Blog # 3 Leslie Turnage Miller, Is There Enough Time?

The first chapter of the book discussed the importance of independent reading practice along with instruction.  It asked how you would feel if it were you, your kids, and books.  It would be wonderful to just teach children what good readers do and help them learn to fall in love with reading.   I liked the idea of teaching a skill or strategy for reading and then give them the time to independently practice.  I have done this, but we use them same text as a class with a partner.  I try to mix it up and read together, read with a partner, and then read independently.  For my low readers, I have believed the repetition of the story is helpful.  However, this year I have been working on providing my students with a comparable text with the story we are reading.  The biggest problem is finding a variety of levels for my students.  But I will not give up and now that we have a reading coach and technology coach to help, my goal is to provide a classroom of readers. 

I did try this today after reading and writing the top portion of this blog.  We discussed cause and effect.  We made an anchor chart and they made the same kind of chart in their reading journal.  Then the students were able to chose their own text and read to find a cause and effect in their books.  They wrote it on a stick note and added it to the anchor chart.  It seemed to go well and as I went around and worked with them, everyone was able to find a cause and effect from their book.  I was also able to walk around and listen to them read and we discuss the skill.