Laura Riemensnider’s Blog post # 6 Routman, Reading Essentials, Ch. 6 & 7: Plan for and Monitor Independent Reading/Make Assessment Instruction’s Working Partner

Laura Riemensnider’s Blog post # 6 Routman, Reading Essentials, Ch. 6 & 7:  Plan for and Monitor Independent Reading/Make Assessment Instruction’s Working Partner

These two chapters reinforced so much of what I have learned over the past 2 years. Students become better readers and achieve greater results on assessments and test scores when they read more while being supported by a strong independent reading program that consists of modeling, conferencing, monitoring, evaluating, and making goals. The key is truly the support. Without support students might read texts that are too difficult or too easy and not grow nearly as much. Routman speaks to the topic of addressing the needs of our most struggling readers. She says they need more than just good instruction, they need to do “massive amounts of real reading and writing of authentic texts”. I have witnessed a struggling student become driven to read as much as she could every day. The motivation was simple. She had a cute flower graphic that would grow every time she completed an AR test that was above 80 %. She knew there was reading celebration that she could attend if her flower grew all the way. She completed that flower the day before the cutoff for the party. There are some folks that will say that working for a reward such as a party doesn’t help to encourage students to read for pleasure or the love of reading. I can see their point, some kids don’t respond to that kind of motivation, but for this little girl she chose only books she wanted to read, asked me to help her find more books like the ones she read, and found a new series of books to enjoy. I would say in her case it was a big win! And her STAR scores went up the next testing session. I believe that the “massive amount of real reading” that she did helped to boost her scores and make her a better reader.

               I enjoyed reading Rotuman’s tips on teaching partner reading and picking just right books, especially the try it Apply it section. I will be looking back over these sections as we begin our coaching cycles this spring.

 Chapter 7

               In this chapter Routman addresses assessment as a partner to the instruction we are doing in classrooms. I enjoyed reading through the self-reflective questions on page 99. I feel that next year, when we have our data teams, these questions will come in handy. I would like for our teachers to have the opportunity to discuss these questions in their data team meetings at the beginning of the next school year with both formative and summative assessments. One of the most common pieces of feedback I hear about teaching today is that we are overwhelmed with assessments. I believe this is because we are not approaching assessments correctly and then not taking the time to glean the information they give us in a manner or time line that benefits the students. However I feel that we are working toward correcting this. One way we are doing this is by preparing assessment portfolios when students are in kindergarten. The idea is to pass the folders along and have teachers add their assessments in as they students move through grade levels. Next year we should be able to give 1^st-3^rd grade teachers these folders in August. The following year  we will be able to pass along to fourth grade. I feel that these are a benefit to teachers. I have heard a little feedback, but I am hoping to hear more and specifically in the area of what teachers would like to see from the previous year. 

               In Rotuman’s chapter 7, she goes into great detail about how we should be conferencing with our students and gives us lots of tips. I feel that teachers’ notes from conferences would be great to include in the assessment folders. They would give insight to what the student worked on, tried, and succeeded with in the previous year. Teachers could continue the work instead of having to “learn the student” with no previous knowledge. When I started teaching, I was told to give the students a few weeks in my class before checking out their permanent records or talking to the previous teacher. I understood that the point of this was to avoid making negative assumptions about the child before giving them a fair shake in my class. However I have found that the opposite is truer. If a teacher knows how to better serve her students because she has some insight to them before they come in to the class she can provide a better classroom environment, more personal experiences, and begin to meet the students where they are educationally much sooner.