Bog 4 Lynn Brady: Miller Section 3

Blog 4 Lynn Brady: Section 3, No More Independent Reading Without Support

When I began reading this section of the book, I found myself thinking this is not what I have been doing all these years. Quiet reading and taking a test was what our reading block was all about. I found the following statement from the book interesting; The direct link between strong instruction and follow-up in independent work is a key component of IR. As I continued to read I discovered that Independent reading time is also a time of writing and sharing. Not necessarily just quite reading only. Finding the time for having our IR might not be as difficult as some of the examples given. I think our school has set a good standard when it comes to reading. Our announcements are pretty streamlined. However, I do like the idea of playing the music for our transition time. That is one area that I probably do loose too much time in trying to get my students to move from one subject to the next. However, I bet I could save some time if I played the music. I found it interesting that the author stated that you should eliminate the reading block of time. However, I am like the teachers in the book that she talked about and would like to keep the reading block. I also liked the idea of again playing soft music first thing in the morning while they read. The author wrote about keeping “It Authentic: Do readers do this in the world.” I have used that concept in math before but I have never thought about it in reading.  After reading the section in the book on the tactics, I really liked the way the author used their reading log to discover something about their reading. That is something I might be able to try easily and quickly. I found this book to be very interesting but not exactly what I do in the classroom. I could see me making some changes and giving it a try.