A maze is a path or collection of paths, from an entrance to a goal through which the solver must find a route. A labyrinth can have more than one path.There are also special puzzles in which the walls and paths can change during the game! Maze solving is the act of finding a route through the maze from the start to finish. Some maze solving methods are designed to be used inside the maze by a traveler with no prior knowledge of the maze, and others are designed to be used by a person that can see the whole maze at once. _____________________________ As teachers who want to make our reading meaningful and engaging to all of our students. This can feel like a maze sometimes as we try to find routes that will get us to the “finished work” that we want our students to be. Like a maze, we need patience to try a variety of paths and to find that one path that leads our students to a new discovery. You are going to feel at times lost in what feels like a maze; where rules and research seem to change what you already know. You are going to want to see the whole thing from above, to see the reading process from start to finish because you are tired of hitting “dead ends.” Take heart, you will find a way as you stay committed to the process you will find those paths that lead your readers one step closer to the finish. _________________ Differentiated Instruction For Reading. You will notice from the picture above, that our students start from various points, but all students need to finish their race. Each student comes with different gift, our job is to maximize those strengths to help our students succeed in their race. Student races will be assessed differently as will successes. Not all students will finish at the same time in this race, and the finishing points might differ. The only common thing is that we are all running in the race. To help our students run their race, our readers will need to talk about what they learned, and what strategies helped them to create meaning. You will need to really know your students and what motivates them. Plan rest stations to review their progress and to find out how they overcame challenges. Be patient, let them talk, sometimes they will need to run together in a small group to learn the skills needed for them to be successful. Don’t be afraid to talk about your own race, tell them how you think when you read, Sometimes they will learn by doing, other times, by listening, other times by talking about their reading. At points along the route, stop and see what they have learned and what part of the journey they found most difficult. Design activities/groups to practise those areas of need. Show them how to run, assure them that you are with them in the race. Instruction For Our English Language Learners. Remember that our ELL’s come from all over the world and bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experiences that are unique to them. We need to invest time in understanding what these strengths and experiences are and connect them to ideas in English. This will create the necessary connections for our ELL student to connect to ideas and learning goals in our classrooms. ELL students need visual clues that help our students feel confident in a new place. Remember that ELL can feel overwhelmed by the challenges of learning a new language, so visual clues help new learners to access previous knowledge while learning something new. Remember, the best way to learn a new language is in context. Keep watering the soil, giving feedback and checking for understanding. Celebrate growth! Boys’ Literacy. Use diverse Literacy Resources! T appeal to our boys, we need to rethink our approach to literacy and what resources are engaging to our boys. “In essence, none of the boys in [Wilhelm and Smith’s] study rejected literacy. What they did almost universally reject was ‘school literacy.’” (Hyatt, 2002, p. 12). Boys do not reject opportunities to read and interact with texts. Our challenge is to find out what interests our boys and to ensure that we provide access to these resources in our classrooms. We need to approach boys’ literacy with a positive attitude and a sense of adventure. Boys want to be on an adventure where the outcomes are unpredictable. They want to engage in the battle alongside the hero. We need to help them to experience the text by bringing stories to life through Readers Theatre, through Read Alouds where we as teachers. bring the story to life through our expression. They need to express their literacy through art, poetry, and music. Allow time for boys to talk about their reading and encourage them to talk about their reading experiences with a male role model who will help them celebrate their learning. We need to celebrate what we have in common and what makes us different. As teachers, we need to celebrate this diversity by understanding that we can bring a wealth of reading and online material that enhance our understanding of important issues. Using poetry and themed books can bring to life the cultural diversity that exists in our world. We come in contact with other cultures through every communication medium, so it is our responsibility to educate our students about what makes these cultures unique. Through these studies, we have opportunities to make comparisons to our way of life and history. Many opportunities are afforded to connect to other subject areas as we explore the themes presented in diverse resources.