Independent Reading
1/25/2019
As I mentioned in my last blog, I recently read an article from The International Literacy Association that confirmed my philosophy of best reading practices, practices that thankfully PNA embraces and that teachers implement in each of the classrooms through the workshop model. The article, "Creating Passionate Readers Through Independent Reading," reaffirmed the importance of several key factors of the literacy environment in schools: student choice; creating time for, nurturing, and instructing through independent reading; and growing stamina. In a previous blog, I focused on student choice, and I will focus on independent reading in this post. So what exactly does independent reading look like in the classroom? In a literacy leadership brief, "the ILA identifies the components of independent reading.
Independent reading has many benefits, which do include "competence, confidence and joy." I see this daily as students read through large stacks of books and then share them with classmates. Furthermore, independent reading provides students with the opportunity to practice independently implementing the skills and strategies they have learned. This lets me see who is applying the strategies independently and who still needs additional support to do so. It also allows me to meet with students individually and in small groups, which in turn allows me to focus on the skills that each child personally needs to continue developing as a reader. It also helps students grow their reading stamina and build lifelong reading habits. What does this look like in the kindergarten classroom? It looks like our daily reading workshop, which incorporates each component on the list above. It begins with students meeting on the carpet for the mini-lesson, in which I provide explicit instruction about what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to be a reader as well as specific strategies that readers use when reading. The strategies cover everything from using picture support to figuring out challenging words to bringing books to life and talking about them. During the mini-lesson, I model the strategy and then students have the opportunity to practice it with me and each other. I always end the mini-lesson with a mission, my call-to-action for students to use what we have just learned during their independent (which we call private) and partner reading time. During private and partner reading time, students choose a comfy spot in our classroom to read. While they read, I meet with groups of students and check in with individual students. I might provide encouragement, additional specific, explicit instruction, or initiate a conversation about what they are reading, which strategies they are using, and what their next steps as a reader might be (i.e. their goal). During this time, students who are not meeting with me read by themselves or with a classmate, implementing the strategies they have learned to read their books, bring them to life, and have conversations about them. In this way, the specific needs of each child are met each day, all while our little readers have the opportunity to develop lifelong reading skills and a love of reading. It is truly a magical time in our day, one that both the students and I look forward to.
Honoring a Vision
1/22/2019
Every year on Martin Luther King Day, Pacific Northern Academy has an assembly to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year, student council planned the annual event with a beautiful assembly and a "day on," in which students learned about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision and contribution to our world. There was also an emphasis on the work still to be done throughout the world and in Alaska. Student council talked about this during the assembly and then led students in making blessing bags for the homeless in Anchorage. We educate students to be exceptional learners and independent thinkers of vision, courage, and integrity.At PNA, our mission is to educate students to be exceptional learners and independent thinkers of vision, courage, and integrity. It is hard to think of a better exemplar of an independent thinker of vision, courage, and integrity than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. When faced with the injustice of our world, he had a vision for a better world. And then he spent his life fighting for that vision and sharing it with others, with both courage and integrity. This year, the staff and students decided to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by celebrating his vision for our world and trying to live out his message on Monday. It is not only our desire for students to live out his message every day, but also to follow in his footsteps. We want students to change the world: to have a vision and the courage to follow it with integrity. Book Shopping
1/19/2019
This past week I read an article from The International Literacy Association that confirmed my philosophy of best reading practices, practices that thankfully PNA embraces as well. The article, "Creating Passionate Readers Through Independent Reading," reaffirmed the importance of several key factors of the literacy environment in schools: student choice, creating time for, nurturing, and instructing through independent reading, and growing stamina. All of these are components of the workshop model, a model which each teacher at PNA establishes in his/her classroom for reading and writing (and often math as well). I will elaborate more on student choice in this blog post and follow up in subsequent blog posts about the others. As you noticed this week, students began book shopping in the morning, as they are ready to book shop with more independence. Book shopping is pretty much just what it sounds like. On their book shopping day, each student "shops" for books from our classroom. But not just any books, books that they choose. We call them "just right" or "good fit" books. These are books that they can read most of the words in and that are about topics that interest them. Oftentimes, they search for books that a reading partner has introduced to them. "When independent reading focuses on reader choice, readers inevitably find books they love, and then they often find friends and others to hold a conversation with about such books."Since the beginning of the year, students have read both privately and with partners. During private reading, they practice implementing the skills taught during mini-lessons independently. With partners, they have the opportunity to practice bringing stories to life, talk about their books, and share the joy of reading with others. They learn to give "book talks," in which they tell their partner about the pattern in the book (if there is one) and what the book is mostly about. More recently, we have expanded book talks to include recommendations as well. This is an opportunity for our little readers to share the books they love, while also encouraging comprehension and retelling in a very authentic way. It also trains them to coach one another. When they give a book talk on a particular book, it makes that book easier for their partner to read independently by establishing background knowledge and providing the pattern or main idea of the book. This expands the amount of books approachable to each child, and it provides an authentic way for them to share the books they love, something that will hopefully become natural to them as they repeat this process over and over again. "These approaches for students to share their voices about what and why they read provide specific feedback to other student readers for motivation as well as encouragement to continue with daily independent reading."Students who know which kinds of books they like and are able to pick out their own books are more likely to become avid readers. They are more likely to have stacks of books that they want to read and therefore spend sustained and focused time reading. "Research establishes that one cause for the difference between good readers and poor readers is the difference in the amount of time spent reading." In other words, students who read more become better readers than students who do not. In our kindergarten classroom, our little readers are expected to read for 15 minutes privately and for 15 minutes with a partner every day. This amount of sustained, focused reading requires books that will keep their attention, and this is where book shopping and student choice are especially powerful tools. Each student has a shopping list that helps them know how many books they should have and at which reading levels. This, coupled with book talks from classmates, ensures that our little readers have enough books to keep their attention for a sustained period of reading time and that they can actually read their chosen books using the skills and strategies they have learned in mini-lessons. This is important for two reasons. First, it makes lifelong reading skills routine for our little readers. They are naturally and authentically establishing literacy habits and rhythms, choosing books that interest them and sitting down to read, enjoy, and later share them. Secondly, it allows me to work with students, both one-on-one and in small groups, to target the specific skills and strategies they need to reach their reading goals. It allows me to focus on a few readers while ensuring that the rest of the class is still growing as readers. None of our precious reading time is wasted. Students either receive instruction specifically tailored to their needs or they practice independent reading habits and, through that, begin to create the habit of becoming a lifelong reader. "Motivating students to read is easier to accomplish when students select their own books because student choice in reading materials develops a love for reading that often lasts a lifetime. These students can name the books that have affected their lives, the next ones they want to read, and those favorite genres that keep them up at night reading."Reading a book independently that they chose is highly rewarding for students; our little readers beam with pride when they can read through a brand new stack of books. It daily establishes the fact that they are a reader and that reading is fun, joyful, and rewarding. What better way to create lifelong readers than to help our littlest learners fall in love with reading and then give them the tools to read independently, choosing their own books and carving out time to read, enjoy, and share them?
Becoming Avid Readers
1/11/2019
This week we began our unit on becoming avid readers, readers who do not just read books, but love them, enjoy them, savor them, and share them with others. One of the goals in kindergarten literacy is of course for our students to learn to decode text, but perhaps the most important aspect of kindergarten literacy is helping our little ones fall in love with books, with reading, with stories and language, with the magic of reading to transport, transform, and make us feel. While I aim to help our students see the magic of literacy all year, this unit especially highlights it. Not only does it help our little ones fall in love with reading, but it emphasizes a few key skills that help them do so, skills that also help them become better readers: comprehension and connection. Through this entire unit, students are encouraged to truly become avid readers. We discuss what it looks like and feels like to be an avid reader. We note that avid readers read giant stacks of books, get excited to read, and enjoy each book or story. Our little ones are given the mission each day to enjoy their books, and to do this they really need to read closely and think about what is going on in the book. They need to connect with the text and think about how the characters are feeling, changing, and growing. As students put themselves into the shoes of the characters, their empathy grows. Some lessons call them to name the characters' feelings and capture it on a post-it note so that they can share it with their reading partner. Did I mention that avid readers cannot keep their books to themselves? They talk about and share their books with others. Not only does literacy connect us with characters, but it connects us with others as well. Seeing our little ones read to each other, claiming, "Oh this is the funny part. It's coming up." or "Here comes the gross part. Isn't that disgusting?" is often my favorite part of the day. Looking around the room and seeing their animated faces as they share their books with each other lets me know that our mission has been accomplished. They are learning to empathize with the characters, think about what is happening in their books, and truly enjoy reading.
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Saania AliMs. Ali graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelors of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies. She specializes in Early Childhood Education, ESL, and Special Education. Her hobbies include traveling, reading, and painting! Archives
April 2021
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