So all week long as I happily chattered about how good my kids were
I kept getting the same response: “honeymoon period”. Now I KNOW it is the “honeymoon period” in
which students are at their very best, but you just can’t LOVE to read during
the start to school and then hate it afterwards.
The past week and a half I have been riding such a euphoric teacher
wave because my students all love to read!
That’s right people! They have
not just checked out one book from my library, but two or three! (“Ms. C, I need a book for at home reading
and at school reading.”) Pardon the cliché,
but this is music to my ears! Also,
after showing my students the 8 or so books that I read over the summer, a few
asked to read my books! (I lent two
books out after gaining parental permission and hid away anything I didn’t want
to lend out.)
Three years ago, my school adopted the Balanced Literacy approach
to reading and writing instruction. For
two or three years, I made attempts, but personally felt that it did not
work. Now I think this is my year! These
kids have been taught with the Balanced Lit. model since 4th grade
and don’t find it odd to be asked to read a personal reading book in
class. They know how to use post-its to
track reading and so on. The first homework
assignment I gave my students was due yesterday. It was a letter to me about
their book. What a relief I had when reading
those letters! Student writing clearly
showed comprehension to the reading and development of ideas.
By the way…this is how I have structured my daily lessons (in case
anyone’s curious- I know I always am about other teachers’ class organization).
Period 1 of Block
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Break
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Period 2 of block
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-Students copy word of the day into their WOD packets daily (teacher
made packet)
-I discuss word-class shares sentences
-I go over the day’s objectives, hw, any other business to take
care of
-possible mini-lesson on reading/writing strategy I want students
to use for Daily 3 work
-Daily 3 choice work
(Daily 3 is word work, reading to self, and work on writing-
inspired from Daily 5 book)
(Students can now choose to read or work on one of the 2 writing
prompts that must be completed weekly.)
(During this time, I will meet with any students that need help. Mid to late week, I will confer with
students on their work and let them know their Daily 3 grade for the
week. They are graded on word work,
reading work, writing work, and overall behavior/effort for that week.)
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When the bell rings, students know Daily 3 work is done and they
may go on break.
As long as there are no behavior problems, this is the students’
time to do whatever they need to do.
I ask no questions. They may
go to another floor, visit a friend, etc.
But there are only 3 minutes, so they know they must do it quickly.
When we are back in class, students are usually not permitted to
leave the room. If they want/need to,
they must pay me a token (these are earned and traded in for prizes). I believe this is fair because my time with
the students is important and also because all students have been allowed
their break to take care of needs.
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-This is my direct instruction/lesson of the day.
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I am implementing an Interactive Student Notebook, so this period
is not all lecture, students will be actively taking notes, cutting, gluing, etc.
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Once my technology starts working, I will be using videos to go
along with my lessons and modeling writing for students.
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What reading strategies do you all use for independent reading in the classroom? Now that I can implement this, I’m eager to gain ideas!
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