Katherine Malmquist- Blog Post 6- Routman Ch 8

In the first few paragraphs of the text, Routman makes a couple of statements that really hit home:

       “…students get the message that reading is about words rather than meaning” (p.117).

       “We are turning out lots of superficial readers.  They look and sound competent” (p. 117).

       “We continue to focus on low-level skills…. They learn to read the words… they have lost            years of knowing what real reading is about” (p.118)

When I listen to some of my RTI students read, the first strategy they try is sounding out the word.  They (sometimes) can manage to decode letters but then they cannot always blend the sounds to create the correct word, much less the correct meaning.  Where I have the most trouble though, is when the students do not even take the time to question if the word they used makes any sense in the context they are reading.   On page 125, Routman says that “before students can monitor themselves and apply “fix-up” strategies, they need to know what understanding entails”.  I love the checklist on the second half of the page, about knowing if we understand what we are reading. 

I chose this chapter because I wanted to learn about teaching comprehension because I feel that is an area that I was never taught in school.  Instead of making me feel like I have missed out on a lot, I realized through reading this chapter that I know a lot more than I thought and as they said, there are a lot of strategies I use without realizing it.  The challenge is slowing down to verbalize those strategies while reading with students so they can learn, but doing it in such a way that it is not about one strategy or taking away from the reading experience.   

I have two take-aways from this chapter.  The first is twofold: we must take the time to model what we want our students to be able to do (this almost seems like a well, duh statement), but we must take the time for our students to be independent thinkers and collaborators.  Too often I think my students should be able to do things, or I get caught up in a really great lesson and do not leave enough time for my students to practice independently.  The second is that we focus on finding good fit books, but for students to practice comprehension they need to have authentic books where they know 95% of the words or more (p.127).  Since rereading is a commonly used strategy for comprehension, and we want students to have a text they can understand, it makes sense to let students read books that may be a little below their “reading level” because as long as they are reading they are learning.  

Cassie Heinz- Blog Post 7- Routman's Ch. 9 Emphasize Shared Reading

I really enjoyed this chapter because it stressed the importance of read alouds and shared reading in the reading curriculum. As we have switched our reading instruction around, I have found that there is less time for our novel studies, which we normally do using a shared reading model. We have several sets of class novels that we normally study during reading. All of these books are high interest, social studies standards aligned, and reading level appropriate for most of our students. Since we do not have as much time for shared reading during the day with the readers workshop model, I have used these books to guide my after school reading instruction. Reading these books aloud with the students is one of my favorite parts of teaching. It seems that there is nothing better than being fully immersed in a book with a large number of 5th graders. My students beg to read more and more each day and I hear them discussing the book in the hallways during the day. All of this reading excitement stems from the fact that we are reading these books together. I am convinced that my students would not be as excited about these books/ understand these books as well as they do if they were not provided with support and discussion while reading them.

I make a point to include shared reading into my social studies and science lessons whenever possible. The students enjoy being read to even though they are almost in middle school. I feel as though the read alouds help build a community of learners and readers in my classroom. Our mutual connections with the text teach us different things and bring us closer together as learners and readers.

Routman states that "when used in connection with shared reading aloud, guided reading groups become more efficient- they boost and support what has already been demonstrated and practiced" (133). I honestly feel as though this statement is very true and evident during my book club meetings. My students seem to have a good grasp on how to communicate about texts with one another. In a perfect world, a reading program would include shared reading, small group reading, and independent reading. In planning my reading instruction for next year, my goal is to set aside more time for shared reading.

Cassie Heinz- Blog Post 6- Routman's Teach Comprehension

I chose to read this chapter because I feel like comprehension is one of the most challenging aspects for students to wrap their minds around. I spent the beginning of the year teaching a variety of strategies through the CAFE list and have spent all year teaching comprehension in a variety of content areas, but I still notice students are not always aware of whether or not they are comprehending the text. When I conference with my students, I ask them questions about the text and often times they have to think for a while or look back to find the answer. They seem completely unaware that they have not comprehended the text they have just read. My goal is to have my student self assess their own comprehension during independent reading so they are better able to understand the text. I also want them to understand that I (and all good readers) have to constantly use these strategies. These strategies are not just things they can use in 5th grade to help them understand, but they are strategies they can use for the rest of their reading lives. Just recently I read Salt to the Sea  and had to reread the last part of the book several times to understand how it ended since it ended with a letter written by a person not mentioned previously in the book.

Just recently I have started doing book clubs with my students. We have all really enjoyed it and I have seen a drastic improvement in their comprehension. Writing notes and discussing it with their group has held them more accountable for comprehension. It has also helped them to better understand parts of the text that maybe they didn't understand on their own. I have enjoyed listening to their discussions about the texts. My hope for them is to realize they don't need a book club to discuss texts with others- they can do it all on their own. Most of the books I pick up have been recommended to me by others. It is really fun for me to read books that others have recommended because I am able to discuss my understanding, connections, and predictions with them. My 14 year old cousin lent me her copy of Salt to the Sea and I just had a discussion with her last week about what was going on with the book and our thoughts and opinions about it.

My goal as a teacher is to pay better attention to whether or not my students are truly comprehending texts (especially on a deeper level). Routman says that "students routinely skip words they can't read or don't understand, continue reading even when they don't know what's going on in the text, and rarely reread for clarification" (121). I have noticed all of these things during my conferencing and am planning on modeling even more how to use these strategies during independent reading. Routman gave me a lot of ideas to help improve comprehension and I plan to use several of these checklists to help guide my instruction.

Keri Lyles's January/February Blog Post "Plan for, Monitor & Assess" Routman Chapters 6 & 7

     This semester I am enrolled in an ESOL class that is focused on assessment.  It has really forced me to think about assessment in my classroom and the effectiveness of it.  Since these two chapters were paired together I decided to read both of them.  What I noticed in chapter 6 was a re-iteration of the importance of independent reading.  We must provide opportunities for our students to read independently daily.  This is essential.  We also need to make sure they understand how to choose just right books so that their reading is as meaningful as possible.  I appreciated this chapter, but I ultimately found the most helpful and challenging information in chapter 7.
     I have always felt that assessing reading was not one of my strengths as a teacher.  I listen to my children read often and try to always know what books they are reading.  This informal assessment is very informative but does not provide me with a quantifiable grade.  This year I began using a conferencing form that allows me to check skills that are observed or missing.  The form has space for at least 9 conferences so I can easily compare.  However, I loved Routman's discussion of the way she conducts informal reading conferences.  I plan to develop a form similar to hers so that I can incorporate it into my conferences.  Perhaps I could conduct at least one more "in depth" conference with each of my students every month.  I also LOVED the reading rubric that was presented at the end of the chapter.  By using this rubric the students could evaluate themselves and it provides me with a way to determine a numerical grade.  I have also struggled with the place of running records in my classroom.  I am not sure how to use them with my 4th grade students because I do not believe they are the best use of classroom time for the majority of my students.  Maybe I just don't know enough about them.  This is something I would like to learn more about-especially when it comes to their use in the upper elementary grades!
     A lot of my formal reading assessment is an assessment of skills taught during mini lessons throughout a reading unit.  For example, when discussing the importance of making inferences while reading the students had to complete an inferencing test at the end of the unit.  This demonstrated their understanding of inferences.  These formal assessments cannot be the only form of assessment that teachers use.  We must incorporate informal assessments as well-so we can make sure we know what our students are reading as well as their strengths and weaknesses as readers.