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.
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