As I began reading this section one thing that quickly stood out to me was that getting uninterested students interested in reading is a constant challenge. Stead offers a few ways to make these easier that I thought would be helpful in the future classroom. He suggests giving them time to read everyday, having a variety of texts available for them, teaching them about the purposes for reading, and helping them figure out how to respond to their reading. The first two suggestions are pretty general, and things that I would have considered, but I probably would not have first thought about teaching children about different purposes of reading and what to do after they read. After hearing them I think these are great suggestions that have the possibility of exciting students about reading!
Another thing that stood out to me was Stead's experience with creating organized systems in the classrooms he has worked with. It seemed that the systems he suggested for lending libraries in classrooms were all very well-organized and thought out. This is something that I want to take with me into the classroom, and something that I want to expand past reading. I really like the idea of giving groups of students different times to do tasks so that they all do not scramble into the lending library at once. It seems that systems such as these may take a few weeks for students to learn, but after they develop a routine I think it would work out nicely.
The second chapter offered a multitude of ideas to get students reading during the school day. Many of these ideas included working in centers set up around the room. I wish that I would have read this section before I was a part of a group that had to design a classroom reading plan in class! With Tennessee's state mandate requiring 60 minutes of small group work during daily reading instruction, I found this section to be so helpful in thinking of ways to use this time wisely. Here are a few of my favorite activities that were talked about:
- Reading the Room
- This involves letting a couple students go around the classroom during reading centers and looking for certain types of words around the room. Students reread text on posters, the board, and other materials to find words with different endings, patterns, symbols.
- Poems, Chants, Songs, and Rhymes
- This is a center where the teacher prints out various poems, chants, songs, and rhymes and puts them into a box for the center. The students can then practice reading them to each other. I thought that some of the books that we had looked at in class such as Hinky Pinks.
- Science Center
- In this center students read science texts and explore different items that relate to their readings that have been left in the center. I really liked this because it went across subjects and could be applied to other subjects such as social studies.
- Matching and Sequencing
- This involves students rearranging story sections/sentences so that they make sense. They read books and are then presented with strips printed with sections from the book. They are then required to order them correctly with their group. I liked this because I have noticed students often struggle with this on tests and see where this could be good practice.
I learned a lot of things in section one that I will take with me into the classroom. I am excited about reading the rest of Stead's text to see what other ideas I can gain!
You brought up a point I did not stop and think about much which is what to do after students are done reading. This makes the experience more meaningful for children when they understand an activity is attached to the reading rather than reading to read (which many students feel is pointless). I only wish he would have given more examples and spent more time on this topic because it is important to attach meaning or else you lose your audience a lot of the time.
ReplyDeleteI think section four answered many of our questions on what students should do after their reading that is meaningful. There are so many constructive options for children to respond to their reading.
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