Whittaker blog post 2

In Not this but that, No More Independent Reading Without Support, Miller states the importance of balancing school reading opportunities with choice reading texts. One of the best literacy decision that I made this year was allowing my students to choose more of what they want to read and less of what I want them to read. When students have the opportunity to choose their own books they feel empowered, gain interest and are more likely to read even more books. Several of my students prefer nonfiction books about animals, space, plants etc. while a majority enjoys popular fictions books such as Pete the Cat, Laura Numeroff Series, Junie B, Fly Guy to name a few.  I like the fact that Miller mentions that even though we should let students choose their own books we should still make it a priority to make sure that students are exposed to a variety of genres. I’ve tried as much as possible, to do that for example, my students have had the opportunity to read biographies during Black History Month, poems related to the different seasons, several fairy tales and folktales and informational books on topics studied in Science and Social Studies.  Some of the texts were easy, but most were difficult but those difficult texts have helped them to grow as readers.

Whittaker blog post 1

In Not this but that, No More Independent Reading Without Support, Miller states that when children read extensively, they learn about themselves, other people, and the world; they learn that reading is something they can do that empowers them to control their lives, connect with each other, and make the world a better place. My students have learned the importance of reading and we make time for independent daily.  They make connections to real life experiences and the book sharing time seems to make the books come alive in their eyes.  The more they read, the more information they learn and share amongst one another. I love to see the eagerness and excitement when they learn something from reading as well as each other. I have learned how to limit time consuming activities such as calendar, workbooks, centers etc. to increase the time that my students are reading in class.  Miller also states that the more opportunities we can give children to read, the better and I totally agree!

Sabrina Fair - Post #4 - Routman Chapter 12: You Only Have So Much Time

I think every teacher instantly makes a connection with Chapter 12:  You Only Have So Much Time.  I like the way the author addresses not only the time crisis in our professional lives, but our personal lives as well.   It is so easy for us to lose ourselves in the work that we do.  It never stops; our jobs are never done.   There is always something else that gets added to our list just when we think we see an end in sight.   I have learned over the last several years how important it is to prioritize my life, both personal and professional.    Personally, I had to decide to limit the work that I do at home so that I can actually live.   For example, I decided a few years ago that I would no longer grade student work at home.   Although I occasionally broke that rule, my decision to leave ungraded work at school opened up a significant block of time.   I’ve tried to create the same rule for lesson planning.  I’m able to apply that rule maybe 50% of the time.  I’m still working on it.   I have found that I’m more productive and I enjoy my job as a teacher more when it doesn’t take over my life.

Chapter 12 also addresses adjusting our schedules at school so that the time we do have with students can be used more effectively.  I think it is important to be reflective and really think of what we are doing in the classroom, and determine why we are doing those things.   We should consider eliminating those activities that are not meaningful to open up our schedules for things that are.  Sometimes it’s really hard to let go of what we’ve “always done”, but we have to do so if we are going to create a more effective learning environment.  The author makes reasonable suggestions such as appropriate pacing and making resources more useful and easy to access. Sometimes the smallest change can make the biggest difference.

Sabrina Fair - Post #3 Routman Chapter 9: Emphasize Shared Reading

I agree with Routman’s assessment that shared reading is an important part of balanced literacy that is missing in many classrooms.   Shared reading is often overlooked, and unfortunately many students miss the opportunity to have fluency and strategic reading modeled for them.  At my former school, we had extensive professional development related to shared reading and those learning experiences helped me develop shared reading as a central component of literacy in my classroom.  

From my own teaching experiences, I know that shared reading benefits all readers.  Even our highest level readers need help applying comprehension strategies as they navigate more challenging text.  For example, inferencing can be a difficult concept for many students.   But through shared reading, teachers can model their thinking as they apply the strategy while they read.  This helps students understand the thinking that goes behind the application of the skill.

Many of my shared reading lessons have involved monitoring comprehension and applying fix-up strategies to get readers back on track when comprehension breaks down.  When I first began teaching, one of the things that I quickly learned about my students is that many of them had no idea that they were not comprehending text.  And, the times when students did acknowledge that there was a break down in comprehension, they had no idea of what to do to better understand the text.   I taught mini-lessons to explicitly teach appropriate strategies.  Through shared reading experiences I was able to model how I monitored my own comprehension as well as modeling strategies to “repair” my comprehension. Shared reading has given me many opportunities to make reading strategies more visible and concrete to my students.