log to Mrs. Lee and his classmates about his

log to Mrs. Lee and his classmates about his reading.

These letters are not very elaborate. A typical letter might be:

March 10, 1991 „

Dear Mary,

I just finished reading “Class Clown" by John Doe. This is a good book. I think you should read it. What is your book like?

Yours,

Jane

The recipients of the letters are expected to answer within 24 hours. Mrs. Lee is trying to get her students to discuss why they like or don’t like their books. Her letters to them give more thorough reports on her own reading.

At the end of each grading period Mrs. Lee has a conference with each student. During these conferences the students help judge how well they have met the goals they set for the period and set goals for the next grading period.

For a student who has been reading mostly mystery stories, a goal might be to try different types of reading. A student who has read only one or two books during the period might try to read more during the next period. One who has been reading lots of short books might be challenged to tackle something longer.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays the students have lessons from the basal readers. However, even these lessons aren’t traditional. Most of the time the students work cooperatively in groups reading the selections and finding answers to the exercises on the reading.

This enables them to cover the material faster, since they only have these lessons twice a week instead of every day like other fifth and sixth graders.

There is another purpose for the cooperative learning, however. Mrs. Lee hopes it will help her students develop greater skill in relating to one another.

Also on Thursdays they have a special session with younger readers. The fifth graders work with a first grade class, and the sixth graders work with a second grade class.

The younger students bring books to read to the older students, and then the older ones read to the