I am choosing to read No More Independent Reading Without Support by Debbie Miller and Barbara Moss. We have Independent Reading time for 20 minutes a day at our school, so I was very interested in seeing what this book was all about.
I laughed when I first read that the most proficient students were exposed to an hour of independent reading today. An hour?! Where in the WORLD did a teacher get an hour to spare from? Then as I continued reading it saw where they were cutting times and placing reading in instead. Our principal made a good reference this week when he told us to "trim the fat" from our lessons. When we take a step back and look at our lessons and daily schedule, we see how much dead time there is within the day to use. Do I believe we can fit a whole hour in? Not at this time, but I do believe there is wiggle room for more than 20 minutes.
I do believe in giving the students support while they are reading. Often times I see students looking off into space and using their Independent Reading time as more of a brain break. I plan to begin discussions and journals about what we are reading during Independent Reading time. This way students are held accountable and know they need to be reading, but I can also see that students are comprehending and understand what they are reading. I am hoping this bridges the gap between letting students independently choose their own book, and other students not taking their reading time seriously.
If you do discussions AND journals, you will be working on their writing skills as well...just saying!
ReplyDeleteI also took what our principal said about cutting out the fat of our lessons this week. If we trim a lot of the unnecessary items from out lessons that could free up a lot more time for our students to read. This will probably free up a lot more time for us to spend talking with our students about the books they are reading.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this Courtney. My classroom has an independent reading time, but it is NOT an hour! This year I'm trying to implement reading in any spare minute they may have. My students always have a book nearby that they can pick up and read when they finish work early, etc. I to am trying to implement the accountability portion of knowing what they are reading and checking for comprehension. In the book I'm reading, it give a format for informal reading conferences. I'm going to begin with that. Also Dawn mentioned to me to have them respond each week. She said have them write about what they read that week and then display them in the room and they could serve as text recommendations as well.
ReplyDeleteAh, time!! Why does there never seem to be enough of it?? I do appreciate how Miller & Moss offer suggestions of ways to "tighten up" the instructional time (and often the non-instructional time!) we use in our classrooms. You might not be able to find an hour right now, but if you find 5-10 minutes, you're already working towards giving your readers even more time to grow and refine their practice as readers!
ReplyDelete"Trim the fat." I like that. The first few pages of this book is very enlightening when it comes to "trimming the fat." The examples given about calendar time has me thinking about my own class schedule and where I could find some extra time for reading. My problem is, however, that I only have my students for 90 minutes a day and I wish other teachers would add some Independent Reading time into their schedules so my students could read more in class.
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