Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Vicky McLain's September Blog Post 3 Finding Time for Independent Reading
I can remember writing DEAR time on my daily schedule as a first year teacher. The acronym speaks for itself. We would drop everything and read. I would do a few running records and our time would be up. It was about as thrilling as overhead transparencies displaying the black line masters from the basal! In section 1, Miller not only effectively convinces me of the importance of prioritizing independent reading but also the importance of making it engaging, meaningful, and relevant to real life. I agree that children learn to read by reading and they need proper support to read. When Miller began going through the practices that we could be guarding that are wasting precious time I felt like she was either guilty of them herself or has been in my classroom. There are still changes to be made that will free up time so I can make more time for what is most important.
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I think that you really connected to thought that independent reading needs to be more than just time to read. The engagement, the support, and the conversations take this time and transforms it into the real reading instruction that helps student to grow. The other things that we do--well, some aren't beneficial. The truth is that these time-wasters can be found in every classroom at some time or another. The reflective teacher evaluates them and makes changes to provide time for only what matters most and I believe that is a life-long task.
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ReplyDeleteI love that Miller convinced you of the importance of IR and keeping it "engaging, meaningful, and relevant to real life"! Finding time in the day is tricky. Did you get any ideas about how to do that in your classroom?
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