RR - Already Ready discussion

I am eager to see if those of you who teach preschool find this book valuable. Let me know what you took away for your classrooms.

Yes, I finished last weekend. I thought there were some great ideas for preschool classrooms. I have done some writing with the children in my classes, but not book-making. I am anxious to try it out in the classroom.

Despite some good arguments, I still take exception with their reasoning for not transcribing for children. Children ask us to transcribe for them all of the time and I have found it to be a powerful tool. I whole heartedly agree that a teacher should NEVER force a child to read a transcription. But I do think that there is great value in writing down the words that they say about their story. The verbal descriptions are important to understanding their drawings and the meaning children see in those drawings. Plus, the authors use transcription in all of the examples in the book. The examples would have been much less meaningful without them.

I think the jury is out on trnscription.

This book would be helpful for brand new teachers, for good guidance in helping four year olds and Kindergarteners make their own books. Hayden (RR)and I jumped the gun and discussed this book at length at our first meeting with CTWP in June. The illustrations in the book are a good representation of the variety of skills students in our classrooms will have. I too have students who ask me to transcribe what their story is about. They can only hold it in their heads a few days. They like to be able to look back and see how their skills in telling a story have progressed. They thoroughly enjoy roleplaying with a variety of writing instruments in centers set up to resemble writing opportunities in real life, such as in a restaurant, a store, library, etc. Also, their drawings are not static. When beginning, they often draw all the action of a story on one frame, resulting in a lot of scribbles.