March/April

Comprehension
This chapter focuses on teaching comprehension. I like many other teachers have always taught reading strategies but Routeman introduce the idea of strategic reading. Strategic reading is done by thinking aloud in front of your students and thinking about tour own thiniking.  Routeman also says that we shouldn't focus on teaching one strategy and reminds us to keep our focus on strategic reading. He even advices us to use the 20%-80% rule: 20% on the explicit strategy and 80% on practicing using it through independent  reading.
One of the major take away a from this chapter is the fact that children have to have a connection with the text in order take make sense of new information. This is so true especially in younger grades. Sometimes I find myself talking about something and my students have no clue what I'm talking about because it's something they don't know anything about. Another thing was the importance of making sure I model my thinking process aloud.  I like modeling thinking aloud however it tends to get really loud because as I'm thinking aloud my students start to think aloud too which is good but I struggle trying to manage everyone's thinking. As I'm wilting this, I just came to the conclusion that I dont need to monitor their thinking process and to just acknowledge their thinking and keep on going.  That is what I plan on doing from here on out.

January/February

Examine Guided Reading

I could relate to this chapter because I had to examine my reading group this year and make some changes. In the article here stressed the importance of selecting books for guided reading very carefully. At the beginning of the school year my guided reading group wasn't very successful and the students weren't benefiting. We were using the read well books but I was doing more reading than the students. In the article he says that the students should spend most of the time reading. After about two or three weeks in I decided a change needed to be made because the students weren't engaged and they were losing their confidence in readinf. I changed the text that we were reading in order to give that was more on their level and put more of the focus on them reading and not me. I could immediately see the difference in their reading. Their confidence was back and they enjoyed being able to read to me and show me their skills. 

Another take away from this chapter, that I plan on implementing is where I sit. I sit in the middle but I'm going to sit to the side to show that they are the focus and not so much me. I plan on focusing more on meaning now too. In the beginning, because of my group being so low I focused more on teaching them how to read and reading as opposed to meaning. Now that they are reading I can focus more on meaning.

The chapter also addresses many other struggles related to guided reading groups such as the others students. Luckily I do jot have that issue because we all participate in guided reading at the same time. I have a group, my assistant has a group, and one of my groups are pulled out .

This chapter was very insightful. It made me feel good to know that I did the right thing by examining my reading group made the necessary steps to improve the success of my students. 

March/April Blog-You Only Have So Much Time

The title of this chapter drew me to it immediately!  I am always saying that there is so much to teach but that I only have so much time.  I loved the part about living an interesting life.  It helps teachers understand that it is ok to leave work at a reasonable hour. It explains that there should be no guilt about that!  I also like how they talked about thinking.  Currently, the majority of my planning occurs in my thoughts.  I think about what I want to do for a long time before I create a lesson.  The 'Trust Your Own Experiences to Help You Plan Well' section was encouraging.  I feel like I do this pretty well.  I always reflect on how a lesson went and change it based off of what would have worked better.  I do feel like I struggle with the 'Keep Work Meaningful' section.  There are many lessons that call for written work, however, sometimes I forget to only do what will be meaningful and get rid of the other 'stuff.'  I have observed many teachers 'Use Transitional Periods as Teaching Times.'  As a music teacher, I don't have as many of these.  However, I have seen Mrs. Simmons and Mrs. Barwick do this very thing many times!  It is encouraging to be able to read a text and immediately thing of colleagues who embody what the text is trying to get across.  I have learned a lot about transitional times from these teachers, just from simple observation!  The 'Mystery Word' section was also interesting!  This can be easily incorporated with the word wall!  I have recently re-discovered the benefits of making time for personal reading.  I felt so busy that I hadn't taken any time to do any pleasure reading.  As soon as I picked my book up, I felt so relaxed...it's amazing what a little reading can do for someone!

Jan./Feb. Blog-Examine Guided Reading

       This chapter was particularly eyeopening as most of what I do with my Kidwatching group is guided reading.  One thing that stuck out was that students should be placed in mixed-ability groups.  The group that I have, in my opinion, is not a mixed-ability group.  While their abilities vary to a degree, they are all 'low' readers in their classrooms, they all need a lot of support in their reading skills.  They have made improvement, some more than others, and could be more defined as mixed-ability now more than when I started working with them, but I still don't feel like it is enough to be able to say for certain that they are a mixed-ability group.  This is not 'flexible grouping' as the text suggests.
       I do feel as though our text selection has been good.  Our books have come from the literacy room that Mrs. Culbreth has set up.  She has provided wonderful guidance in text selection.  My students responded really well to the graphic novel format.  We have used those and have loved working with them!
       The work schedule we have is not what the text recommends.  We work for 45 minutes once a week.  The text recommends a shorter time frame done multiple times a week.  Due to the schedule of my classes and the class schedule of the classes these students are in, what the text recommends is not a reality for us.
       We have spent a lot of time doing reading related projects in addition to the actual reading portion.  Looking at the text, we need to spend even more time than we have been on reading.  It is so hard to have them write, about a topic we chose from our reading, and not feel as though you, as the teacher, have enough time to conference with each of them.  This could take a few weeks when you are meeting with each student and you only see them once a week.
       I enjoyed the section on modeling behaviors.  I feel like I do some of these well, but overall I need to improve in this area.  The excerpts from reading groups were great examples of how I can apply these behaviors in addition to appropriate strategies and responses I can use in teaching the text.

December Blog-Emphasize Shared Reading

I very much enjoyed reading about shared reading.  I realized that I do this quite a bit, with my younger students, in music class!  I have done this in my Kidwatching group, but I need to incorporate this more.  I was glad to see that there was a read aloud "What to do..." portion included.  It helped me to understand ways to engage the reader and to promote gaining meaning from the text.  Having these examples of questions and directions has opened my mind to new ways to help them learn from the text.  ("Turn to the person next to you, and discuss how Kenyon can solve his problem," "Talk in pairs.  How has Little Dolly changed?  What happened to Kenyon?  How have they changed as people?,"  "Let's read this page together.  As we read, think about what's the most important thing about what Trudy did.  Reread the page with your partner if you need to.")  I also liked how it used The Witch of Blackbird Pond as an example of introducing a literary genre.  Before reading the text, the teacher takes a snippet from a page and uses it to teach foreshadowing.  I like this idea!  It has helped me think about how to incorporate that strategy into my Kidwatching group.  I appreciate where they give more teaching tips for shared reading.  However, here is my question for those of you with more experience in these areas than myself:  If you don't have a transparency projector and your students are using a class set of books, how do you keep students from reading ahead and being lost when you ask a question or give a discussion thought?

Caleb Thrower: March/April

I decided to finish out by reading Chapter 8 in Reading Essentials which covers the importance of modeling and teaching comprehension. This chapter was especially intriguing to me because this is my biggest area of concern with my current class. Time after time we have read stories and done detailed breakdowns only for students to not have any idea as to what the story was about or trying to convey.  This chapter offered some great strategies to not only help model how I comprehend things when I read but to also help students fully understand texts they are given.

I often take for granted that a student will be able to read a story and then be able to tell me exactly what said story was about. After all, I do this quite frequently. But I often fail to realize that I do things in my mind, almost subconsciously, that help me understand what I read and these are not skills that students have been taught or learned yet.

I realized reading this chapter that I do things in my head while reading without thinking. I ask questions, analyze points, connect with characters, etc. and these things collectively help me to "get" what a particular text is trying to convey. I never recall learning these skills specifically but they have enhanced me as a reader greatly. Teaching students these questions to ask while reading will enable them to fully understand and comprehend what they are reading. Those questions include: "Who are the characters?", "Why did they do that?", "How does that affect others?", "Do I need to re-read that section?". All of these questions promote a self conversation while reading furthering understanding of the text.

If students can learn this skill then comprehension will not become an after thought. Instead of just simply call familiar words in a row students will learn to understand a deeper meaning of the words and how they help them to understand the text.