Angela Speer's Blog Post #1: No More Independent Reading Without Suppost by Debbie Miller

Angela Speer’s Blog Post #1 Section 1: No More Independent Reading without Support by Debbie Miller

        In section one, I found that TIME struck home very strongly. I struggle with finding time to teach a mini lesson in five minutes or to even plan a mini lesson that will be powerful enough to reach each developmental level in my class.  However, I am thankful that our new reading coach and principal enforced a 2 hour reading and writing time to allow for student practice. I was terrified at first, but I can say that I love it. It is one of the hardest things in education, but my class has been challenged more this year than last year. I find that my students are becoming strategic learners and are inquiring about more topics than ever. However, I agree with Miller when she mentions, “Students need to read A LOT... they learn about themselves, other people and the world” (Miller,1). I have heard this phrase three times this week, which, I guess God is telling me something. I have tried in the past to educate students through reading and wanted them to find self-connections, but was not always success. This year, I find that my students are learning about each other, their selves and about the classroom library. It isn't just a beautiful place in our room anymore.

            I love the idea of DEAR (Miller 2)! The beginning of the year was challenging of course, but I found that allowing my students to jump into reading and introducing reading as if I were a character in the book that I was reading was the best thing ever. I saw students smiling, laughing, tearing up, wanting to scream, and some were just reading once they were allowed to “just read.” I did the same for a moment to teach the procedure and show my expectations. Now I allow the students to do the same while I conferences with each of them. I find that I am able to teach on an individual, developmental level because I assess and discuss what each student needs instead of just teaching to whole group. I also find that I do know more about my students as readers then last year because of the independent reading time. Again there I go again, time! I would now love to have more time for reading and conferring because it allows for the relationships to grow. 

            I agree with Miller on page 18 when she discussed students must be able to choose what they read. In the years past, I found that when I dictated a specific story, all of the time, the students would lose interest in reading, quickly! I saw even last year that some students struggled with the story almost every time so I made modifications, but they still were not interested because they did not get to choose it. I wanted to allow them to read whatever they wanted, but did not know how until someone came along and showed support!

            I love the new way that we do independent reading!!! I do however, still struggle with fitting a lesson into five minutes at times, but know that it is a learning process just like it is for the students!