There's Room for Me Here: Literacy Workshop in the Middle School - Softcover

Allen, Janet; Gonzalez, Kyle

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1571100423 ISBN 13: 9781571100429

Publisher: Routledge, 1997

Synopsis

What do you do with students who cannot or will not read and write? This portrait of Kyle Gonzalez's classroom offers teachers theory-based strategies for helping students become motivated and successful readers and writers. You will see how one middle school teacher sets up her literacy classroom, offers intervention and support for struggling students, and assesses their progress. Rich in description of Kyle's successes, the book also looks honestly at why some practices were ineffective in her setting.

With Janet's and Kyle's practical and detailed suggestions for creating a literate environment, you'll learn how to:establish a literacy workshop;choose and use effective resources;implement effective, informative record-keeping;help students establish goals and assess progress;use read-alouds as well as shared, guided, and independent reading and writing;instill reading and writing practices that help students read content-specific texts.

There's Room for Me Here includes record-keeping forms, extensive bibliographies of literature and professional materials, resource information, and samples of strategy lessons all embedded in this engaging story of a teacher's first three years building a literacy workshop in her classroom.

Kyle's students are middle school learners who struggle with literacy. The strategies, content-area connections, and management ideas, however, are applicable and appropriate for use by any 3-12 teacher.

About this title

About the Author:

Kyle Gonzalez teaches at Lakeview (FL) Middle School where she began her career working with struggling readers. She studied with Janet Allen at the University of Central Florida, where she earned her M.Ed. in English Education. In 1996 she was cited as the Lakeview Middle School Teacher of the Year. Kyle lives in Orlando with her husband Robbie and their wonder dog Gonzo.

Review:

The book is especially valuable because of its focus on students with very low levels of reading, most of whom come from economically disadvantaged, often troubled families. This should be required reading for teachers in grades three through twelve, and young adult librarians will also find value here. --Voice of Youth Advocates, October 1998

The book reads like a novel and invites you inside Kyle's classroom where you get to know her, her students, and their struggles and successes. To ensure her student's success, Kyle enlists Janet's help, and together they study, learn and problem solve. Through their efforts they are able to offer teachers practical theory-based strategies for helping struggling students become excited and successful readers. There's Room For Me Here provides detailed suggestions for creating a literate environment and should be useful to teachers and other educators grades four through twelve. --Florida Reading Quarterly Vol 34, 4, June 1998

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1571100423
• ISBN 13: 9781571100429
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256