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.

Routman ch. 10 B. Lovett Post #4

Wow, this chapter turned out to be a gold mine as far as I'm concerned!  I have read several articles and things about guided reading so I knew what it was.  I've tried to use it in my classroom this year but tended to use it as a total class kind of teaching instead of teaching what skills needed to be taught separately to a specific group of children.  I was just teaching what I thought to be the "standard" skills everyone needed.  After finding out about Routman's informal reading guideline from chapter 7, I've learned that can become a guided reading lesson in itself.  I can use it to teach the child what he/she most needs to know, set goals with the child, and move him/her forward in the reading process.  I could very well have read something like that before but, right now it just clicks.  Another big take-away from this chapter is that guided reading can be used in ANY learning context in which the teacher guides one or more students through some aspect of the reading process, even in science and social studies.  Our team is really working through better integration of all subjects right now and it's exciting to realize that teaching reading isn't just about teaching "reading."  That sounds so simple and I'm embarrased to act like it just occurred to me but there was just something about this chapter and chapter 7 that "woke me up."
I also realized from this chapter that you can't just use any leveled text for guided reading.  The author states that these texts should be manageable but high-interest and lists several suggestions for the intermediate classroom, one of which I've recently finished reading aloud - Bud, Not Buddy.  I need to examine my book collection for quality.  Sounds like a great idea for an upcoming grant!
The workable schedule section was GREAT and will be so helpful as I try to establish this more specific layout of my reading block.  Again, this sounds crazy I suppose, but I just have my reading block labeled as "reading" and I've just been winging it every day as to what I do when.  I really like the 5th grade schedule on p. 215 and the purposes for guided reading discussed on p. 168.  I have re-typed this page as another guideline for me to use next year as I meet with groups.  I'm really excited to try these new things in my reading class.  I really don't know why I waited so late in the year to finish my last two blogs.  The chapters I've read have been so informative.

Routman chapter 7 B. Lovett post #3

I'm always anxious around midterm and report card time regarding my reading grades.  I never feel I have adequately assessed my students independent reading.  That's why I selected this chapter for post #3.  Routman tells us to make assessments and evaluation a daily routine and gives us two methods of doing this:  an informal reading conference framework and a reading rubric.
I really like the informal reading conference guideline.  I've always struggled with what I need to say when meeting with a student.  Usually it's been a general question such as "What is your book about?" or "Have you enjoyed reading this book?  Why or why not?" Therefore, the author's example conference form on p. 109 is a life saver.  In fact, I've already recreated it for use in my classroom next year.  The child-friendly reading goals (p. 106-107) have been added to my form. I plan to show these to and use them with my students so they know what strategies to use to become better readers. They need a list of things to think about as they read a book.  This brings me to another point Routman makes in this chapter - teach intentionally.  The evaluations she shares should be used for needs-based teaching.  "What's most important to teach at this moment for this child to move him/her forward?" I haven't been very good with goal setting in reading other than using a page count for students to meet by a set date.
The other assessment mentioned here is a reading rubric.  I became aware of reading rubrics when Katrina Hankins taught a Social Studies unit in my classroom on the Dust Bowl.  She showed these to me then and used them as assessment points for both the teacher and the student.  At the end of the unit, each student was given a rubric and asked to rate themselves.  The teacher also completed a rubric for each student.  The grade given was a combination of the two rubrics.  I've used a reading rubric one other time since then.  This is definitely a method of assessment I want to continue using.  I didn't send any of these rubrics home this year but I do want to include them next year in weekly graded packets.  I think parents need to see these as much as the students do.
This has been a very helpful chapter to me and I'm so glad I chose it.  These two assessments will be greatly beneficial for me in the coming months and years.

Alison Martin Blog post #4

Chapter 8 Teach Comprehension

In this Chapter Routman emphasizes that a lot of teaching is focused on word calling so students miss that words have meaning.  I agree with Routman when he states that comprehension has to be started early so that students can learn to comprehend deeply.  At the beginning of the chapter Routman states, “If we want readers to be critical thinkers, inquirers, and problem solvers, we need to introduce them to challenging, interesting tests.”  I love this statement. It made me think about my teaching, I feel like I need to challenge my students more with the text that I give them during guided reading groups.  In the chapter Routman emphasizes teaching the comprehension strategies during mini lessons by thinking out loud in front of your students. I feel like I do a good job of teaching the strategies but could work on providing challenging text for my students. I love the strategy that Routman states about self-monitoring.  I definitely talk about this strategy but I need to spend more time on it. Students will benefit from being able to evaluate their reading and comprehension by self-monitoring.