Posts Tagged ‘Reading’
Over the past few weeks, I have been conducting reading conferences with my students. It is quickly becoming a great teaching practice: one where I can derive so much important information about my students, and one that my students look forward to.
I first got the jolt to reinvest time in this practice during a professional development day focused on reading and literacy. The presenter emphasized the importance of student-choice independent reading and reading conferences. The next day, I increased the amount of independent reading I allow for in my classroom, reminding students of the importance for their own learning and experience. The reading conferences came a few days later, but then I jumped right in.
During a Studio Day I conducted with my class, I decided to get my materials in order so that I would be ready to take adequate and practical notes during the reading conferences. While my students worked on their project for the day, I created my Reading Conferences flip chart. It sparked the students’ interest as they watched me carefully measure out the placement of each big index card and slowly write their names on each one. When I was done constructing it, I decided to make a title card. On it, I wrote “Reading Conferences” as well as the strategy our presenter explained to us on how to conduct a successful conference:
Research ~ Decide ~ Teach
At the time of our professional development, we watched some videos that showed example conferences and our attention was drawn to how in a good conference the teacher did his/her Research by asking an open ended question such as, “What are you reading and what are you thinking as you read?” and then listening to the student. While the student spoke about his/her reading and thinking, the teacher Decided on what concept to touch upon in their 5 minutes together and then Teach it.
This way of organizing a conference has been very beneficial to me. I go over to a student, ask them the question, listen and from there decide on what I want to emphasize. For one girl who was reading a coming of age book, it was on text to self connections. One boy was reading a Sports Illustration which led to a brief discussion on finding articles that interest us and reading for content. Another boy, who happened to be reading the illustrated classic, Moby Dick on Big Universe spoke with me about the illustrations in the ebook and how it helped him visualize the story. Each conference is greatly different from the next. It is truly individualized teaching.
When our conference is over, I jot down the date and a few notes as well as a tally mark indicating which students have met with me. My students have been excitedly waiting for their own 5 minutes with me and I look forward to learning more about them as we have our own private chat about reading. It’s a win win.
It’s really nice when new life is breathed into an old concept and this is what happened for me. Of course, I’m curious as to how you conduct reading conferences in your classrooms. Please comment and let us know!
~EMP
A while back I attended a workshop on reading instruction and one thing that really struck me (and the rest of the group) was the value of independent reading. I have been asking my students to Drop Everything And Read for as long as I’ve been a teacher (13 years so far), but during this workshop I was forced to realize how I had strayed from purposeful, reflective, independent reading.
There are some students, of course, who will sit with a book for hours if you let them and those who will turn pages creating the illusion of reading. My job then becomes to coach both types and levels of readers (and all those in between) and to help them engage more with their reading.
Holding students accountable for their reading balanced with time to reflect on their reading after a period of time is important and the model which I have committed to use for the remainder of the year. I expect students to keep a log of what they read, including the title, author and dates they read the book or story. I am also asking students to take a reflection moment at the end of our time to write down what they are thinking. It may be a question, a comment, a connection or a prediction. The students are deciding what is the best way for them to do this individually. Some are using sticky notes and putting them in the pages of the book. Others are using sticky notes and placing them on the back of a recycled piece of paper to keep in their binder. Others are writing their thoughts on a lined piece of paper, noting the date and page number as well as their idea or question.
Some students love reading independently on Big Universe. These students can use sticky notes or a log to keep track of their thoughts and questions or use an online resource to do so. Evernote could prove to be useful. The favorite among online users, though is to create a Google doc to track their ideas as they read through a book, toggling between Big Universe screens and Gdoc screens.
Giving students this 2-5 minutes of reflection time on their own independent reading has been great. It allows struggling readers to think back about their text and check for understanding and it allows high level readers to think even more deeply about their texts. And I must say that more and more students are enjoying the opportunity to take a quick trip to the Computer Clubhouse or Lab to do their independent reading on Big U.
How do you structure your independent reading time?
~EMP
There’s something about watching a traditional story in the traditional way. Last week, I went with a group of teachers on a Teacher Field Trip to see A Christmas Carol at the Player’s Ring in Portsmouth, NH. They had advertised it to have a modern twist, but in fact it was a very traditional Christmas Carol wrapped in a modern family story. That was nice.
Like I had mentioned in a previous post about Variations on A Classic, it is fun to know an original and get acquainted with other variations. These last couple weeks in December, my students have continued their study of Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Eve by Robert Frost. Among other things, we read and watched a fun version of the poem on Big Universe: Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Eve.
Big Universe also has a great version of A Christmas Carol online. It is an illustrated cartoon layout, but it contains very traditional characters and settings. My students have enjoyed reading this story in a new way and it has been fun to watch them read it.
Be sure to check out the other great holiday finds on Big Universe and share them with your students.
We read so many books cover to cover, from beginning to end, but sometimes it’s ok not to do that.
Recently, I assigned the book Immigration by Debra J. Housel to my students since we are studying immigration in class. This is one of the many great non-fiction books found on Big Universe. I especially like texts written such as this because it really lends itself to jump-reading.
After introducing the book to my class, I had them take a picture and text walk. In this book there are so many headings, pictures, captions and small bits of information that it took a bit of time during which students were drawn into certain sections. Once we had performed our pre-reading ritual, I invited the students to choose sections that most interested them and read those pages. Just like the variety of students I have in my class, there was a variety of topics on which they chose to focus.
Slowly and in a seemingly random way, students created their own path through much of the book. And that path seemed to make sense to them. A couple students started at the concluding pages and then went right back to the beginning. My Chinese student was naturally drawn to the pages on The Asian Experience as were a couple of her close friends. It was interesting to peek over students’ shoulders and see what information they chose to read.
We talked about what it was like to read parts of a book, not necessarily in order. Many students liked it. It gave them some choice and didn’t overwhelm them with too much information. After some time, I asked students to pair up with another student and share what they read. Some students found that they had read the same pages and talked about the interesting facts they learned. Other students found themselves sharing their new knowledge with a friend.
The students then created a t-chart (much like the one Melissa Edwards talks about in Experiences and Connections) with the two headings: “What I learned” and “What I want to read next”.
Unfortunately, we had run out of time in our Computer Clubhouse at school, but the list of what they wanted to read next became their homework. (There’s nothing like the recommendation from a peer!)
It was fun for the students to flip through the book and discover information that was meaningful to them and I look forward to using this activity with other books on Big Universe that you don’t have to read cover to cover.
~EMP
I put my kids on a top secret mission. They were each to be handed an envelope and instructed to not show ANYone what was inside. But first they needed to construct their working areas. With privacy shields and chairs acting as barriers, each pair built a top secret working area and once given their envelope, they went straight to work. Their mission: to display one of the top 10 ways to become a better reader on a paper no bigger than 9 x 12. Once all groups had completed their mission, the top 10 ways would be revealed.
The kids took their work very seriously and I made sure all groups were provided with the necessary materials: scissors, markers, glue, paper. (Actually, it was kind of fun hamming it up, going to the extreme as I emphasized the importance that each pair worked in secret.) But there was a reason for this secrecy – each group had the same thing in their envelope: READ.
About a decade ago, I went to a guided reading workshop where the presenter, Cindy Merrilees showed the group of us this line of products (that maybe she was involved with creating???) to promote reading. The coffee cup, canvas bag and large poster all have the same image on them. At first, I wanted to buy something, but then I thought, “How much better for my students to create their own version of this!” And we did. My second graders had a ball creating and cutting out the letters that would put together the top 10 ways to become a better reader.
This year in my fourth grade class, I have some reluctant readers and students who just don’t see the value in reading, so I thought it would be fun to create this same visual again. The difference was in the “top secretness” and that was a great way to get these kids invested! As they worked, each pair stayed very focused on their task, taking ownership of their own mission. But once they were done, they were ready to see the others that were revealed.
As each group finished, I collected their poster ever so carefully and asked them to clean up. (It wasn’t until every group was done that I let them roam the room to put things away.) Once the room was back to normal, we gathered in a circle and I very carefully handed the posters back out. I counted to three and simultaneously they all revealed their way to become a better reader.
It took a moment as they looked around the room, but then they started to react.
“Oh, my gosh! They all say read.”
“What?!? They’re all the same?”
A couple kids just smirked an nodded as they looked around the circle.
“Read? Really?”
“Well, I guess that makes sense.”
“You have all told me how much you agree that being a good reader is important,” I concluded for the group. “If you strive to be a better reader, then you have to work at it and the best way to do so is to read, read, read, read,” and the students chimed in, “read, read, read, read, read, READ!”
Then we brought our “read” posters out to the hall and made our display for the rest of the school.
A couple weeks back I posted this question to my fourth grade students as a way to get them thinking about their own reading habits: “What do good readers do?” I wrote it on a white board easel and left it up for a week. Kids covered it with ideas!
“Good readers think about what’s going on in the story or text.”
“Good readers look at the pictures because they sometimes help them figure out what’s going on in the story.”
“Good readers use the five finger rule (to help them pick out a book).”
“Good readers use context clues.”
“They chose an interesting book, not a boring one.”
“Good readers make predictions.”
I was so happy to see how many things they came up with. (I forgave the spelling, as you may see.) Their ideas ranged from picking out a book and prereading strategies to comprehension and word attack skills. It was a great opportunity for me to see that the students really are listening to us teachers!
After the week was up, we took some time to go over all their ideas and discuss them. I was so pleased to have such a lively conversation about reading with my students. Because their ideas drove the discussion, they were excited to talk about what they had added to the board. My hope is to revisit this activity again in a month or so and see what other things they can think of.
So what was the moral of the story? For me, it was a reminder that students need to both show what they know and take ownership of their own learning. I didn’t give them a list of what good readers do, they came up with it themselves. That will make a much bigger impression in the long run.
~EMP
Since November 2011 has been declared Picture Book Month by a group of authors and illustrators (to learn more about that, see a previous post: What are you doing to celebrate … ), I want to share a few more things I have found related to picture books on some of my favorite sites!
Wonderopolis
ReadWriteThink (I was surprised how many resources I found for middle and high school)
ArtsEdge
- Set a Poem to Music: After exploring a “singable” picture book as a class, each student examines a personally selected poem for rhythm to determine its musical meter. Using previous musical skills, students set the poem to music. As a final reflection, they create a two-page spread of a picture book that contains their “singable” poem.
- Map it Out: Explore how illustrations contribute to the telling of a story by creating illustrations to accompany text, and then creating text to accompany illustrations. Students will explore picture books (without words) and discuss the specific elements of the illustrations that “tell” the story. They will learn to “read” illustrations as they look at the ways in which pictures reveal information about the characters, setting, and plot of a story.
- Animal Habitats: Pre-readers are introduced to animal habitats through story, song, and dramatic play using children’s picture books. Students use chronological ordering and phonics to reinforce beginning literacy skills. Students explore a non-traditional method of book illustration and create their own story page
I was pleasantly delighted with what I was able to find when I went to various instructional resource site and simply searched for “picture books” since there were so many interesting finds! Besides the few sites listed above, here are the search results on Thinkfinity, netTrekker, Shmoop, LEARN NC, and even Learn360!
And remember, on Big Universe Learning, there is a whole category just especially for Picture Books that includes about 290 publisher books and 110 member-created books!
Let’s Celebrate Picture Books this month and all year long!!
*I created the image at the top by copying and pasting a list of picture book title to make a word cloud using Wordle.net (I used a tilde ~ between words to keep the words in the titles together)
Reading has been on the top of my priorities recently; more so than in the past. I’ve been weeding through my classroom library, talking more about books to my students, encouraging good reading habits at home, providing time for them to read in class and on Big Universe and overall, making sure that reading is at the forefront of my classroom.
Just a couple of days ago, there was a #4thchat Twitter chat centered around struggling readers. During that time, Mike McQueen of www.readingontherun.com tweeted to me stating, “Many Struggling Readers prefer nonfiction but are smothered in fiction daily.” That got me thinking about my own students. Do I provide enough balance in my classroom between fiction and non-fiction? Do I provide a variety of genres and texts for my students to read?
I know of one of my students whose parents came to me concerned that he was only reading non-fiction texts. My reply was, “If he is reading on his own and enjoying it, let him. We will be introducing him to a variety of texts in the classroom as well.”
Students come to us with their own interests and their own talents. Our job is to constantly challenge them with what they know and love and push them to experience new things. This is very true with reading. Whether we are using traditional texts: books, magazines, articles, storybooks, or online resources: online articles, searched information, the ebooks on Big Universe or a mixture of the two, our goal should be to get students interested in and reading a variety of texts.
How do you make sure your students are reading a variety of texts?
~EMP
Prereading is a very important step for a good reader. Every year when I get a new group of students and we begin the study of our first story, students are quick to point out that they know they should first take a “picture walk,” but I am quick to modify their thinking and tell them that not only should they be taking a picture walk, but also a “text walk.” That starts a great conversation about prereading a text.
Text Walks – Once the students are reminded of the importance of scanning text, all the different types of text are discussed: titles, subtitles, table of contents, headings, captions, bold words, words in italics, the use of different fonts and font sizes and colors.
Picture Walks – Discussing the various text features to consider also brings up the different types of pictures that can be displayed throughout a text: photographs, illustrations, maps, graphics, diagrams and charts.
Together, the two create an in-depth study of the book or story. This can lead to great discussions about what genre a book is and, of course, allows us to do other things good readers do like make predictions, ask questions, make connections and draw conclusions.
My students and I create a t-chart that contains these text and pictorial features. On one side are the text features and the other side are the pictorial. This quick graphic organizer, drawn in the shape of a t, is created multiple times throughout the year so that we are revisiting this prereading strategy again and again.
So much can happen just at the cracking open of a book whether it’s online or in hand. It’s important to get students into the habit of scanning both pictures and text before they settle in to start reading. Doing so is a great way to get young readers interested and invested in reading before they even begin.
What other picture and text features do you look at before reading?
There are many reasons to read: to gather information, to understand a concept, to complete an assignment, to learn something new, but the most important reason is to read for enjoyment. Whether we are students or teachers, young or old, reading should become a way to enjoy the world around us. Through reading we can explore new places, put ourselves in others’ shoes, discover things otherwise unknown. Reading becomes an avenue for learning and adventure.
When reading becomes just another assignment to students, some of that joy fades away. We’ve all been there. I know I have. As a kid, I was an avid reader, but once reading became more of an assignment than a choice, my enjoyment of reading dwindled. Through the years, teachers here and there in high school and college gave a spark of interest to different types of reading and it started to become more than just something I could enjoy, it truly started to expand my horizons. I discovered new authors, new topics, new reasons to read and that just added to the enjoyment. I guess reading is a life-long journey. Now, time seems to be the only limit to what I want to read.
At Big Universe, reading is balanced between teacher assignment and student choice. My students love putting books on their shelves and sharing book recommendations through the social aspect of the site. The students are also discovering the power behind knowing their own reading levels. I have shown some of my students their levels and how to search for books that are just right. A couple of boys in particular are finding this to be empowering and, in turn, are enjoying their reading experience even more.
With all the reading students are required to do, it’s important to remember to make reading enjoyable. Sometimes I have to pause myself and remember this. We’re building life-long learners and therefore, life-long readers and the key to that is to make reading an enjoyable and rewarding task.
