Melissa Hawkins-Blog Post

Melissa Hawkins

February Blog Post

Routman-Chapter 2 Bond with Your Students

I truly agree with the words of Routman in Chapter 2 that bonding with your students contributes to their success in your classroom.  The author writes these powerful words in Chapter 2, "We need to pay attention to bonding and the power of emotional commitment to our students.  Worldwide, the strongest predictor of reading achievement is the quality of student-teacher relations."  I know that it is very important to bond with each student in order for each one to feel comfortable enough to be themselves and to voice their opinions about topics that your are studying.  A teacher should model respect for her students if she expects students to show her respect.   I try my best to show each student respect and care for their well being and academic success.  Students should feel at ease in a classroom and confident enough to know that a teacher accepts them and their different ideas and allows students to be expressive.  I also have gotten to know each of my students and some of their likes and dislikes.   I know what books they like to read and the ones that love to read.   Those students are some of the higher ones in my class.  My students love to hear about my life and things that I love to do and books that I love to read.   It always turns in to 100 Questions when I mention anything about my life.   I think that they are just trying to get me off topic but it does make me feel good for them to seem interested in my life.   I must be interested in their life and what goes on in their world away from school.  I had a student in the beginning of the year that was very quiet and timid.   But over time I have developed a bond with this student and now she seems happier when she comes into the classroom in the mornings and is more willing to answer questions or read aloud when she is asked to do so.   I want my classroom to always have an atmosphere of love, acceptance, encouragement and respect for one another.   I demand it of my students to be shown to me and I must show these qualities to them.

Michaela Welker - Blog Posts

Michaela Welker

January Blog Post #5

(Routman) Chapter 4: Teach with a Sense of Urgency

“We need to get down to the essence of what we believe and what we do to ensure our students become excellent readers who choose to read. If we don’t know how to teach reading and move students forward, we must take responsibility for learning how. We must jumpstart our own professional development.”  - Routman

The above quote really hit home for me. I’ve been struggling with pace, purpose, and direction since I started teaching. I feel like when it comes to reading instruction, I feel like I’m floundering, not able to quite grasp what it is that I’m supposed to be teaching. I’m not sure what’s expected of me as a teacher to teach the students. The standards seem so vague to me and more than half of my students are below reading level. Knowing that teaching reading is something I struggle with, I’m constantly reading and researching on my own time to try and figure out the best way to teach my students. One of my professional strengths, is trying to strengthen my areas of weakness. I take personal pride in my job and try my very best to get my students to reach higher.

One area that I find I struggle with is writing Reading plans.  This chapter was helpful because it helps me to really look closely at how I organize my lessons to ensure that I’m teaching effectively.

Michaela Welker

February Blog Post #6

(Routman) Chapter 10: Examine Guided Reading

I found this chapter to be really helpful. Out of my reading instruction, guided reading is the hardest for me to grasp. During my Student Teaching, I was in a fifth grade classroom and we didn’t do any guided reading at all. Therefore, when I came to third grade, I was at a loss as to how to conduct my centers. This chapter offered several suggestions that I find will be extremely helpful to integrate into our reading instruction.

The first aspect of guided reading that I need to work on is the organization of my instruction. The point of guided reading is to practice what the teacher has demonstrated through reading aloud, explicit instruction, guided participation, or though shared reading or writing. Sometimes I’m guilty of not demonstrating or being clear in my instructions to students.

I liked how Routman suggested broaden the guided reading groups and then limiting the time spent with each group. With the class I have this year, I’ve found that the more students I have in my group, the less effective instruction is due to competition of attention. I feel that if I try this suggestion in my classroom, it might make my time with students more effective.        

Michaela Welker

March Blog Post #7

(Routman) Chapter 12: You Only Have So Much Time

I really enjoyed this chapter and am really glad I saved it for last! Sometimes, I get really wrapped up in trying to do everything perfectly that I find that I’m burying myself in work, seeking for perfection. I appreciated reading the part that said that as teachers, we need to take some time for ourselves. I feel like this year has been a whirlwind of to-do lists, demands, and changes. Because of all the stress this year has brought, I feel like I’m starting to burn out. It’s partially due to the fact that I don’t take time for myself. If I’m not focused on my classroom, I’m focused on my child or my husband, rarely finding time to just relax. I would feel guilty because I was getting overwhelmed that I couldn’t do it all, that I was falling short, and yet so many other women can get everything done. I realize, however, after reading the chapter that I’m not alone in feeling this way. I need to take time to relax. In doing this, I can be a more effective teacher, parent, and wife.

I also liked how Routman brought up certain strategies that will help save teachers time, something that we teachers don’t have a lot of. I find that in my two hour reading block, I get interrupted around 10 times within my reading block. Not only does this make me lose my train of thought, but certainly my readers train of thought. I need to find a better way to help alleviate these disruptions. Additionally, I feel that we waste a lot of time in class, between using the restroom, asking me what to do next now that they’re done, and me just being ill-prepared. I liked the suggestions of using any down time to teach. During centers, I also find that my students are constantly having to ask questions of me during Guided Reading. Routman suggested keeping work simple so that students can do the work independently to practice.

My favorite part of the chapter was when Routman suggested allowing students to read, write, and talk when they first come in the room, much like we do as adults. I think this is interesting because Routman is right when Routman says that even us adults don’t come into work and get straight to tackling difficult tasks. I think this will be an interesting aspect to add to our morning routines and will also require some practice and teaching prior to instilling.

All in all, this chapter was full of great suggestions and I found it to be very helpful. 

Blog #7 - Jennifer Jowers - Chapter 7 Emphasize Shared Reading

                 Shared reading is one of my favorite times of the day. I used to love it when I was in school and now I love to do it. I think my students get so much out of our shared reading time. It is not only fun for them to hear me read a story out loud but also see how I think and react as a reader. I think a lot of the time they learn more from a quick 5 minute read aloud than a 30 minute guided reading session. The best part about shared reading is how excited they get about the books. We do a lot of shared reading during the day even when we are learning our science and social studies. So many of our students do not have books at home or someone who is always able to read to them. We learn that reading to a child helps them become much more successful readers. It also helps them learn to love reading. One of my fondest memories as a child was when my mom would read to me. She always used different voices and discussed the book with me asking my favorite parts and would let me read to her (even if I was just making it up). I want my students to gain a love of learning to read and those moments we share.We try to ensure that our chosen readings go along with our units for the week.

                  We have recently started doing poetry shared reading. We have music to sing the poems too and activities that go along with them as well. The students love the songs, they are very catchy and I even catch myself singing them to my own child at home. We start off learning the song and talking about the vocabulary. Every day we replay the song and practice finding words, digraphs, word families, letters and anything else we can think of. Each child then gets their own book to practice reading and highlight words they know. We also practice word work using the words in the poem and illustrate it as well. The students have loved doing this. They look forward to it   and I can even hear them singing the song while they work.

                  We also do a shared reading that goes along with our unit they helps to explore different genres. Non-fiction seems to be their favorite but these books really stick them. I often see them getting the book on their own and I hear them reading it like I do. I really hate when we don’t get time to do them. I feel like they get so much out of it and it holds their attention so well. We also get to socialize a lot more and it seems more informal when we do this. I would hate to not be able to do my shared reading.

Blog # 6 - Jennifer Jowers - Chapter 12 You Only Have So Much Time

This chapter was written just for me this school year. I have had the hardest time balancing my roles in life and prioritizing. Before this year, I was a teacher and a wife mostly. Teaching was and always will be my passion, I love it and put my whole self into it as much as possible. My husband married me knowing I was teacher and that his summers would be spent cutting, laminating, decorating, and hot gluing and he has been wonderful about it. He understands my love for the job and supports me wholeheartedly. This July though I added a new role to my life, mom. This awesome little guy now depends on me and my husband for all of his needs. He is my new passion in life and unlike my husband isn’t as willing to share me with my other passion teaching. I have really struggled to balance being a great mom and teacher. I want to get my new center activities laminated and cut out but I also don’t want to miss my son growing up or spending time eating together as a family. This is a new situation that I have never had to deal with and it has been extremely stressful. Many times I have had to just let my outside teaching duties wait so that I can be with my son and I have come to learn that it is ok. My only job is not teacher anymore, it is also mom. Being a mom has made me a better teacher though. I now look at things from a parent point of view. I understand the nighttime struggle to get things done and to spend time with your kids while working and giving your best at everything. I understand that I am going to fail and not get things done like I used to and I am beginning to learn to be ok with it. I am getting better at finding a balance and forgiving myself for slacking on things. I want to have an “interesting life.”

                  This chapter helped me to think about my time in the classroom and determine what was worth extra time and what was just becoming busy work. Making the best of my time helps me to keep my students engaged and gives them more learning time. I try hard to keep from doing any busy work. I want all that they do to be meaningful. Lots of programs that we incorporate often have activities to go with them that are just busy work.

                  This chapter brought up word wall. I had recently seen an article on Pinterest about how a teacher took down her word wall. I was interested in this idea so I read up on her reasoning. She felt like having the word wall on the wall was not as easily accessible as having one students could get their hand on. This is something I really would like to use next year. I feel like my students forget the word wall is there and I have to constantly direct them to it. I am going to create word walls on paper that each table can have access too. This will eliminate unnecessary movement in the classroom as well as make the word wall more accessible.

                  Scheduling this year has been a huge struggle for me. I have to had to go back and reevaluate it several times in order to find enough time to fit in all the things we need to without feeling rushed. The down side to this is that my students have been confused a lot about what we are doing. Luckily my students have been go with the flow about it but they have been frustrated at times, as have I. I like the predictability for my students so they know what expectations I have of them, but I also needed to find a good chunk of time to be able to effectively teach my students.

                  This chapter was great at giving ideas of creating better time and reassuring me that it is ok to skip things if they are unnecessary or to ensure my students get valuable learning time.

Bog Post #5 - Jennifer Jowers - Routman Chapter 8 Comprehension

Teaching comprehension in kindergarten has always been a struggle for me. I agree with the author, that reading without comprehension is just word calling. It is hard for me to teach comprehension strategies because having been a reader for many years, I often just comprehend without really thinking about the strategies I use to do so. It is just second nature when I read. While reading chapter 8 a lot of the strategies they discussed, I realized I do. When I read textbooks I tend to reread and do so out loud so that I can get a better understanding of what I am reading. This chapter gives me a lot insight on how to better organize my teaching of comprehension strategies and specific skills that students will benefit from the most.

            Learning to read requires a lot of effort. Students are expected to read the words and comprehend the text all at the same time while using many different strategies to do so. It is truly amazing to see them progress as readers and watch so many of them become lovers of reading.

            I think modeling how to comprehend texts to students is extremely important. As a student myself, I always needed to see an example to better understand what I was expected to do. Allowing them the opportunity to see me try to read and comprehend also helps them to know that everyone has to work at reading, so they will not get as frustrated. I will keep in mind the 20% - 80% ratio on teaching strategies and allowing them to practice. I always struggle with how far in depth and how much guided practice I should give them. I feel like I tend to go overboard on explaining it. This leaves all of us exhausted and doesn’t leave enough time to practice what I taught them, in turn making the lesson less effective. Using readers that students can fluently read also makes a big difference with learning comprehension. The author suggests at least a 95% rate of accuracy with readers in order to effectively practice the comprehension strategies. Expecting students to not only use decoding strategies with texts that are challenging and incorporate comprehension strategies will often leave students frustrated and come to hate reading.

            Fluency is very important but like the author, I believe it is only a part of reading. It is important to start in the lower grades with comprehension strategies so that they become second nature to them as they further their reading. Word calling will not excite a student to read. Understanding the story and really diving into the text will lead them to want to continue reading.

Blog #7 - Emily Hammett - Chapt. 8. Routman

    Before I even began reading this chapter I looked at the title and knew this would be a great chapter. Teaching and assessing comprehension is the most difficult thing I have ran across. There are so many different strategies and I have to remember that they can only learn one a day. I would never want to overwhelm my students with a hundred different strategies and them still but not be able to comprehend what they have read. After reading the chapter I realized that I am not alone in this thinking. On page 119, Routman testifies by stating, "So much emphasis on comprehension strategies can actually make reading harder. Students become so focused on identifying words they don't know, questions to ask, or connections to make that they forget to read for overall meaning."

One thing I want to work harder with next year is to require students to create useful summaries. My students usually try to write word for word what was in the book. We have been practicing really hard to cite evidence correctly, rather than plagiarizing. On the SC Ready students are required to answer open ended questions about the text with evidence. I want my students to be prepared to feel confident about summarizing those passages appropriately. Something this year I felt that I was successful with this year was teaching my students to make connections. They are now infatuated with making connections. I LOVE IT!

I love the self monitoring checklist on page 125, although I do think it would be best if the wording was more kid friendly. Also, I enjoyed seeing the "Talk to Yourself to Aid Understanding" checklist.

Just as I had suspected this chapter was very insightful and is covered in sticky notes for me to refer back to next year!

Blog #6- Emily Hammett - Chapt 6. Routman

       "If proficient readers typically read extensively on their own, as the research suggests, it would seem prudent, even scientific, to develop this habit in young readers." - Thomas Newkirk

In the opening of Routmans' chapter 6 he opens with this beautiful quote by Newkirk. I LOVE this quote because it speaks volumes to me. When I was in elementary school I vividly remember what my teachers called "Silent Sustained Reading". During SSR, each child got to choose a book of their interest and read for 30 minutes. Although, I wasn't a headstrong reader in my younger grades, I look back and cherish that time. Usually on Fridays our teacher would allow us to go outside to read as long as we were focused all week while reading. That was the most exciting thing for me! It is something I want to implement in my classroom for next year.

There is a quote written by a former student, Brian, where he states, "My advice to anybody who wants to become a better reader is to read more, to read lower books and practice so you can move up to higher levels. If you want to know how to read better, just keep on reading." Brian is absolutely right! Just today I was talking to another teacher on my grade level and I thought how sad is it that our lower students are skilled and drilled all day. These are the students that need the MOST time to read and we are so worried about focusing on skills that we take away their independent reading time. With this being my first year I am constantly reflecting on practices that I think work towards the best interest of my students and practices that I think I could do without for next year. Next year I am determined to let low and high leveled students read, read, and read!

I have had my students keep a reading record in their reading journals, but while I was at a conference I was shown a reading log that I love because the student has to specify whether they read the book at home or school. This makes a big difference, especially with our kids that stay everyday for after school. Also, I want parent signatures back and this new log requires a parent initial.

I enjoy the partner reading guidelines on page 91. Most of the reading sets that I have require the students to read in partners and having guidelines for them to follow while reading helps solve many problems throughout reading groups. The teacher talk on modeling partner reading and evaluating partner reading is very helpful. Sometimes it takes me reading it to realize that this is what I really need to implement in my classroom.

This chapter was very useful to expand my learning of planning and monitoring partner reading!