Well, I must start by saying that I LOVED this chapter. I have enjoyed the whole book and have appreciated that it has allowed me to think about school and the goals I have for our reading program. It has been nice because this book has not caused me to feel stress or anxiety (as many do) but rather it has made me excited! :) I think that is likely because (as we have been saying) we are well on our way with many of the best practices shared in this book.
I particularly loved this chapter because I love to learn about reading instruction. When Heather and I started in our current positions, we knew we had a long way to go in improving our reading program at NES. We have come SO far over the course of the last few years. It is nice to read that what we believe to be "best practice" is affirmed in this book. I love that the book talks about the importance of the thinking/comprehension strategies and I love the emphasized importance on read aloud time. I really enjoyed looking inside the classroom of a great teacher and I think my favorite part was the detailed description of a solid reading program.
After reading chapter 3, what were your big "take aways"? When you think about yourself as a reading teacher, what do you feel are your strengths and what is the area you want to learn more about and/or become more masterful at this year?
My "take aways" from this chapter: READ ALOUDS! I never feel that I have the time to read aloud to my kids, but this chapter helped me to see the importance and necessity of it. More for exposure of vocabulary and grammar than anything else AND it's always important to model what I am thinking as I read. I like the bullet points from page 104 where it talks about making texts more accessible. This may be an unrealistic request, but I would love for my kids to be able to write all in the books/passages they are reading. Copied passages would be easy, but I think I am going to ask parents a lot more this year for books. I feel like this will give students the opportunity to mark in or write in the text if/when needed, but also allow the parents to be involved in what's going on in the classroom. I really appreciated what chapter 3 said about keeping a climate of safety in the classroom for readers. This was a great reminder for me and helped me to see how to help my students grow as readers. In my personal life I am scared to take risks, so I think it's only natural of me to be afraid for my students to take risks, but I know I need to. More on "take aways"- I feel affirmed in doing a thinking strategies "dump" at the beginning of the year. So much of this book has connected to the different reading strategies and how our students use them throughout their reading. I loved all of the ideas the teacher uses throughout chapter 3, especially with the thematic teaching. I REALLY want to tie reading into social studies and get kids to read deeper and think deeper on the subject we are learning about. I want to give my students more time to investigate, communicate, and go deep with what they are reading and learning. Another take away was a reminder of the importance of independent reading and continuing to allow my students to choose a book they want to read and allow them to read it wherever they wish- alone, with a friend or group (from pg. 116).
ReplyDeleteI want to become more masterful at allowing my students to take risks. I don't know what that looks like, but I want to try it out. I want to build my classroom library to have a wide variety of books (especially non fiction reading) for students to take home, read in class, and around school. I want to become more masterful at guided reading to make sure I am making the absolute most of my time I have with my identified students. I don't only want to make it meaningful, but I want it to be fun where students are diving deeper into subjects they already have schema for (i.e. from social studies, science, and maybe even math). I am really anxious to take advantage of the books on tape (or CD) that our STLP students worked on last year to aid ELL students and other low-readers. Love, love, love these ideas!
I found the section on the Common Core standards very interesting. Sara and I have struggled the past few years on how to implement text complexity without compromising the needs and interests of our students. Until reading this section, I didn't realize the flexibility that was allowed when addressing text complexity. Sara and I, along with Jeff's input, tried to find the balance between rigorous texts and appropriate instructional-level texts. This section of the chapter helped me to feel more clear-headed about how to help teachers challenge their readers without ignoring their obvious needs. Another take-away I have is the reminder that the CCSS are not the "end all, be all", although I have definitely been treating them that way. I feel like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at times. I know from my own experiences, from reading, and my education what is best practice and right for kids, but it is so hard to not let test scores determine what we do in our classrooms! I feel validated in what Sara and I have tried to achieve and communicate to our wonderful NES teachers, but I also feel like I have failed them at times when I give in to "the powers that be" who expect certain progress on scores. I can only imagine the pressure that Sara and Karen feel, as well. I truly believe that in trying to improve our literacy program at NES, we have been on the right track and have had our hearts and professional thinking in the right place. We have been derailed, at times, though. This book and particularly this chapter have re-inspired me to stand up for those practice that I believe are best for our students.
ReplyDeleteThis upcoming year, I want to work on helping teachers plan their reading lessons in way that does not put the standards front and center, but instead uses the standards along with best practices, to help our students become better readers. I think most of our teachers have become more comfortable with the standards, so now it is time to move our focus back to developing readers who can comprehend texts at deeper levels.
The biggest take away that I had from this chapter is that I need to get back around to giving students time to read books of their choice and conference with them about what they are reading. I have moved away from this practice because I was having a hard time guaranteeing what they were doing with their own book choice lined up with the standards that I needed to assess. I am still not sure how that will work, but I will not completely abandon it either. We need to give them more opportunities to see us handle reading and how we comprehend our texts.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I want to work on this upcoming year is to create a method for students to talk about the books that they are reading. I love the idea of a blog for kids, some way for them to have a conversation about what they are reading. I also want to focus more on letting them muddle through text before we talk about what they read. I always feel the need to prompt them ahead of time about what they are going to read, but that is not necessary. They have to learn to approach a "cold" text and know what to do with it and how they will comprehend it. Great chapter!!!
I loved this chapter! I took away quite a bit of good information from this chapter. First, like Jodi mentioned, I definitely need to get back to letting my students choose a book that interests them and begin conferring with students on a regular basis. This is very hard to do in first grade because so many of my students are beginning readers who cannot read well independently, but I need to give my students the opportunity to try to read on their own and I need to get around to every student on a regular basis in order to see how their reading skills are building and improving. I also took away from this chapter that I need to give my students an opportunity to talk more with one another about their reading. So frequently I am trying to get my students to stop talking during reading time, but I realize now that they need that time (just as adults do!) to talk about what they read. I think this would be done best in partners in first grade. I want to incorporate this into my reading workshop by changing up our daily routine and sometimes doing partner talk about our smart stacks instead of doing share square.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I want to work on this upcoming year is focusing more on reading strategies. This year I focused so much on standards and making sure that my lessons were centered around the standards that I feel that reading strategies sometimes were forgotten. I believe reading strategies are so important in first grade because they help students to comprehend and understand what they are reading and enjoy reading more. This year I want to make sure that my lessons are not only focused on standards, but also are focused on reading strategies so my students can become more well rounded, stronger readers.