Karen S.
Johnson-December Blog
Ch. 4 (“Teach with a
Sense of Urgency”) from Reading Essentials:
The Specifics You Need to Teach Reading Well
Upon reading
the chapter title, I had to grin a bit as I thought to myself, “I teach with a
sense of urgency every day!” As I continued
to read, things became clear as I completed related to the points the author
was making. Although I agreed with
everything I read, I couldn’t help but to feel the pain in my feet as all ten
of my toes had been stepped on, but it was needed. I feel that I am too much of a control freak
and want to teach reading the old school way through basals and teaching skills
in isolation. Every year I improve, but
I’m not quite there yet. I’ve definitely
taken steps in the right direction by providing my students with books to read
from our classroom library. I feel that
I still do too much guided reading and that is part of being a control
freak. Integration has become a big part
of my teaching that has helped much of my lower performing students with
language acquisition. Two of the big take
aways from this chapter for me were to demonstrate to my students that I’m a
reader. Of course, I read to them, but
they need to see me reading for enjoyment during independent reading time. I also need to help them set goals as
readers. I have AR goals set for my
students, but it needs to be much more than that. I am hoping to do more goal setting through
reading conferences.
Karen, my fellow control freak, I feel your pain. :) Through the years, small changes have made the biggest impact. You're already doing great things differentiating for your gifted student and deciding to base goals on more than AR. Our driving goal as reading teachers is to help students see the value and pleasure in reading. Having conversations with them about what they're reading and encouraging them to explore books of choice are great small steps to implementing this in your classroom. No on expects a teacher to trash what they've always done and start completely over. Taking those small steps are the way to see lasting change. You're on the right track!
ReplyDeleteHi Karen,
ReplyDeleteAll ten of my toes have been stepped on to, but what I appreciate about the way we approach professional development is with the sincere desire to grow and improve our classroom practice so that we can better help and support our students as readers. I am thankful for these opportunities we have to foster change and our own professional growth. Thank you for considering ways to help your students grow in their independent reading. We appreciate you. Sincerely, Dawn