Jeff Young’s Blog Post: Miller Section 1 August

At the beginning of my teaching career (before the scripted reading program was implemented) I was able to give my students 30 to 45 minutes each day to read.  I saw much growth in my students as readers during those early years.  Students were eager and confident readers as observed through conferencing with students twice a week.  A few years later our school adopted a scripted reading program that very time consuming.  I no longer had time to give my students as long of an independent reading time as before. 

Finding time for independent reading is a theme in Section 1 in of Debbie Miller’s book entitled No More Independent Reading Without Support.  Debbie Miller writes about her observations in teachers’ classrooms in Baltimore.  She makes notes of activities that she feels teachers may be able to take out in order to create room for independent reading.  Some of those activities included the ever famous “calendar time”, school morning announcements, transitions, and endless worksheets to name a few.  Miller’s observations made me reflect on my own teaching experience and some activities that I could have taken out to create more time for independent reading. 

The other theme in the chapter was about the importance of creating structure and guidance within the independent reading block.  Debbie writes, “For students to do more than race through lots of books, they need a teacher to show them what behaviors they need to practice as the read, and the teacher needs opportunities to monitor and give feedback on how students are using those behaviors.” I agree completely with Miller on this point.  When I conferenced with my students, I was able to know them as readers and how best to guide them to become better readers.