Rhiannon Wyatt-September Blog- "The Habit of Kidwatching"

Wow! The article titled “The Habit of Kidwatching” by O’Keefe really hit home with me.  Kidwatching is something that all teachers do on a daily basis almost unconsciously.  We observe students while they complete work independently, when they are listening to instruction on the carpet as a whole group and even how they interact with their peers on the playground. We can learn so much about our students just by watching and listening to them. O’Keefe asks “What can a B+ or an S in reading really tell us about how a child reads?” “Sitting with a child and watching and listening carefully may be the best thing we can do to get to know our students as readers.”

As I think about parent conferences that are taking place soon, I know that the type of information a teacher can gain from kidwatching is the most informative for parents.  Several times throughout my teaching career I have had parents ask me how their child was progressing with reading and I did not have much information to give them other than what is shown from vocabulary and comprehension tests.  I want to be the best reading teacher that I can be which is one who can pinpoint a child’s strengths and weaknesses through observations and conferencing.  I feel that keeping anecdotal records of the observations and conferences is a beneficial way to keep up with student’s progress in reading. As I begin to implement reading workshop in my classroom, I will also continue to kidwatch but create a template so I can record what I observe of each student.