Independent Reading in place, Small groups formed, Now what?

I began my blog to share ideas about how I made the most out of small group instruction by using data to plan instruction, gathering materials for setting up the classroom environment, and establishing routines.  My hope is to give others ideas and to help others realize they are not alone.  I then wandered what next?  I realized that not only is small group instruction important to me, but making sure students read and understand what they read.  So I thought,  how could I share my love for books and help teachers use them to teach content.

So now what?

I soon focused on using small groups and books for not only Reading instruction, but for multiple purposes such as:

•  I choose vocabulary that fit spelling patterns listed in the TEKS.
•  I developed writing prompts according to unit of study
•  I taught Grammar skills listed in TEKS
•  I found creative ways to create Mathematical word problems
•  I found creative ways to apply Science and Social studies content to the text

I utilized lots of graphic organizers and foldables as the tool in which to record responses.  The students seemed to attend more to their reading.  Small groups became very interactive.

Here are my favorite books that allowed me to teach various skills and content material, while modeling reading reading behaviors. I find books that fit the topic of units of study and use during reading block, or during time of subject area is to be taught.  I wrote comprehension activities that fit not only Reading but other subject areas as well.  

These books have strong story lines and characters that are great for teaching higher order reading skills, promoting critical thinking, synthesizing and analysis through written and oral format.  

 Now that I have been teaching almost 17 years,  I have  become accustomed to monitoring and adjusting my teaching style.  I really love Reading so I began to create comprehension packets based off my favorite books.  I love to read books and  develop comprehension activities that hit all subject areas.

Stay tuned! I plan to work on fine tuning some of my favorite comprehension packets to upload to the site.

Meanwhile,  What are you struggling with as a beginning teacher?  Do you know parents of a students that struggle?  What would you like to read about?

So How do I insure Independent Readers is taking place?

           
I  created  my blog to share my love of reading, to give tips or suggestions on how to be a more effective reading teacher but mostly to help new teachers. I don't claim to know it all or that my ideas are better than the next.  I just remember when I first started teaching,  I was clueless to the realities of being in the classroom. The things they taught me in college didn't truly  prepare me for teaching.  It provided me with a lot of pedagogy and cute ideas that I couldn't readily use.  You come out all excited and ready to change the world, little did I know just how much more it was to teaching.

I had to Pump the brakes, breath, and began studying again. That means studying the curriculum, going to professional development and reading books like the ones I suggested in my second blog post. I did this for each unit, every subject, every year.  I would study the curriculum, the TEKS and the data in order to be better at planning and implementing instruction.


These books helped me to be a better reading teacher, I read them every Summer:

However, the one thing I had trouble with was time. I would go over my 10 minute mini lesson because I wanted to make sure everyone understood the lesson. My ten minute lesson turned into 30 minutes, leaving no time to pull groups or confer with Readers.  It took me a few years to remember to use my small groups to  teach deeply. This was a struggle for me. So, I got a timer. Guess what?  I never stuck to it.  I had to step back. So, one thing I started doing was keep a reflection journal about my day.  I realized how much time I was not using efficiently and made a conscious effort to adhere to the timer. Things begin to flow better and I was being more productive.   I found that every year I went through the same process.  It soon became automatic.

The next hurdle was getting use to the multiple levels of students I had within one class. That is when I really realized how important  small group instruction was to my student success.  I would study my data constantly, so that I could not only be more effective but efficient in my planning and pulling my groups. Once I got my small groups together I looked at what students were doing while I was with small groups.


INDEPENDENT READING:

As  Reading teacher, I realized that my students weren't necessarily reading at home daily as  I expected.  We talked bout the importance of Reading and how the only way they would get better at reading was by reading and monitoring their understanding of that reading.  Once I realized through analyzing Reading Logs this wasn't  happening.  I made sure to make it happened in class.  Students were shocked when they were reading Science or Social Studies text that I had them record the reading on their Reading Logs.  Being self contained,  I needed them to realize reading was not just happening during the Reading block.

One way I drew students attention to their Reading behaviors was through the use of partner reading. Let me first say, "Yes, I believe in student choice."  However, I was trying to introduce Independent Reading to the students So in order to model what Independent reading looked like and didn't look like I started with creating reading partners.  I would supply the books for students to choose.  The book selection would match the Genre of study at the time, and I would purposely place 2 copies of the same book in the pile or 2 books by the same author.  Once students chose their books, they were instructed to find others with the same book or author depend on which way I chose books.  My intention was for students to discuss why they chose the book and introduce them to their reading partners.

My Independent Reading started similar to book clubs.  The Partners would:

1.  They decided on how many pages they would read what they would focus on:
                Character Development, Story Elements, Theme, Asking questions, etc.
2.  They decide on how they would monitor their understanding
                sticky notes, create a journal, or blog post
3.  They decided on a meeting date to discuss the books (using  a copy of a calendar)
4.  As a class we would create and sign a class Constitution that stated what we as readers would do.

I often added activities or projects to the calendars to assess and monitor use of skills introduced through mini lessons or in small group.  Students  do response projects on their own and tun in by due date on calendar.. Here is one of the boards I created for my character unit.

The projects are projects we have done before so students know where all of the materials are located. This allowed me to set up and model expectations when they are not reading the same books.

So what are the rest of the students doing while I pull small groups?  They are reading, exchanging books, discussing books or working on projects.   The key is to make sure the routine is modeled,  practiced  and posted.  The students in my class know the expectations especially the number one rule:  "We don't interrupt the teacher during small groups."

Are you wondering:

What students do if they need teacher assistance? 

   3 The rule before me is in place.  If they can't help, then students put the red stop light symbol on their          number on the parking lot board.  Students know to work on something else until I get a moment.

 Do students follow the expectations,? 

     For the most part, they do.  You will always have those few 

Are the students engaged in their reading?  

     For the most part,  all students are actively involved but I have other things in place to ensure they are on task.

What other tools do I use for student responses whether in small groups, pairs or individual?  Stay tuned.

Independent Reading Matters

 As a teacher,  I love sharing ideas.  I hope by sharing my experiences and ideas I help you set up your classroom to yield the results you plan for in your lessons.


Let's turn the tables for a minute.

My small groups are set,  I've chose materials, and I set a schedule, but what are the rest of the students doing during this time?

Independent Reading

To set up Independent Reading, I do several  mini  lessons, but not necessarily in this particular order.

What is the students job and what is the teachers job?
What does independent reading looks like and what does it sound  like?
Fake reading vs Real reading
How to choose just right book?
How to pick a Reading nook?
Expectations for Reading logs
How to respond to books?  (several days of teaching ways to respond to books)
How to use class library, how it is arranged?

These lessons take place in our class library:

Independent Reading expectations  definitely need to be in place in order to be able to pull your small groups.

Once I  complete these lessons,  I observe students reading habits.  I intervene and ask questions about their book choices, what their reading,  and sometimes insert a teaching point to move them as a reader.  These observations serve as another piece of data I can use to plan my small groups/whole class instruction.

Each day I give a quick mini lesson.  Lessons are based on my observations during independent reading. The lessons are meant to move readers along a continuum of what readers should be able to do as proficient readers.  Students will pull and post  a requested sticky note daily to a Stop and Jot parking lot board that is posted on the bulletin board near our library.

This chart not only serves as a tool for me to use, but also allows students to monitor and assess the quality of their responses.  Often times,  I see students go up to post and go back to  revise and edit their responses.  I usually have them do this in small groups after I sort and analyze them.  Of course,  students are not doing this at first.  I would discuss this during small group or whole group every day.  Soon the expectations were set.  Students were to read the criteria, decide where their stop and jot lie  along the rubric, and revise if it wasn't meeting grade level expectations (3).  Where as at the beginning of the year,  students just posted their stop and jots.  I taught students how to use the rubric to guide them toward more critical analysis of text they read. At the end of the day, I woulds pull  sticky notes, and sort them to form my small groups for the next day.

 Once they have been taught several ways to respond, I monitor to see what type of responses students are using the most.  So if every time they post the post is the same,  I conference with them  and suggest other possible responses they could be utilizing, and  at the same time discuss if they are  applying things I taught to their independent work.  As you see,  you  will have multiple pieces of data to inform your instruction.   Let data drive your instruction.

Once I have set up Independent Reading expectations, observed and made adjustments, usually after three weeks, only then do I start pulling small groups.  If independent reading is not in place and running smoothly neither will your small group instruction.

I am constantly modifying and adjusting as teachers are always doing to be more efficient and effective.

How do I hold kids accountable for skills or strategies  taught within a unit or small groups?  Stay tuned:  Reading response types matters.

How to Use Assesments to Plan Instruction

Lawson's Ready Readers are you ready to get down to business?  I just want to add,  these are things I  have put into practice that have worked and helped with my reading instruction.

                   So, we have our small groups,  we gathered our materials, we've done our homework with professional development, and we have considered book choices for students to insure independent reading is meaningful.

 Now what?  How do I plan my instruction so that it's effective and targeted?  

As new teacher, I learned how to administer the Fountas and Pinell's  Reading assessment to get student instructional reading level. However, as a new teacher I was never told how to use them to inform my teaching.  As I attended more and more professional development, asked questions and read books, it became clearer how the time it took to administered the test per child wasn't just a procedure.  It had it's purpose.

I also learned how to  analyze the running records to group students based on comprehension.  There are 3 levels of question on the test that address what students should be able to do with text:  About the text, Within the text and Beyond the text.  A second way I learned to group kids was according to their  MSV errors,  the third way was looking at the band text descriptors and seeing what they should be able to do before starting instructional text,  during and after instructional text.

My next step is to take each individuals assessment and pull out strengths to use to propel them to work and improve in areas of need. However, if the majority of the class has a shared area of weakness, then I teach it to the whole class not small group.   I try to keep my groups to less then 6 but 4 is better.  Yet, lets be real in a class of 20 or more students,  keeping the groups to four would be hard.  Your goal is to try an pull at least two groups a day.  so create a schedule.


If I groups students for Reading comprehension,  I choose one of the three types of questions from the reading assessment , I pick a book, plan lessons around the book and develop question that fit the category of questions learners should be able to answer as they read books.

So, what is this document I am referencing?  (See the  link attached below.)  This is  the one I liked and chose to use.  However,  you can google and look for others not so wordy.

Reading text_level_indicators.pdf

Once I determine focal point of lesson, I usually use a familiar read aloud to model and practice the skill or strategy with my students. Students will then independently read and apply to their Browsing box book.  Remember this group can be mixed levels sharing same need.  I make sure to include word work in my group instruction as well.

A s I stated, the running records not only help you plan comprehension lesson it allows you to look at the student's MSV errors and plan  lessons to work on fluency and accuracy as well.  Marie Clay's work is a great tool to have to help you understand MSV errors, and gives you a second way to group students for small group instruction. So be sure a to look for materials to model, practice and have students apply independently.  Here are two books I recommend that you add to your reading list.

As you see, a lot of work goes into preparing for small group instruction.  Once you determine your focal point, you have to choose books wisely,  Make sure what ever books you chose are appropriate for the lesson focus and the reader's  reading level.  I usually use a familiar Read Aloud because  I wanted them to feel successful and be successful when they apply independently.


The one wrinkle I found was scheduling my groups.  When I was departmentalized,  I was able to get 3 of my 4 Reading groups in daily.  Once I became  self contained,  it became harder to pull even two groups a day.  So I became strategic with my grouping, and focal points.

Things to consider when scheduling:

•    Area of focus
•    Length of  mini lesson, length of time to spend with small groups
•    Which group to meet with, and  on which day to pull them.
•   The number of days to pull each group.

I am constantly reading and studying to get better at being a better teacher of reading.  The information in my blogs can work with all subject areas.  I immediately saw this once I became self contained.  I figured out how to get the most bang for my buck so to speak.

So what questions do you have?  Are there specific topics you would like me to share my experience and thoughts?  comment below.  Up next, possible lesson plans, a video lesson presentation or ways I hold kids accountable during independent reading, or how to use  small group lesson ideas across all subjects.   You pick.