classrooms only have one computer, DRAW TO LEARN allows up to 5 students to draw at the same time. This program was tried out in a fifth grade class. The teacher loved it and so did his students. He first just let the students free explore with the program. None of the students had problems and all of them produced great dinosaur drawings. When I asked the teacher if he thought 3 graders could successfully, use this program, he said yes, but they would need more guidance then 5th graders. In the future, the teacher plans to use the program to assist the students on their dinosaur research project. Draw to Learn not only teaches you how to draw dinosaurs, it also gives you data about each dinosaur. This program gets the students away from the coloring book drawing programs and actually teaches them how to draw. We recommend this program for grades 3 and up. DRAW TO LEARN: PC-compatible - VGA monitor Macintosh - 1 megabyte of memory and a hard disk, system 6.0.5 and 7. Cost: Single version for Mac or PC - about $39.95 School Site Lesson (Mac or PC) - $249.95. This is a great deal. DRAW TO LEARN Associates allow you to run the program on unlimited machines (Mac or PC) as long the machines are at the same physical school location. A Great Deal. (714) 263-0910 ---------------------------- Dabbler, the Next Step ---------------------------- Dabbler, an easy to use natural media draw and paint program that can be used by kids. It is an entry-level paint and draw program, that offers an impressively robust set of features found on high end programs. It includes 54 drawing tools and 20 paper textures as well as photo-retouching tools. But enough of the technical stuff. Will this program work in the classroom? I would have to say, yes. With the built in drawing lessons the teacher doesn't even have to be an artist. The draw sessions are from Walter Foster Publishing, the "learn to draw" company. All you do is play one of the sessions and stop it at any point to try what you just learned. This is not one of those coloring book drawing programs with lots of stamps. It lets the student draw how they draw. Just as coloring book assignments were popular in education at one time. I feel the coloring book, and stamp making program will lose their popularity and true drawing programs will prevail. Dabbler is already ahead of the game. It will be the program others copy. Dabbler is mainly for the upper grades and will take some teaching time to get the kids drawing on it. But it is the prefect program for teachers who want to help their students become artists. Dabbler PC-compatible - Windows, 386, or above, Hard disk, Super VGA, 4MB of RAM Macintosh - all models except Plus, SE, Classic & PowerBook 100, Hard Drive, System 6.0.5 or 7 (408) 688-5300 Your education software dealer will a have it for about $69.00, retail $99.00 ---------------------------------- A Hop, a Skip and a Jump ---------------------------------- A new way to integrate PE within the curriculum. This teacher book provides you with lots of ideas to get your kids moving around in PE. Moovers Active Learning products have put together 32 great pages filled with activities for K-2 teachers. K-2 teachers looking for new PE ideas will want to check out A Hop, a Skip and a Jump! This ten lesson program teaches K-2 students the nine basic locomotor skills and includes instruction techniques, fun, non-competitive games, and assessment. The lessons are cross-curricular, emphasizing the words along with the physical skills. Some additional equipment is required. It is a recommended buy. _A Hop, a Skip and a Jump_ by Monete Dyar, Moovers Active Learning Products, 318 Grant St. Redlands, CA 92373 or send e-mail to mdyar@eis.calstate.edu ------------------------------------------ An Integrated Learning Workshop ------------------------------------------ On August 22nd, I hit the road and headed to Rancho Mirage, California to a famous, Wright Group Workshop for K-2 educators. If you are not familiar with Wright Group Workshops, they are whole language workshops for K-5 educators. The K-2 workshop is done in three days and covers the following topics: The Balanced Reading Program, The Balanced Writing Program, and The Balanced Language Program. The 2-5 workshop is done is two days and covers the following topics: Launching a Love of Literature and Improving Comprehension, and Launching Literature Circles and Strengthening Writing Abilities. I went to the K-2 workshop, The Balanced Reading Program and The Balanced Language Program. I went to all three days, three years ago. This year I chose to go to only Day 1 and Day 3. For each day, the cost was $79.00, plus they gave you about $70.00 worth of big books, teacher books and emergent level student books. It's a great deal. I was fortunate to have a great presenter, Terry Rodriguez. She is a highly motivated presenter, that is knowledgeable and entertaining. She presents the ideas in an easy to understand performance. But most importantly, her ideas are usable for your class the next day. For Day 1, The Balanced Reading Program, the workshop centered on a Shared Reading model. Shared Reading is simply your whole group reading time where mostly big books are read to your students and your students read the big books with you. This is the time when a skill might be taught, and a science or social studies activity would be taught which goes with the big book that was read. Terry modeled this process plus, how to teach songs, poem and chants. She went through the procedure of making a reproduction or innovation of a big book. A reproduction would be a copy of a big book read to the students then reproduced by the students using their art work for the illustrations and keeping the authors words. An innovation is a rewrite of a big book. The author's words are changed to create an original big book with student illustrations. Teaching skills are not left out. Terry presented ideas on how to teach skills in context and during a shared book experience. All these ideas were tied together by sound whole language and learning theories. On Day 2, The Balanced Writing Program, participants were guided through ideas on journal writing, model writing, guided writing, language experience, structure writing and content writing. She talked about how to incorporate these types of writings in a shared reading experience and the whole school day. On Day 3, The Balanced Language Program, Terry tied it all together by guiding us through guided reading, centers, classroom management and thematic integration. She discussed what a whole language day might look like. She put it all together for us in an easy and comprehensible way. The days were filled with ideas that can be used in any classroom. Each participant walked out of the three days with bags filled with big books, a teacher book and student books. Their heads were filled with great ideas that are classroom ready and teacher friendly. If you have been to a great workshop, please let us know about it. You can e-mail your write-up to: CompuServe: 74372,3446 AOL: Readable Internet: readable@aol.com ------------------------------------------------ Freebies - A Free Emergent Level Book ----------------------------------------------- It's Halloween time and the Readable Book Company would like to offer you a free emergent level book. This free offer is a one of a kind and will only last until December 15, 1994. It is open to all readers. But since it is on a first come first serve, members requests will be handled first. The Readable Book Company is offering the emergent level book, Planting a Seed. The book is for K-2 students. It is about the growing process of a pumpkin plant. It is perfect for a Halloween unit or a plant unit. This black and write book is copy ready. It is a great chance to check out the Readable Book Company's emergent level books and get a free emergent level book that can be copied for the whole class. To receive, Planting a Seed, send a self address stamped envelope to, The Readable Book Company, 77025 Florida Ave, Palm Desert, CA 92211. If you don't want the book to be folded, make sure your envelope is 9x12. Poetry This will be a bi-monthly feature of the Ed-able newsletter. If you would like to submit a poem for this section, please send it or e-mail it to our address. These poems may be copied by the classroom teacher for classroom use. ------------ The Flower ------------ The summer rain, the summer shine, That wet and warmed the pretty vine, Had somehow quite a wondrous power, Which brought this lovely yellow flower. author unknown Upcoming Conferences The following is a short list of upcoming conferences. If you know of any others, please send them to our street address or E-mail. November November 18-21, NCTE's Annual Convention in November in Orlando, Florida, Nearly 5,000 teachers of English and language arts at all levels of education will meet to attend NCTE's 84th Annual Convention. (800) 369-6283 November 9-13, 1994 National Association for Gifted Children Annual Meeting Salt Lake City, UT. 1155 15th St., N.W., Ste. 1002, Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 785-4268 November 10-13, 1994 International Symposium on Telecommunications in Education Albuquerque, NM. 1787 Agate St., Eugene, OR 97403 (503) 346-2411 November 11-14, 1994 National Council for the Social Studies Annual Convention Denver, CO March March 25-28.1995 ASCD Annual Conference for 1995, San Francisco. The theme of the 50th Annual Conference is "The Mind's Wealth: Promise of a Golden Harvest"; (703) 549-9110. Picture Books For Themes: Holidays Minie's Yom Kippur Birthday by Marily Singer, Harper and Row, 1989. ISBN 0-06-023846-2 Arthur's Halloween by Marc Brown, Little Brown and Co, 1983. ISBN 0-316-11059-0 Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner by Lillian Hoban, Harper and Row, 1990. ISBN 0-06-022422-3 The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, Houghton and Mifflin, 1985. ISBN 0-395-38949-6 Letters to the Editor Since this is our third issue, we look forward to your responses and input. You may sent them by E-Mail or street address. Street Address: The Ed-able Newsletter 77025 Florida Ave Palm Desert, CA 92211 or E-Mail CompuServe 74372,3446; America Online Readable and Internet readable@aol.com