Blog 3: Kim Plexico- October Blog :Miller (2013) Section 2: Why Not? What Works?

Blog 3: Kim Plexico- October: Miller (2013) Section 2: Why Not? What Works?

As I read through the chapter on Independent Reading and the importance of it both in school and out of school, this quote from the book stuck with me- “By dropping IR, in favor of literacy instruction to raise test scores, they’ve eliminated one of the most powerful ways to improve student achievement”.  I admit that I was often guilty of this mentality in many ways.  To answer the question of the chapter as to why literacy instruction and basal readers do not meet the students’ needs, the author stated the benefits of IR which included improves fluency and comprehension, heightens motivation, broadens vocabulary, and increases reading achievement.  As teachers, we should model how to self-select books, confer with students, monitor and provide feedback, and make students accountable for their reading.  This was the missing piece in my Independent Reading time in my classroom.  I gave students time to read and I walked around as they read listening, supporting, and monitoring, but I was not conferencing with my students one on one to monitor and provide feedback and holding them accountable for their reading.  In order for IR to be effective, the key ingredients are self-selection, student accountability, and ongoing monitoring of student progress.  With early readers, they need opportunities to read silently but there must also be opportunities for oral reading activities.  These may include repeated reading activities, choral or echo reading, partner reading, and assisted oral reading and is balanced with explicit instruction in how to read.  The author provided a model using Fluency Oriented Reading Instruction where the teacher using 3 different grade level texts in a week.  The text is introduced through teacher-directed and shared reading experiences.  The students practice reading through echo, partner, and choral reading.  They are allowed opportunities for both silent and oral reading.  After reading this, I felt as though I provided the appropriate explicit instruction on how to read, but I needed to improve IR by providing more choice with silent reading and the progress monitoring that it entails.  From the beginning of this school year, IR has been an area where I have grown as a teacher by putting the missing pieces into practice with my students.  I have seen growth with my students as well due to increasing the number of books read, using a variety of genres, and providing feedback in conferencing.  In addition to reading, the author expresses the importance of talking about what you have learned.  I love “turn and talk”.  It is a quick way for all students to share their thinking with a partner.  We often “turn and talk” in our classroom especially during our whole group time on the carpet.    The author says “talking about texts not only improves comprehension and how they use strategies, but it motivates students to read independently.”  After I read a book aloud during group time, I make it available for my students to read during IR.  Since my students are kindergartners, most of the time these books are not “just right books” for them.  However, they love to get the book and retell it using the pictures.  Reading encompasses a wide variety of opportunities in the classroom including read alouds, independent reading, shared reading, partner reading, and choral reading just to name a few.  The author stated that during read alouds the students are not responsible for their reading, but for their thinking!!!!  As teacher, we have the opportunity to help our students think deeply about a topic and ask important questions.  Our students are “working harder” in order to “get smarter”, instead of us as teachers doing most of the work.