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By SHARON KIRKPATRICK
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Margaret Lee is trying something different with her two reading ' classes at the elementary school this year.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays her fifth and sixth graders have Reading Workshop rather than traditional instruction in the basal readers. During reading workshop, for most of the one-and-a-half hour period, the students read from books they have selected.
They must read from books, not magazines or newspapers, and most of the books must tell stories.
“Great literature,” including children’s classics, aren't the most popular selections. However, one fifthgrader has tackled “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” and some are trying “White Fang.”
Most of the students are reading books written expressly for the adolescent and pre-adolescent audience.
These books tell stories of youngsters about the age of the students or slightly older. They deal with relationships between children and their older or younger brothers and sisters, between the youngsters and their parents, and relationships with their peers in school. Some of the students are plowing their way through Nancy Drew' and Hardy Boys mysteries.
At the beginning of the reading period, Mrs. Lee has a “mini lesson.” She might introduce a specific author or discuss some specific aspect of literature such as characterization or setting. Recently one mini lesson was on sequels, trilogies and £bfies.
Then, row by row, the students are invited to begin reading. They rush for the pillows and carpet samples and place themselves around the room to spend the better part of an hour reading.
Near the end of the reading class time Mrs. Lee reads to the students. The fifth graders are hearing tales from mythology. The sixth graders are hearing a historical novel set in the colonial period about a girl who travels from Barbados to New England to get an education.
When a student finishes a book, he is expected to record that in his “literary log.” As he reads, he is expected to write letters in his literary
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