The last section of No More Independent Reading Without Support by Debbie Miller and Barbara Moss helps to lay out a plan of attack for teachers who want to implement independent reading. Basically, there is a focus lesson where the teacher “explicitly teach them what readers do and how they do it” (Miller 42). Then, students go practice what they have just worked on in the focus lesson. Lastly, they share their reflections on what they have read and on themselves as readers. Also included is a handy pie chart to structure your time. ⅓ should be spent teaching with ⅔ spent reading, writing, discussing, conferring. Simple, right? Makes me wonder why I made it SO very complicated for so long! Also, it makes me wonder how I can use this structure in my social studies classroom...
This framework also comes with a primer on how to find the time and gives specific examples from a school in Baltimore, MD, and how they found the time. The authors encourage you to ask yourself to “be objective- what things are absolutely essential to ensure students learning, growth, and success?” (Miller 44). Remember way back to my first blog entry when I started reading this book? I looked at ways I could shave some time and incorporate more reading into my content area class. Gone are the daily geography and/or test prep bellringers. In their place are read alouds from folktales, info texts, and biographies that we are studying. After we read, I have begun to use a weekly share strategy. On Monday, I model the strategy whole group after the read aloud. Students then practice it as a group and individually as the week progresses. I also use the strategy as an exit slip! I got some much needed feedback on how this was working the last two weeks during student-led parent conferences. One student shared with his parents that “Mrs. Whitlow reads us the most amazing stories. You wouldn’t believe the one from India.” Another student shared that my “storytime” was one of his favorite parts of the day. Our ELA teacher told me that their abilities to summarize had improved dramatically! No one has missed the “geography bench” that I was guarding…
Danielle, I loved reading about your classroom changes. Sounds like your students are really benefiting in all classes.
ReplyDeleteHi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteLike you, I appreciated so much the way that Miller and Moss laid out their model for an effective reading workshop that prioritizes student time for independent reading with support for instruction and response/feedback. I loved reading how you've taken a close look at all of the components in your block of time with your class and decided what was necessary, what was not, and then made some adjustments in order to give your students more time for read alouds and more time for the strategy share. I love your weekly story time and I am so thankful that your students are appreciative too! When we get rid of our benches we find all kinds of opportunities for meaningful reading and writing.