Lindsey Layton Blog Post #3: Routman Chapter 12: You Only Have So Much Time

In Chapter 12, Routman’s Reading Essentials, I was able to relate and touch base with every concept of this chapter.  As teachers, we work long days and many of our days are not finished when we leave the “school grounds.”  I completely agree that as educators, we must live interesting lives and not just live for everything surrounding school.  We need to make time for ourselves, enjoy our families, and keep ourselves motivated and healthy.  As I know all educators can, I am able to relate to this in every way.  We are stretched short between work, families, and extracurricular activities our children/ourselves may be in.  However, we find time to get it all done and we move on full speed ahead because that is the only way we know how. 

I consider myself and very organized individual and I believe this has truly helped me to be prepared and not be a procrastinator.  I feel this places less stress on myself and leaves one less thing for me to worry or wonder about if I am prepared well ahead of time.  This also allows me to make every minute with my students count.  Chapter 12, brings a very good question for teachers to ask themselves, “Continually ask yourself when planning work for students, How is this activity helping my students become more independent as readers, writers, and thinkers? if not set it aside.”

While reading chapter 12, I was able to analyze myself as a teacher and my teaching style to see if there is anything I could change up or arrange to make my overall learning environment for my students any better.  I feel it is important for educators to take a step back at times and evaluate ourselves to see what is working and what may need to change.  There are always ways to improve ourselves but we also have to take time for ourselves.  Just like this chapter discussed we have to take time for ourselves in order for us to be the best “we” can be.  

Lindsey Layton Blog Post #2: Routman Chapter 3 - Share Your Reading Life

            I found Chapter 3 in Routman’s Reading Essentials a very informative chapter for me as reading teacher, as a person that loves to read, and a mother of two boys that absolutely love reading.  A quote from this chapter that really stuck out to me was, “Many students will not see and feel the power of reading without your enthusiasm and modeling.  While excellent teaching is essential, without time to practice and read extensively, students will not become readers.”  I feel this is a very powerful and true statement.  In order for students to understand what expectations are expected of them, modeling is essential, especially for toddlers and elementary aged children.  Reading is a step by step process that begins with modeling how to properly hold a book to picking the right fit book for each reader. 

            I always talking to my students about my own children’s reading habits and how they pick out books.  I will talk to my students about how my family and I visit our local library, how we spend time picking out good fit books, and just spending quality time together.  I also encourage my students to get their own library cards and visit the local county libraries with their families. By sharing my own children’s reading stories with my classroom students, I feel it helps my students make connections with authors and simple things that can be done to promote literacy and reading in their own lives and families. 

            This chapter also discussed how many students have difficulty identifying the different genres.  Within my own classroom, I find when I ask my students about genres, some of them are only able to identify fiction and nonfiction and unaware of the many other genres written.  Many of my students have not had a lot of exposure to different genres; therefore, I have tried to build up my classroom library with books that provide ample opportunities for students to explore themselves are readers.  During our reading instruction, I try to incorporate read alouds, as well as literature lessons that will impact students and provide them with a variety of different authors and genres.  As a teacher and mother, I truly believe reading is the building block to many other foundations in education. 

Katy DeFouw October Blog

               In Chapter 5 of Reading Essentials¸ the author explains the importance of organizing an outstanding classroom library.  The purpose of a classroom library is to improve reading achievement, allow for different choices of books, classify by subjects, allow for different levels of books, and create a clean, attractive inviting library within the classroom.

                This summer I spent a great deal of time reorganizing my classroom library.  My books are in baskets with a label on them sorted by subject.  These labels have a picture and words to help all of my students choose a book.  The picture is very important because some students are still fragile readers and cannot rely solely on a word. 

                One thing that the author discussed that I plan to do in my classroom is create a 10 favorite book list to make sure that I have these books for my students.  I also have created a reading log for my students to track the Accelerated Reader books that they have read and taken tests on.  

Katy DeFouw September Blog

                In Chapter 4 of Reading Essentials, the author explained the importance of teaching with a sense of urgency.  In stating this, the author expresses that the teacher needs to make every moment count.  I know that I try to teach at every moment that I can due to the amount of children in resource, speech, esol, and ot.  In having these pull-outs, it is vital to know each and every child’s academic needs to maximize the instruction time.

                The text also expressed the important of exposing the children to various genres.  Our Journey’s Textbook does a great job of exposing the children to fiction and non-fiction texts.  I take this opportunity to show my students other books from my classroom library to align with our genre that we are learning about each week. 

                It is also so very important to show the children the importance of reading because we read in every subject in school.  Often we complete addition and subtraction word problems in math, read instructions to science experiments, and read maps in social studies.  I explain that if we can’t read and know out letter sounds, we will not be able to complete the fun activities in our other subjects!  Readers are leaders!

Katy DeFouw August Blog

In chapter 3 of Routman’s Reading Essentials the author has numerous helpful tips to make me a better reading teacher.  The author expressed that it is so important to tell your students why you read.  I often tell my students how we need to learn to read because we have to follow directions, read newspapers, read text messages, read magazine, and read books. 

It is always disheartening when I ask my students, “Why do we have to learn to read?” and they respond with, “Because we have to.”  I feel it is important to establish a responsibility for reading and give my students real life reasons to show the importance of reading.  The text emphasized the importance of modeling reading whether it is whole group, small group, or independent reading.

I tell my students that even though it may sound silly, they can practice reading to their favorite stuffed animal, action figure, or doll.  This helps them practice fluency, practice reading aloud, and establishing a purpose to read.  I tell my students that I like to read to Ivy to practice before I come to school and read to them.  They think this is so funny that I will read to my dog, but it gets them interested in reading.  

Kelli Donald's Blog Post #2: Routman Chapter 12--You Only Have So Much Time

The title of this chapter definitely called to me, so I picked to it for my next post.  I have been feeling especially stretched with my time this year so far.  The first two quotes of the chapter let me know that I am reading this chapter at exactly the right time.  "How do we do it all and not work sunrise to sunset every day of the week?"  How do we do it?  I have no idea.  Because of the limited time in a day, I often ask my self the same question as Donna Kline in the first quote.  Are the activities my class does meaningful or just busy work? 


As I continued to read the chapter, even the subheadings caught my attention making me want to read more and more.  I loved being reassured to trust myself and my experience, and know that everything we do matters, no matter how big or small.  The author suggests to keep work simple and to make every minute count.  We should use the time we have with our students teaching and learning.  The author offers suggestion to cut down on transition times, and to even use down time as a teaching opportunity.  I found it especially interesting that according to research, we have kids' attention for about 10 minutes at a time, and then they need a brain break.  I try my best to keep my whole group lessons upbeat, fast paced, and no more than 15 minutes or I know I will start to lose them and that's when the behavior problems start. 


My favorite part of the chapter is the suggestion to live an interesting life.  Don't let the housekeeping duties of being a teacher become your entire life.  Go to the movies, spend time with your family, cook for fun, read for pleasure.  It is nice to see those listed as activities for teachers to do and do them without feeling guilty.  We will not be the best we can be if we don't give ourselves brain breaks just like we give our students.  My favorite sentence in the chapter is "our students will not become better readers because we create fabulous projects and centers, give them lots of paperwork, and grade lots of papers.  They will become better if they receive excellent instruction..." from enthusiastic and happy teachers. 


With that being said, it is now 7:30 in the evening and I am signing off without feeling guilty to go spend some time with my family and get some much needed rest!  :)

Lindsey Layton's Blog Post #1: Children's Success as Readers and Writers: It's the Teachers Beliefs that Make the Difference

       While reading the article Children’s Success as Readers and Writers:  It’s the Teacher’s Belief that Makes the Difference, I was able to relate to the article as a teacher and as a parent.  I truly believe that children have to be given options when reading and that reading is a learned trait, usually modeled to children when they are younger.  I began reading to both of my boys while I was pregnant and continue to incorporate reading into our daily routines and at bedtime.  As readers, my own children have learned how to enjoy reading and also how to choose the right fit book for them.  In my classroom, I always begin the school year by reviewing what makes a good fit book and things to look for before picking a good fit book.  I feel this helps my students make better decisions when it comes to reading.  I also feel this helps my students become better readers who are truly enjoying reading and they are not reading a book that is too hard, too difficult, or not interesting to them.

        The article stated, “Teachers’ classroom decisions are neither random nor accidental, but firmly rooted in their beliefs about learning, effective teaching, and the nature of children.”  This is why I believe that is imperative for educators to get to know their students and understand their needs and desires as readers and writers.   This means that adjustments will have to be made to lessons in order for each teacher to best meet the needs of his/her students. 

         In this article, a study was done in 1982 by Deford and Harste in two different learning environments.  In this study, the reading strategies and texts produced from two different learning environments, a basal reader environment and whole language classroom were analyzed.  The findings indicated that basal reading classes produced writing that was similar to the reading material the students were exposed to, whereas, in the whole language classrooms students wrote about more real life experiences.  I truly believe that all students should have exposure to whole language because it allows them more freedom and options as readers and writers.  Students should be able to make real life connections to texts and writing, because it requires the use and demonstration of higher order thinking skills.   Exposure to a variety of texts and books is essential to the building and development of a child’s vocabulary and real life text connections.  As an elementary educator, I believe that it is essential for educators to adjust instruction to meet the differentiated needs of their students.