Okay - The studies show that older students are not reading very much on their own. Less than 10 minutes per day. I think that is so sad. Now the challenge be known we as teachers need to work hard! All TV's need to be shut off and learning must begin. If it was only that simple. Each of us as teachers worry about our students because low reading ability affects grades in all subjects areas. After reading chapters 8 and 9 I realize that we must monitor and know our students well. We need to help build up comprehension skills and offer our students diverse text that will have a variety of topics that will keep each students interest. It's important to provide extended time for literacy. At our school we have increased the hours of a school day to provide a larger chunk of reading and math. I can see a difference in my students as they can read the text as a class and then do their independent work as well. It's important to help our students with writing, spelling and vocabulary.
Confidence develops and a student grows academically as they read for understanding. Smaller groups can work on specific needs. Teachers must carefully plan organized focused strategic intensive instruction. There are many teaching strategies mentioned and I realize even more then ever the importance of meeting the needs of disabled readers. As a lesson is presented it is important to preview a text and then encourage students to search for answers. The teacher needs to help her students learn by summarizing what was read. Our school had teacher training Thursday. It covered the importance of vocabulary words and understanding the meaning. If students don't have previous knowledge they will not understand what is read.
I am learning so much from reading this text myself. Hope your week is going well.
Chapter 8
ReplyDeleteGoing through this chapter I realized I have done alot of this with my older readers my past few years of teaching. It was re-assuring to see that I was doing the right thing/or something that gives them some more depth to their reading skills since they already know how to read. This doesnt relate to what I am teaching now for reading, since I am teaching the 3rd and 4th graders with the lowest reading skills ranging from Kindergarten to the middle of first grade. But staying on track with the chapter I agreed with the group brainstorming, paried brainstorming, think/pair/share, free write, KWL, and Thinking Aloud. All those strategies I have done before in my classroom. The things I would like to try more of would be the Anticipation Guide (I really liked that idea, and think its a great way for them to see what their thoughts were before they learned the facts. I also REALLY like the idea of the academic controversy, but the students need to be more focused and mature in order to really pull this off. I dont think my kids would do to great with it, but I would love to hear their POV's on the topic they researched. I also would like to incorporate the 3 part diaries (I believe this is what we tried in the classroom.) I could see the kids enjoying this and its a different way verses sharing things verbally.