Ashleigh Dozier Chapter 9 - Emphasize Guided Reading - Routman

     I really enjoyed reading this chapter of Routman's book.  I am very interested in starting literacy circles within my classroom and this chapter helped me to understand exactly what literacy circles are.  I learned that literacy circles should be scheduled 2 to 3 days a week.  The other days should be used as conference days.  This was new to me.  This would help me tremendously because I feel like I never have time to actually conference with my students.  In order to do literacy groups I would need more leveled texts in my classroom.  I like that the chapter explained that the levels of the books should be just challenging enough to where students can do most of the reading and problem solving on their own.  I am still working towards this in my classroom with my guided reading groups.
    Another point that was addressed in this chapter was class management during literacy and guided reading groups.  This is a major area that I need to work on in my classroom with group work.  Some of the tips were to monitor the students comprehension by provided a quick check for the groups, providing seat work such as open responses, questions, blogs, and book reviews.  I have begun to set up a blog spot for my students to leave book reviews for each other! I love this idea.  I also really like the idea of having book baskets at each group with their books of interest in them.
     I really enjoyed how this chapter talk through a guided reading group.  I am a person who learns visually.  I learn by seeing things done, or having things laid out for me to understand.  This chapter did just that for me! I am very excited to start a new way of teaching reading in my classroom!