Dear WTWL Readers,
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Let me lay a truth bomb on you. I didn’t write this as a blog post. I write a lot. But, these days I rarely have time to post on my beloved We Teach, We Learn site. This is the second post where I am simply sharing an email I wrote to staff. I feel like this makes me seem super egotistical (“I’m so amazing the whole world is privileged to read my emails…”) That’s not my intent. Just sharing good (I hope!) ideas. If you like them, cut and paste my emails right into your own message to staff, though I suggest you change the names to make it more legit.)
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♥ Rita
Dear Esteemed Reading People,
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April & I were talking the other day about summer reading for our RTI kiddos. She was gathering books to send home with them (that April, she’s amazing.*)
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I cited the research on the rich/poor reading achievement gap done by Richard Allington (my BFF, but don’t ask him about me. He thinks of me more as a stalker than a BFF…for now. I’ll wear him down.)
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One of the things that appears to make a difference is sending kiddos home with books over the summer. In fact, Allington says to send a minimum of 8 books with each child who is “behind” (you know I don’t totally buy into that “behind business, each at her/his won pace, blah, blah, blah… but for the sake of the project I am proposing we’ll go with it.).
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Next week I have about 3,000** kids who have paid to be my library “helpers” (again with the scare quotes… but, we all know that the “help” they provide comes with a huge cost to my nerves…)
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I propose that we make summer reading baggies for every kid who gets RTI services and possibly (if you think it’s doable) the 10% of students whose screeners put them just above the cut score for inclusion. I have tons of books. Here is what I would need from you:
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- The names & approximate reading levels (GE, please) of all of the RTI kids
- The phone numbers and names of the parents of these children (I will commit to calling before summer starts, once in July, and one in August.
- Your help distributing the bags.
- April, is writing a letter home, on the back of it, I’d like to add a fun summer reading BINGO thing (read under a tree, go to the library, read a book to a younger child, read a book about a frog then go find a frog, etc.)
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This could be a fun experiment (come on, don’t roll your eyes, I know ALL on this list are as dorky about teaching & learning as I am.)
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April & Brian, if you’d like this for your MS kids too, I’d be happy to make that happen. After all, those were once our babies and we didn’t get the job done for them at the ES, we still OWE them.
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If you like the idea, I am going to plunge into it ASAP! Share your thoughts, please.
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I will ask PLC Facilitators to gather the names of the “lowest”(grrr. sorry. you know what i mean, right?) kids who are not getting RTI services. Should we include kiddos with reading IEPs too? Yes. I think so! We should!
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Big hugs! So excited!
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Rita
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* Gina, I think you’re amazing too. Also Brian, Patti & Mark. You’re all amazing.
** Probably closer to 10 but it’ll feel like 3,000 by Friday.
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PS: Which of you know me well enough that you can tell by the style of this email that I am avoiding meeting an editorial deadline for my “real” writing? Okay. I’m going back to the real writing…
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