Blog 5 / Module 6

     I finished reading Reading Essentials by Reggie Routman and found it to be very useful for
me and my students.  The content was so dead on and realistic. " We want our students to be excited about literacy, they need to have teachers who love coming to work..." This is essential for success of both the student and the teacher. This book gives many tips, opinions and strategies for success in the
Reading classroom. " There is no right or best way" we as educators are so focused on doing things
correctly or the way it should be done that this quote was so helpful to me. I relaxed a little and
enjoyed finding great new ways to teach without it being correct or incorrect. "Bond with your students". This has to be the most important for me. Bonding with your students will help the student
and teachers life much easier when reading. There is a lot of one on one time and it is essential
to feel comfortable together.
     The Try It Apply It and teaching tip  sections were so helpful and I used and plan to try more of these in my classroom with my students in the future. The book is designed for success and if used properly I think it will help me create stronger readers. I am realistic and know that not all my students will be successful for may reasons but I will be comfortable in knowing that I will do all I can to help guide them be excited and successful in reading to the highest of each ones potential.

Blog Post #5

Blog Post #5

            The last part of the book No More Independent Reading Without Support is about ways to keep things going during the Independent Reading time.  I really like all the tactics for teachers to use during IR.  In a world where we as educators hear that we need to differentiate our classrooms, I never even thought about conferencing being a way to differentiate my instruction.  According to the authors, “Conferring is differentiation at its fines!  When we confer with children one-to-one, we’re working hard to personalize our instruction and support children as they apply what we’ve taught them in large and small group settings.”  The next time someone asks me about how I am differentiating instruction in my classroom, I will definitely be able to include conferencing during Independent Reading.  Conferencing is a powerful tool, and if used as it should be we will be able to catch children that are not using the skills taught and reteach them in a one on one setting.

            The last part of the book that I really like was Tactic 8.   According to the text, “Tactic 8:  Use partner reading and book clubs to get students talking and reading independently.”  I also think that we need to start small and do a lot of modeling how to talk to each other about what they are reading and what they need to talk about.  When I ask my middle school students to turn and talk, they still look at me like I’m crazy.  I guess it goes with the territory.  I asked them to do an activity where they were moving around the room and they complained.  If I ask them to sit, they would rather stand, just like if I ask them to not talk they want to talk.  I guess I can try reverse psychology next time to see if it helps.  

            I have really enjoyed having a refresher on Independent Reading and I will recommend this book to anyone that needs to know what do during Independent Reading and how to keep your kids involved and engaged. 

Independent Reading (Blog 5/Module 6)

There is no greater impact on students' reading growth than giving them time to read.

This quote introduces the Afterword in No More Independent Reading Without Support.  Ellin Oliver Keene states that when she heard those words in 1979, she was terrified of the responsibility that had been laid on her shoulder.  She, like many other teachers, wanted to learn some magic trick to teach children how to read.
If it were only that simple...

Keene goes on to say that what she did know in 1979 was that children needed "the support of clear, focused instruction."  This is the basis of this book.  It has allowed me to consider what practices might work best and what might inhibit students from learning to read.  Reading is the basis for every other subject and without the ability to read, we miss out on so much that school has to offer.  As teachers, we need to find more time for our students to have meaningful reading experiences by letting them select their own books.  They need access to books and lots of them with a wide variety.  To be meaningful, they need explicit instructions on what, why, and how readers read.  Teachers need to monitor the progress of the students and then last, but certainly not least, students need to talk about what they read.

Now, if there was only a magic potion to make my 9 year-old enjoy reading....

As I close on Reading Essentials by Routman, her final thoughts are "you only have so much time" (Routman, 201).  Routman points out that teachers are always demanding more time  as more things keep being added upon us.  Routmans says that most of our time should be spent thinking and using our best judgement for what works best with our students by "keeping work simple and providing opportunities for them to expand their skills, knowledge, and thinking"(Routman 204).  I liked Routman's ideas about "bell ringers"- read by yourself, read with a partner, or write a note to a friend.  I would definitely like to try something a bit different in my room, even though I feel like my morning work procedures are great reviews and front loaders of information.  Always keeping students reading and writing and making it worthwhile.  "Enjoy your students, enjoy your teaching, and enjoy your life" (Routman, 221).

I really enjoyed reading this text and have learned a great deal about reading and writing, writing and reading.  Happy teaching!

Blog 5 - Final Tatics for Successful IR

In the previous blog I discussed the first four tatics for a successful IR, which all have made a huge change in this time in my classroom! These final five are making a great improvement also.

Tatic 5: Differentiate instruction and conference. How can we know if are students are actually learning and understanding during IR time, if we do not conference with them? This time needs to be used for instruction (and not just as free time). A great way to improve the success of your IR is to sit down with your students and discuss the books they are reading. You can also make sure students are reading text that are appropriate for their levels.

Tatic 6: Use a catch to refocus the group. This is another tatic that you have to be monitoring your students for it to successfully work. We have all had that moment where we are working with one student, and the rest of the class is slowly getting off task because they realize you are not paying close attention anymore. By having a catch ready to refocus the group and get them back to work, it saves you from having to fuss at students, and quickly gets them back on task.

Tatic 7: Let the students speak. Students want to tell you what they are learning and reading! There have been several times where I have just let me student talk, because many times they just want to be heard. By letting them discuss what they are learning and reading, it gives them a way to feel that what they are doing is important, and you a quick way to assess students' understanding!

Tatic 8: Partner reading and book clubs. My students love to read together. Now, they are sixth graders and sometimes this does come with some chatting, but often times if they know I am going to ask comprehension questions or conferencing with them, they know that I am going to hold them accountable.

Tatic 9: Assess students progress. This is all for the teachers, in my opinion. This helps you as a teacher see if your IR time is successfully working, or if adjustments need to be made for your students. Assessing does not have to be a big formal test, but can be short conferences with your students.

Tatic 10: Assessment choices lead to independence. This is hard for educators, because you're giving students a choice and you may have multiple assessments going on a once. However, we all know that some of our students do well on standard assessments while others do not. By giving them the choice of their assessments, they can truly show their knowledge, and even their creativity.


I have thoroughly enjoyed reading No More Independent Reading Without Support and have found some many great things that are working for my classroom IR time!

Chapter 8  Teach Comprehension

I absolutely love reading to my students.  I always try to read at least 3 books each day to them. I talk to them about how the words in the story are telling them something. We talk about the pictures, tricky words, and talk about what the words are telling them. It is so surprising that some children and even their parents think that reading is just word calling. " When we spend most of our energy focusing on words,students get the message that reading is about words rather than meaning".(R117)      I always let my students know that the words on the pages of stories are there for a reason and that reason is not just for them to "word call". The  words are giving meaning to the story just as their words tell a story when they create a story. In my class, we try to dig deep ( as deep as a 6 year old can) within the text, make connections ( these can be pretty interesting LOL), monitor for meaning (i love to ask them if what they just read to me makes sense), make inferences, and ask questions about the story. We also read like "news reporters and not robots!! We use voices like we think the characters would sound. This seems to  helps them to understand the story better in first grade. We read poems, fiction and non fiction books, magazines, children's articles and anything else we can get our hands on. As a class as well as an individual we make meaning out of what we have read and respond to it by writing or by telling a partner what we have learned about the reading.
      We practice fluency by reading easier text and by reading with a friend. Routman says, "The best way to improve fluency is through repeated reading of familiar text". R128) Fluency helps children understand the meaning of the words and is not that word calling that will put you to sleep. :-/
     When I am doing a read aloud, I always stop and ask if someone can tell me what the author is telling us. It is wonderful when the children catch on and start really understanding.  This is helpful to little children when teaching comprehension and is exciting when they can tell you things such as why the character may be "feeling" or a"acting" the way he/she is. I start teaching comprehension on day one of first grade!!! :) Children can understand more than we give them credit for.

Sound It Out...Wait There's More!

When a child struggles with a word, you've always heard a teacher say "sound it out." "Many teachers are beginning to realize that although "sound it out" often comes to their lips, it isn't necessarily the best response. Why not? For one, the English language is not consistently phonetic." There have been so many times that I have told a child to sound it out but then say "Wait! This word doesn't follow the traditional rule." At that point, I have thought to myself... I have just truly confused this child! Did you know that 40 to 50% of the words in the English language cannot be sounded out? This is why we need to come up with other ways to help a child figure out to pronounce unknown words. When you watch a proficient reader, you know they don't rely solely on phonetics to figure out the unknown word. They use a variety of strategies and these are the strategies that we need to share with emerging readers and struggling readers. Do you prompt your students? Be sure "to keep your prompts short, specific, and to the point." When you prompt a student, this is asking the him to self-monitor. Proficient students continuously self-monitor as they read.  One prompt that is useful is asking the student "Does that make sense?" This is a powerful phrase which causes the student to think. "Our frequent repetition also fully supports the concept that everything we read is supposed to make sense." One way to model this is to make an intentional error and show how you monitor yourself for making sense. Another way to prompt is to use symbols to represent various strategic behaviors. "Introduce the symbols on strategy cards and show how we use them. The symbols represent in order: (1) checking the picture, (2) thinking about the story, (3) going back to reread, (4) checking the first letter(s), (5) checking unknown parts of the word, and (6) rereading to check and confirm." Leave these symbols on a nearby chart or on an index card next to the student so that the child can refer to it when you ask them for a strategy to solve the unknown word. Another strategy is to model rereading. When we model the rereading of a sentence or part of a sentence, it encourages children to do the same. We need to model in front of the entire class, in small groups, and when we work with students individually. While using these various strategies, we also prompting children to use meaning, structure, and visual information. All students need to use a balance of meaning, structural, and phonetic information simultaneously as they figure out unfamiliar words.