I have always been someone who enjoys reading. I can even remember back in kindergarten when I was first learning how to read! I want my students to have the same feeling about reading as I do. This chapter was about how children need a lot of opportunities to engage in independent reading time and receive support from their teacher. It talked about how teachers should work with students to set individual reading goals to encourage students to improve and read more.
My students have a designated time for independent reading each day and they get to read from books that they have chosen themselves. However, I could do more to improve this period of the day. This chapter makes me want to change around how I do things. I want to set aside time in the day where the whole class is engaging in independent reading and I want to meet with students to monitor their reading ability. Many of my struggling readers have trouble choosing books that are at an appropriate reading level for them. I did more of this at the beginning of the year to help those students learn how to choose good books but I should not have changed it. I should still be meeting with each of my students individually to monitor their progress. I plan on incorporating this into the routine as soon as I can.
Individual reading conferences provide lots of opportunities for pinpointing a student's needs. Once you get used to using them, you will never step away.
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