Valorie Whiteside Blog Post #5

Blog Post #5 Routman Chapter #3: Share Your Reading Life

I agree completely with almost everything that Routman discussed in the chapter Share Your Reading Life. When the author talks about how he introduces himself to a new group and talk about himself as a reader I think it is probably the first and most important step is reaching your goal.  It is this moment when you have your students true and total attention.  This is a great moment for the student to get to know their teacher.  As the year goes on I think that the teacher becomes a role model for the students and younger students want to be like the teacher.  They listen to you and look up to the teacher.  Therefore when they see how much you love to read they may give reading more of a chance.

 I agree with Routman that if students don’t read for pleasure they are not likely to become lifelong readers.  It is vitally important for students to read text that they are interested in.  When Routman discusses that if a student just don’t like to read or won’t read you have to help that student find a book that he is interested in.  This is how I helped both of my sons learn to love to read.  With one son it was Sports Illustrated for Kids.  With the other it is the I Survived series.  Regardless of what the genre was neither son wanted to read until they were introduced to something that they were interested in.  From there the habit of reading was set.  Therefore it is important that you find out what the student if passionate about then help the find a book about what he is passionate about.

Routman advises that we let students know what we are reading and what we will read next.  I think that this is great advice because unfortunately teacher have to teach a lesson them move on the next thing.  Letting students know what you are going to read next shows them that it doesn’t stop after they read one book.  This keeps reading fresh and on the forefront. 

When Routman discusses the importance and pleasure of having a personal library a light turned on and many thoughts came to my head.  This is so true.  He talks about loving owning books and just holding them in his hand, referring to them, taking them out and flipping through the pages, admiring the covers, etc. I completely related to this because I feel the same way.  I have a paperback book shelf.  That’s where I keep only paperback books that I have read.  I love looking at it and seeing all the books I have read.  I take pride in seeing just how many books I have read just for pleasure!  I never thought sharing my library with my students before but I think it would be important to do this with my students. Routman shared his library with his students and even showed them a photo of the library.  He asked students who has a library or a shelf at home for their own books.  I think students would be proud to raise their hands to this question.  As educators we can also help students build their library.  Organizations are always donating new or slightly used books to schools and having book drives so that we can give books to the students for their personal home libraries. 

Routman advises to talk about favorite authors and books.  I agree that many of our students do not know many authors.  However, they do know book series.  I have seen proof of this on all levels.  Ranging from Pet the Cat, the I Survived series, and Goose Bumps to the Twilight series. 

I also agree that maintaining a reading records is important for the students.  My son has maintained a reading record for years.  Each time the page starts to fill up he has a certain excitement and pride at how many books he has read.  However, I do not agree with the chapter when they say that parents lead busy lives and we should not require parents to sign off on the students reading and it should be up to the student to sign off on his own reading.  I think that given the opportunity even the sweetest kid will fudge on his reading sheet.  Especially if there is a prize involved.  Signing off on the reading also keeps parents involved in their child’s academic progress.  

Dawn Mitchell's December Blog Post 5: Teach Comprehension Regie Routman's Chapter 8

Dawn Mitchell's Teach Comprehension Regie Routman's Chapter 8

During the month of December our application we are working on learning about theories that have shaped literacy and reflecting on how they have changed our practices as well as applying inquiry based learning in our planning for a unit of study we will teach in the coming spring semester.  

In December’s blendspace you will find a variety of resources including the four theories that we are sharing with you such as Cambourne’s Conditons of Learning, Halliday’s Functions of Language, L1 to L2 Transfer, and Marie Clay’s Reading/Writing Reciprocity  to read and reflect upon.  We have worked to embed two new tech tools, QR codes and Google Forms into your reading/writing workshop that can also be used in your classroom.  Lastly, you will find the new 2015-2016 SC ELA Inquiry standards that can help you enhance your existing units of study through the use of student-driven, inquiry-based learning.

This month for my blog post, I have chosen to read chapter 8 from Routman’s Reading Essentials for many reasons.  First of all, I believe that reading is meaning and without understanding what they are gleaning from texts, students aren’t really reading even if they are the best word callers/decoders on the planet. Without meaning, they are just words.  Second, with current reform initiatives in place in our state and across the country that focus on third grade comprehension it is vital that we realize that comprehension and comprehension instruction starts way before that.  We can’t wait until third grade to determine if our students are ready as readers. We have to keep comprehension in mind from the very start.

Routman says, “In my continuing work in schools, its’ rarely a lack of word work that prevents students from understanding.  It’s almost always not having the background, prior experiences, or knowledge of the way texts and authors work that stumps them – not knowing that good readers are aware of their understanding or lack of it and always do whatever is necessary to make sense of what they are reading.  You can’t start teaching comprehension in grade 3.  You start teaching it the day kids enter preschool or kindergarten.” (Routman, pg. 118)

One of the major points Routman made in this chapter that really convicted me and helped to improve my practice is her point that reading strategies are not synonymous with comprehension and are not meant to be taught in isolation.  I have been a reading/writing workshop girl since back in the day and consider myself to promote and implement the teaching of reading and writing in the authentic context of their own reading and writing.  When I read Routman’s explanation of a typical classroom’s reading instruction I realized that I have too often taught a proficient reading strategy that way.  I have introduced a reading strategy in a minilesson, employed metacognition and modeling, and then had students work to apply that strategy using sticky notes or reading responses to help strengthen their reading.  I realized that many times that took out the authenticity of their independent reading and either simplified a complex, cognitive process into one strategy and weakened their overall comprehension of the text by focusing all of their efforts on one strategy.  Routman says that actually makes reading harder. 

She writes, “Students become so focused on identifying words they don’t know, questions to ask, or connections to make that they forget to read for overall meaning.  While its fine to introduce and practice strategies one at a time, remember that when we read we use all these strategies at the same time and that our comprehension process is largely unconscious.”

I love her question at the end of page 119, “Continue to ask yourself, “How is this procedure helping my students become more proficient and independent as readers?” This is a question that I will use to guide my instruction and I want to be more conscious of my reading application time to ensure that it is not either oversimplified or made harder because of inauthentic instruction. 

Other take aways for me from this chapter include:

*the 20 percent to 80 percent rule where the majority of the time in reading instruction is spent on student application

*the questions given on page 120 to help us focus on strategic reading rather than individual strategies

*megacognitive strategies on page 121 such as rereading, highlighting, writing down, survey, connect, and monitor

*teaching self-monitoring (I love the checklist of strategies on page 125)

On page 129 Routman says, “There is a huge difference between strategy instruction and strategic instruction.  Just teaching strategies is not enough.  Strategies must be “invoked” by the learner if they are to be used to increase understanding.”  I agree and appreciate the clear call to create opportunities for our students to apply what they are learning about reading in authentic ways in their own independent reading with support, with modeling, and with an undeniable purpose to understand what they are reading.

Sincerely,

Dawn

Ashley Skipper's Blog Post # 5: Routman's Ch. 6 Plan for and Monitor Independent Reading

Chapter 6 was a great followup to the chapter I read last month about setting up a classroom library.  I especially enjoyed reading this chapter because this is something I started to really try to implement in my classroom last year with a small group of readers.  I thought the chart that shows the difference between sustained silent reading and independent reading time was so essential in helping me understand exactly what independent reading should look like.  I have done the sustained silent reading model for many years but just really started giving independent reading a try last year.  I found that planning and monitoring it was key in helping it be successful with my students.  One point in the chapter that was good was that you need to have your classroom library organized well so that students can chose books that they want to read, that are also on their level. I also found that the amount of time you should give beginner or struggling readers to practice independent reading was more than good readers.  This an area I definitely need to spend more planning and monitoring to make this happen in my classroom.  I have always found it hard to get beginner  readers to spend time on independent reading because I didn't know how to plan or model it correctly for them because I felt that they couldn't do it since they couldn't read.  The last point in the chapter about not underestimate the importance of choice was perfect because I feel that the way I organized my classroom library last year was efficient for making sure students had books that they could read but was also very limiting to what students could chose from because I only allowed them to chose books from leveled baskets.  I saw the frustration through most of my students that wanted to read books from the other baskets.  I think that organizing your library is important but maybe organize it in a way that students have more choice over what books they can read.  I have reorganized my books based on topic and my students have really enjoyed being able to look through the whole basket and chose books that they want to read.  This chapter was really helpful to me as I start to plan some independent reading groups for my students later this year!

Katy DeFouw December Post

I read Chapter 8: Teach Comprehension in Routman.  Reading comprehension was something that I always struggled with as a reader in school.  I strongly disliked reading in elementary school and middle school because I think that I never was taught the right strategies to comprehend.  This made it difficult for me to explain what I had just read.  So I really loved this chapter on teaching children to comprehend what they read. 

In the beginning of the chapter, Routman discussed that there is great emphasis on word calling, automaticity, and fluency in the early grades.  I would completely agree with this.  We are constantly assessing our students on their fluency.  However, how appropriate is it that a student can word call from the SRA manual or meet the fluency requirements in the SRA manual?  How well is this really assessing their comprehension? 

Students should be taught strategies to understand what they read.  We are always teaching strategies to decode words.  Making connections, determining the importance, visualizing, asking questions, and making inferences are all very important skills that must be taught in order to gain comprehension skills.  I use many of these skills when teaching my students how to comprehend what they are reading. 

Valorie Whiteside Blog post #4, Routman Chapter 8: Teach Comprehension

In this chapter Routman discusses how the emphasis on word calling is at the expense of understanding.  This really hit home for me as an ESOL teacher because this is the discussion that I most often have with classroom teachers.  So many times I have heard, “Jose can read perfectly so why does he need ESOL?”  The truth is Jose CAN read perfectly but he doesn’t understand a lot of what he has read.  He has simply decoded a text and not comprehended it.  I recently started teaching a student who arrived in the country as a complete non-speaker of the English language.  She knew about five words total in English.  But when she read, she could read complete text perfectly!  This ability can give a teacher the since or idea that the student knows what she is reading.  I have heard teachers say, “she knows much more than you think she does.”  As if a student is purposely feigning lack of knowledge as a huge joke or something.  However, the student had no idea what she had just read!  She can regurgitate what she just read even if you ask her a question.  But she knew almost nothing about what she just read.  She just had a great memory at recalling data.  This situation occurs often with ESOL students.  Not as extreme as the non-speaking student but it occurs nonetheless.  Routmans states, “Students can give us the rudimentary facts but rarely an analysis of what they’ve read. They look and sound competent.  They read smoothly and can retell what they’ve read with some detail, but they are unable to go further.”  This is exactly what is happening and it needs to be corrected! 

The comprehension strategy used in the guided reading lesson “Making a Hat” conducted with struggling first grade readers is very conducive to reading.  Letting the students converse about the books first after they have looked at the pages sets the stage for their reading.  The students get to make predictions and prepare their minds for what the book is going to be about.  Since they know what they are going to read about they are more likely to 'word call' words that they may not be able to read otherwise.  For example when the teacher ask the students what is the letter and the sound the letter makes for the word scissors the student can say the word.  Scissors is a very difficult work for a first grade student to read.  However, through discussion of the book prior to reading and use of the illustrations the student will have a high probability of reading the word ‘scissors.’ 

I completely agree with Routman when he teaches that the use of writing plays a big part in aiding comprehension.  When a student now have to write what they have read it reinforces the comprehension and learning of what they read.  I think writing is a useful tool when reading educational text.  However, I don’t see how writing helps when reading for fun, leisure, or practice. I think students would dread the writing part of a lesion when they are reading text for fun.  When students are able to choose what they read and enjoy the book it becomes more work or punishment to have to write about it. 

After reading this chapter, all of the problems are stated and discussed thoroughly.  However, I don’t really feel that I got any new answers of how to teach comprehension.  I feel that this text was a very interesting forum of discussion for the problem.  But I don’t feel that I got any clear answers that will help me teach comprehension to my students. 

Docherty November Blog

Docherty Blog 4- November

Chapter 8 Teach Comprehension, Routman

I was hoping once I read this chapter I would gather many new ideas to help my students master the art of comprehending what they read.  Routman explains that comprehension must come first.  How though do you teach a child with Learning Disabilities how to comprehend?  They must be able to understand what they read and make meanings of the words.  Often students word call and get better with fluency yet they never actually read for understanding.  Students with comprehension as a weakness are the hardest students to teach.  Routman describes modeling and thinking through how we read by asking questions… Does this make sense?  Does this sound like language: Do I know what is happening in the text?  If they could do this boy my job would be easier, yet they don’t know how to ask these questions much less answer them correctly.  They don’t take the time to decipher the words they read, make the connections, and gain a deeper understanding of what they read aloud.  Yes, in my class we read more than once, yes we discuss among the group what we’ve read, but still they struggle with comprehension.  We highlight crucial words, we reread, we discuss, we make connections and still they struggle due to short term memory issues, lack of prior knowledge, vocabulary weaknesses, and reasoning skills.  I never found the answer I wanted to hear when I began the chapter.  

Raegan Shaw, November Blog Post, Ch. 4: Teach With a Sense of Urgency

I found it interesting, immediately as I began reading this chapter, that the meaning behind "teaching with a sense of urgency" was not what I have come to know as urgency at all.  The author simply wants us to understand that urgency does not always mean quickly, but it means efficiently and with a purpose.  What I also learned from this chapter was that there is a gradual way of releasing responsibility on our students; we can't just send them off on their own to do a task right away without teaching them first.  The author provided the order of operations in order for student success: demonstration to shared demonstration to guided practice to independent practice.  Obviously, as teachers, our main goal is student independence; we just need to more carefully scaffold them in the right direction to ensure that they will all meet their goals.

When I read the section on "Understand and Apply the Learning Model," I realized that all too often, I ask a question to students and expect them to come up with the right response within a few seconds.  If they do not, I usually will give them the answer and move on, simply because of the lack of time to wait on them to think because I am stressed to complete lesson plans.  I read in this chapter that children need to problem solve on their own and that is what I am gradually working more toward.  I find it sad that a lot of students have this "learned helplessness" where they depend on their teacher to be the soul provider of information and to solve all of their problems but yet I realize that a lot of times, the way I am teaching is guiding the children to be more dependent on me anyways.  I need to gear my instruction toward students in such a way that makes them want to start solving problems on their own and only asking for help once they have tried their very hardest on it before they come to me.

After reading this chapter, I am realizing how important it is to teach skills and strategies up front.  I think that the more I teach students how to do something, the more I model and let them practice on their own before releasing them, the more good I will do as a teacher.  For example, I recently let my students make newspaper articles on Ellis Island and I did not teach them the correct way that a newspaper article should look.  I just assumed that they knew how they should be written, and low and behold, lots of them were confused at first of what types of things to write and the format to write it in.  I realize that as a first year teacher, I all too often assume that my students know a lot of things that they do not yet know.  I need to assume that they know nothing and start from scratch.  My goal for the very near future is to start from the ground up and build my students to positions where they can learn on their own and grow at a proper pace.

Laura Riemensnider's blog #5 Miller (2013), Section 2: Why Not? What Works? Why Independent Reading Matters and the Best Practices to Support It

Miller (2013), Section 2:  Why Not?  What Works?  Why Independent Reading Matters and the Best Practices to Support It

In Barbara Moss’s contribution to section 2 of No More Independent Reading Without Support, she poses the big question, “Does independent reading influence student achievement?” The big answer is yes, but it has to have the elements that make it effective. Throughout the section, she gives us some wonderful notes on the benefits of reading independently.  Another big question she asks is, “If we know independent reading is effective, why don't we do it?” This is my number one question. I've encountered many teachers who desperately want to find more time in their school day to make independent reading time longer or even possible at all. They are excited to learn about elements of independent reading that make it more effective. I have seen many of my school’s teachers trying out new or different strategies in independent reading.  Moss states that one of the biggest reasons, she feels that we did not have independent reading going on in all of our schools, is the fact that years ago the National Reading panel did not endorse independent reading because they did not have enough studies to say that it caused a success. However, Barbara goes on to write that there have been plenty of studies since then that do show this correlation. I am hoping that as we read, learn, and discuss more about independent reading, it will become more valued and widely used. One thing that stuck out to me, during reading section 2, is a small chart on page 16. This chart lists several things students need to grow as independent readers. Some of the things that are listed are eye opening in the amount of common sense they hold, such as access to texts, student choice, explicit instruction, and to talk about what students read. Many of these are things that I do personally as a reader. Looking back on my experience as a learner in elementary school, the freedom to choose what I want to read is just something I accepted as an adult privilege or a luxury at the public library. In school we read what the teacher gave us, and if we were lucky we had a librarian who let us check out a book of our choice. If independent reading were a part of my childhood I can’t imagine how much vocabulary I would have learned or how my grades would have improved from just my higher level of interest in the material. I think this is the reason that I am focusing on independent reading with my book club kids (my kidwatching focus group of fourth graders).

            Another big idea that Moss brings to the table is that students need to increase their reading volume. This is something that I am working to encourage at my school. We are using the Accelerated Reader program this year as a way to log student reading and see how they do on the AR quizzes. This project is being led by myself and our school librarian. We are using this system because it is in place, our teachers and students know how to use the program, and we can get data rather quickly without having to put the data gathering solely on the teacher’s shoulders. In the future we may have a different system. We have kicked the reading logging off with enthusiasm and a fun theme. I am hoping that we can see an increase in reading volume. However, logging reading can become a chore to the student and the teacher. This is why so many reading logs or programs use incentives to entice the teachers or students to report their progress. I feel that in future sessions of our Read to Succeed courses we will spend time investigating how information gathered from a reading log is very valuable. What we will need is plenty of discussion on what types and how much information we value, and how to have our students involved with their own logging, without it becoming a chore. Even with all this said about our way of logging the reading volume, how do we as teachers and school staff actually increase the volume of reading? Moss’s answer is time, access (variety and well stocked classroom libraries), interests, and teacher support (conferring and guidance).

Laura Riemsnider's bolg post #4 Miller (2013), Section 1: Not This: Is There Enough Time? And Is Time Enough to Support Independent Reading

Miller (2013), Section 1:  Not This:  Is There Enough Time?  And Is Time Enough to Support Independent Reading?

I read this book at the beginning of the school year, but I decided to blog on this chapter for the month of November because I felt like it was a good time to reread this chapter. We are in the full swing of the school year and many teachers are exploring independent reading.  This chapter opened my eyes to a great deal of things the first time I read it, but just like any time you rewatch a favorite movie or hear a new song again, you catch new things or something jumps out at you that didn't jump out before. You make new connections. The first thing I realized on my second read was that I had a brand new connection. The first few pages of section 1 of Debbie Miller’s  No More Independent Reading Without Support discusses a visit she had to a school in Baltimore, and some of the epiphanies the staff had were over delicious crab cakes. My personal connection is that I will be flying to Baltimore for the Thanksgiving break and I too will be dining on some delicious crab cakes. I will also be reading through all of my wonderful teachers’ blogs. I wonder if I too might have an epiphany in Baltimore over delicious crab cakes while reading their blogs. The first time I read this chapter I pondered over the small things that we do during the school day that take up a lot of our instructional time. Debbie Miller lists a large number of these “benches” that she says we are guarding, and I agree with her when it comes to this. There has been lots of discussion this year about what we have done in the past, what we are currently doing, and what we would like to see happen. This is been one the most wonderful school years for discussion among professionals and I’m glad to be a part of it. I have had many conversations with teachers about the benches that they are guarding and have heard some wonderful things from them about changes they have made in their classrooms. Looking back on my own teaching I know I could sit down and make a list of benches that I was guarding. I believe that some of the tough parts of the reality of teaching are the benches that we are told to guard. I feel compassion for the soldier who guards the bench in the anecdote, because he was actually guarding it because someone ordered him to. I have seen reading programs come and go. And most are put into place under wonderful intentions. However, within the first year of adoption they find themselves subjected to limits and changes that take away from the validity of those programs. Those programs sometimes become benches that are guarded. They might be guarded because they are bought and paid for, because they help to fulfill the requirements for a law or other legal requirements, or because we're in the middle of rolling those programs or starting of programs and it's just what we do. I hope that the conversations we have this year lead to having more teacher input to determine what's best within their classrooms. Many times we look at a school and say we need this or we need that to help solve a problem such as low test scores or an area in which the school is struggling. I feel like that is a one-size-fits-all band-aid placed on everybody's wound. When in reality I feel we need an educational triage by which teachers, very much like your emergency room nurses, can take a look at what student needs are coming in and then figure out what we need to address their needs. After that, we can start to figure out as a whole, any programs our school might need. When it comes to extra programs outside the traditional classroom, such as after school, summer school, tutorials, volunteers, and clubs, having a program put in place by the administration or district level can be very successful, but within our classrooms where our highly educated teachers spend months with the students, we have the luxury to find out who our children are, what their specific needs are, and then to design curriculum around them.

Knox's Blog Post Collaborative Inquiry: From Kidwatching to Responsive Teaching

According to Tim O'Keefe and Mills, I learned that responsive teaching begins but does not end with kidwatching. Kidwatching is a process that the teacher begins with the students and it is on-going in the classroom. When students have conversations that the teachers have with the students make a difference in what they are learning throughout the time in the class. Having these one-to-one conversations helps the teacher understand the student's thoughts and can add to their responses to keep them engaged in the story. Another growth that is developed during this time is the literacy aspect. When the students have a comfortable feeling about what they are reading and how to explain their understanding, makes them express themselves more. This reminds of what I do in the class with conferencing with my students during independent reading time.

Each week I try to conference with majority of my students even if it's between classwork time. As you noticed I did not say instructional time, classwork time. This is when the students are at the table working and I call a student over to read to me within 10 minutes. As they are reading I have padlet pulled up on the computer, so we can go straight into the responses. (See examples below) I love recording what they are learning because it shows me how they are reading, what they are learning, and how they are explaining what is going on in the book. To make them think about what they are reading, I would ask them a question like "What do you think will happen next?" or "What would you do if you were one of those characters in this book?"

As we continue to read each day and there reading levels increase, by knowing their sight words and understanding their letters and sounds makes me want to take them up to the next level and increase their level of thinking. I love keeping them on their toes cause they keep me one mine!

Independent Reading Link
http://padlet.com/wall/kbgtleacwls7

Krystal's Ch.5 Routman Blog Post

Chapter 5 Organize an Outstanding Classroom Library focused on having a well-balanced/organized library and how it is aligned with a successful independent reading experience for your students.  Having a classroom library that focuses on providing material/books that are engaging for all students, will help support and foster independent reading.  In order to achieve this, teachers need to find out students’ interests, favorite authors, and/or series.  According to the chapter, “While levels can be a helpful guide for teaching students, we need to be careful to factor in the quality of the text and students’ interests. ( Routman, 2003).  Currently as I reflect on my classroom library, one would see books arranged by lexile levels.  After reading this article, I now see how that can hinder independent reading time.  Struggling readers can easily become discouraged because a fellow student may be selecting a book from a higher level that seems to peak their interest, but is not in the “correct bucket.”  Furthermore, I have decided that grouping books by a series or genre may present itself useful.  This will also allow for me more time to discuss with students how to choose just right books for them.  After all, when going to the local book store, books are not grouped by lexile numbers, but by authors and series.  It leaves me to question why I decided to arrange my classroom library differently.  The answer was clear, because that it what I have seen from other educators.  A goal I am going to work on is reorganizing my classroom library to appeal to my students. 

Looking at the questions in the Take a Critical Look at Your Classroom Library section, one stuck out to me the most.  The question: Can children find books in which their language and culture appear, or are they unlikely to “see themselves” in the collection?, really left me in deep thought.  As all reading educators do, I teach students how to make meaningful connections to books.  How truly can they make connections, if there are none to be made?  It almost would seem to be forced if a connection is made.  It would be nice to incorporate more cultural books inside of my classroom library. 

As discussed in a previous blog, I have incorporated independent reading time into the reading block.  I am still searching for more time to allot to independent reading time and modeling what it is.  What I would also like to create is a share time for students to engage in small talk about the books they are reading with their peers. 

November Blog Post: Routman's Chapter 6 Young

Chapter 6 in Routman’s Book Reading Essentials is entitled “Plan for and Monitor Independent Reading”.  Routman states that a well monitored independent reading program is the most important part of a teacher’s instructional program, but ironically it is the part that is most often dropped due to time constraints.  Routman writes about another irony that I can relate to.  The students that need the most independent reading time are the struggling readers.  And very often it’s the struggling readers who get the least amount of independent reading time because they are often in structured remedial reading programs.

Routman strongly advocates that students need to do more independent reading, but through a “carefully designed, structured reading program that includes demonstrating, teaching, guiding, monitoring, evaluating, and goal setting.”     Routman details what independent reading time should look like.  Some suggestions include matching the right level book with a child, helping them find enjoyable texts, have students use strategies taught in class, and demonstrating goal setting with students.  Teachers are encouraged to have one-to-one student-teacher conferences, model strategies for the students, and keep well-maintained reading records.  Routman writes about teaching students classroom procedures during independent reading time such as:  students must be able to understand the book they are reading, read quietly, and maintain a reading record. 

Routman writes about using partner reading as part of a teacher’s reading instruction.  She writes that partner reading helps students “become more self-sufficent and less reliant on the teacher for assistance.” 

Routman writes how to teach students to select “just-right books.”  That is so important to teach students because many students may choose a book based on what their friends are reading, or what the cover looks like instead of the readability of the book.  Routman also writes about teaching students that just because they can read all the words, it does not mean the book is necessarily a “just-right book.” 

Lastly, Routman emphasizes the importance of letting students be able to choose what they want during independent reading time.  She states that “growth contributes greatly to their growth as readers.”  

November Blog-Ferguson

November Blog

Chapter Reflection: Share your Reading Life

          This chapter discussed the importance of sharing your reading life with your students. This is so true! I would not have even thought about his until I began teaching and having “reading” conversations with my students.

          The chapter begins discussing how Routman begins her school year getting kids to think about reading for fun, or because they simply like a book. An activity I have done in the past is have the students label the paper “The last three things I read:”. I then tell them, that they have homework for their parents. They take this sheet home and get their parents to record the last three things they read. We bring them back and make a list. We talk about why our parents might have been reading those things. The activity then leads me into letting my students know about my passion for reading.

          The next section in the chapter gave an activity where the teacher bring in her books to share with the class. She goes through and simply talks about each book in her pile. I plan to do this activity with my class. I want to do this because I always start my reading conference off by asking them to show me a few books in  their basket and tell me why they have them. I have slowly realized that some continue to say, “I liked the cover so I picked it.” I want to model how to share our reading, and love for certain books.

          We all have those student who just simply don’t like reading. However we have to be the one to put the spark in their heart for reading. I believe classrooms libraries (or libraries in general are where they can happen. When I think about putting that spark in a child’s heart, I think about the movie Matilde. I love the scene when she goes to the library and finds books she can lay and read for hours. I smile each time I see her laying in that chair and giggling at the book. I want each of my students to find this passion for reading. If we have diverse libraries, and our students understand where our books are in our libraries they are more likely to find books to interest them.

          The next section discussed favorite authors and books. This school year we have done a lot of author studies and this has really helped our readers jump into reading this year. We have kids still searching the books by the authors we have read. We have kids re-reading, reading the pictures, etc. of books/authors we have read.

          The strategy we use in my classroom to pick books, is “IPICK” form the daily 5. I like how this chapter encourages using book reviews. I try to encourage my students to talk about books, make suggestions to a friend. The next thing I might try is have them find best-sellers on book store websites. I think this would be a neat way for students to find books that will interest them!

          Reading records seem to be the hardest for me. I don’t want kids to feel bogged down in recording the book they read. I just want them reading. After reading this section and idea I thought about was, having have their own padlet, and allow them to take a picture of the book, and then type the date. This would be a place they could look back and see what books they have read.

          Overall, I want to continue to demonstrate my love for reading to my students. I want each of them to find that passion and spark in their heart (just like Matilde). 

Skipper Post #4

Routman Chapter 10: Examine Guided Reading
I was eager to read this chapter because I feel that my guided reading time needs some help.  The first point that is was important to me was that you should be cautious about how you group children.  I feel that most of my guided reading groups are based on reading levels but Routman points out that once children can read, maybe this isn't the best way to group them.  Flexible grouping is suggested and this is something that I would like to work towards with my guided reading.  I also liked the rules that were suggested for the students who are not working with the teacher during that Guided Reading time.  One area of my reading time that I have tried to monitor and adjust this year is limiting the amount of writing that I am requiring my students to do during my reading block.  I have tried to make sure that students are mostly reading during that time.  This is another suggestion in the book.  I also liked looking over the excerpts from Guided Reading groups because sometimes just reading about something doesn't help me with what that would look like in my classroom, but these excerpts really gave me an idea of how this should work in my classroom.  These excerpts were also broken down on the readers that would be in the groups to help know what to do with all students.  This is also a struggle for me sometimes because not all ideas work with all students.  I really feel like this chapter will be very helpful in the future as I plan lessons for my guided reading groups.

Chapter 9: Examine Shared Reading

I agree that shared reading is a powerful teaching tool for all ages. We use shared reading constantly in my classroom. When we are working on a novel in my classroom, we sometimes do not need an entire set of texts, because we can use what we have and share the books. We also use photocopied chapters of our books for mini lessons on things such as figurative language.

My 5th grade students seem to pay better attention and get more from the reading when we use shared reading. I have used shared reading with whole-class to demonstrate and discuss almost all of the examples on page 133. Just yesterday, my students were having trouble with writing conclusions for their Thanksgiving writings. The students were able to share their endings and we discussed summarizing. I was also able to use another text to share with our class in order to show how to summarize.

In my 5^th grade ELA group, we chose a “challenging” book for our novel study. Shared reading and discussion between students is helpful and improved their reading comprehension during our novel. I love the idea of pairing and sharing and as the chapter discusses in the framework for shared reading on page 134, that when students respond orally as a class after talking in small groups, everyone gets the benefit from hearing each other’s thinking.

The framework for shared reading was also helpful in providing information about the advantages and procedures. I love the way the Chapter gives you a walk through of how to do shared reading with a class.

Barone Post #4

Routman Chapter 8: Teach Comprehension

                I really took a lot away from this chapter and enjoyed reading it. It is very important for teachers to show students that reading is more than just words! I find, especially with our low level readers, who get direct instruction that this isn’t always done. Students need to understand the meaning of the words that they are reading so that they can apply the words outside of text and in their own vocabulary. Teachers need to use interesting and appropriately challenging texts to engage readers and have them thinking critically. Teachers need to demonstrate comprehension strategies for students to use while they are reading. The best way to do this is with a read aloud and actually show students how to reread, highlight, write comments, survey, predict, connect, and monitor the story. This will help students do this when they are reading, sometimes without even thinking about it. I found it very interesting that most important strategies for comprehension all require the students to really take extra time like to reread, review, and write. As teachers we know that this helps tremendously but when it comes to the unreasonably time standardized tests, which involve a heavy amount of reading, how is this possible? The best way for teachers to try and achieve this is constant practice and modeling, so that students may naturally use the strategies while they read. I liked the possible charts that Routman suggested for teachers to use in the classroom. Students cannot read for meaning until they can monitor the strategies that they use to make sense of the text before, during, and after. Students can ask themselves questions as they read such as: Does this make sense? You can start a class chart that says: I know I understand what I am reading when I can... Have students talk to themselves about the text. Teachers can post these suggestions in the room and model them while reading aloud: I wonder why he is doing that? Okay, I get it now. I’ve seen this word before. This doesn’t make sense. I better reread this part. Teachers need to create an environment where reading for meaning is achievable. Students should be talking about what they are reading, reading texts easy enough but meaningful enough to support comprehension, practicing fluency with familiar texts, and having exposure to a variety of texts. Then once the students have seen and learned how to make reading meaningful, students should successfully involve all the strategies while they are reading. This is so beneficial for the students because it helps them actually understand what they are reading which helps them connect and relate to books. This is what can ignite the passion and need for reading in their lives outside of what’s required in the classroom!