Jessica Amsler Blog post 2, No more independent reading without support, section 2

As I read this section of the book I thought about what I am currently doing to teach my students how to read.  After I read this article I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw a quote, “children are made readers on the laps of their parents” E. Buchwald.  That quote made my wheels start turning!  I wondered how many of my students had a parent that read to them at home.  The next day I came in and about a third of my class said their parents read with them before they go to bed at night.  I then went on to ask how many of them had ever been to the public library.  Most of them had a puzzled look on their face but four or five said they go to the library.  I thought that maybe they did not understand what I was asking so I showed them pictures of the Spartanburg library branches, still them same result. I then reflected on all of the statistics that I read in Section 2 of this book and I thought especially about page 21 that talked about how much kids need to read in order to become successful readers.  It discussed language-minority first graders and what they need to become independent readers.  Can I do all of this on my own? I know that most of my students depend on our school for their reading materials.  Do my students read at home? Can I encourage them to go to the public library? If only the parents would take them to the library?  Do they know that it’s free?  Is transportation a problem?   Can the book mobile come and give them access to more books?  My classroom library does not have enough books to help my students reach their potential.  I wish it did but I do not have the money to buy that many books.  If I used the genre wheel (figure 2-2) on page 20 my students would have a very sad looking wheel.

The main point in this section is that teachers play such an important role in students reading; we must choose help them choose books and we must confer with them while they are reading.  I felt good about this (compared to thinking about my classroom library) because we are doing the Daily 5 and the students read so much! I get to listen to them and help them read.  I talk to them multiple times a week and keep notes about their progress.  My students get to choose what they want to read and I think that is going to play a big role this year.  I think reading this along with the Daily 5 is going to help me become a better teacher and help my students become better readers. 

My biggest concern with all of this is how to grade the students.  Do they all earn a 100 because they are reading and working hard?  Should the students that read on a lower reading level earn a lower grade than the students that read on a higher level?  I would like to work with other teachers so that the grading is consistent across the board.  I don’t want my students to get to second grade and have high grades but not be able to read or vice versa.  I think the students are going to grow as readers but I need to find a good way to assess their reading.