The first thing I
highlighted was “Any reading program that substantially increases the amount of
reading students do will impact their reading achievement.” That is a powerful
statement. Successful readers need more than instruction, they need to spend a lot
of time with authentic reading material. They need to time to practice the
strategies they have learned. They need time to make connections.
I firmly believe
in independent reading and have had teachers in other grade levels wonder how
that can be done in kindergarten. It’s amazing what even the youngest beginning
readers can do with they are actively engaged with the text. Independent
reading often begins as “reading the pictures.” Student may retell familiar
stories, and the most exciting part for me is when they start noticing the
sight words they have learned on the pages of their favorite book. What I don’t
understand is how the teacher can also read while the students are reading.
Maybe that is something that can only be done in upper grades. Maybe later in
the year, teachers could join in independent reading on Fridays. The section on
partner reading also gave me so ideas that might work during my guided reading
time. Maybe for a portion of the guided reading block, I can have the more
fluent group partner reading with the struggling group so I can assess and instruct
the middle group. I think I’ll try this one a week and see if it works. If not,
I’ll regroup and try again.
Chapter 7 delves
into assessments. I feel that is an area where I need more work. The “Questions
to probe for student understanding” on page 103, and the framework for an
informal conference on page 104 are helpful checklists that I can use to create
a rubric. I think this will help me to focus on specific skills and strategies
the reader is using, so I can create individual goals.
These
chapters have challenged me to reflect on independent reading in my classroom.
I already have the structure in place, but now I have more specific ideas about
how to maximize student learning during this time. While I have done informal
assessments during independent reading, I have not tried informal reading
conferences. That’s my take-away from these chapters. I will create a framework
for informal conference and give it a try.
What a great opening paragraph! Yes, readers need focused instruction and authentic materials to grow! Thank you for advocating for our youngest readers. Yes, they can participate in independent reading. I used to start my independent reading routine by modeling reading a book (I was actually reading children's books to plan read-alouds for the next week!), but after they got the expectations of reading, I transitioned into conferring. I can't wait to see what you think about conferring with the little ones! :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI love learning with you because you are always willing to grow yourself as a reader, as a writer, and as a teacher. I am glad that you found the assessment checklists suggested helpful to try out with your students during independent reading and I am also excited that you are going to try out informal conferences with your kindergarten students. I know that you have had successful informal writing conferences with your student made books. Their reading conferences can be similar in structure. Thank you! Dawn