Allison Sumerel's September Blog Post: The Habit of Kidwatching

While reading O'Keefe's, The Habit of Kidwatching, I took note of things that I am already doing in my classroom and things that I need to do better.  I liked what he had to say about not being focused on the amount of things that you are documenting, but instead being focused on what you notice and how it can help. The idea of having a sheet for each student is a great one.  It could just be a continuous record of what they are reading with dates and short comments of things that you might want to keep an eye on for the next time you are conferencing.  Independent reading time, of course, is super important.  Yet, I think even more important is the coaching piece of reading.  Letting the students read to you and discuss for five minutes or so can tell you their thought processes.  It can also tell you if they are reading books that are appropriate for them.  Are they understanding what they are reading?  I think getting in this habit, can only help to make better readers.  I look forward to trying these things in my classroom this year.

Allison Catto's September Blog Post 1: The Pleasure Principle

          “The Pleasure Principle” by Nancie Atwell has certainly opened my mind to revisiting the way I think about reading workshop.  Often times, teachers get caught up with the standards and state testing and forget to just let kids read.  With reading workshop, we sometimes feel like we aren’t teaching or our students aren’t being held accountable on paper so what we are doing is ineffective.  This is where we must change how we think.  Giving students a chunk of time (30 minutes) every day to get comfortable and read good books directly correlates to high levels of performance on standardized tests.  Teachers must provide a mini-lesson before students read independently.  The mini-lessons will guide students as they move into the total silence of independent reading.  During reading workshop, “children are encouraged to skim, skip, and look ahead.”  Students are taught to put down books they aren’t enjoying and revisit books they love. 

          During reading workshop, teachers help students choose books that are just right for them and carve out their identities for themselves as readers.  Once we get students “hooked” on good books, they won’t need “rewards” to keep them interested in reading, instead the reward will be intrinsic.  I like the quote from Atwell, “The passions aroused by stories and characters are the prize.”  I personally must change my mindset about what I must do during reading workshop.  The best delivery system for reading comprehension is reading!  Students should not be given tests, worksheets, book reports, journal entries, or any other meaningless written work. Instead, students will participate in “book talks, read alouds, conversations, time, silence, comfort, simple systems of record-keeping, and a classroom library that gets bigger and better every year, because teachers understand that volume of reading and enthusiasm for reading are key and everything else is either a frill or a boondoggle.”  I want my students to get lost in their “reading zone.”  In order to do this, I must demonstrate a love of reading, share that love, and give my students the opportunity to “leave our classroom behind and live vicariously in their books.”        

Allison Catto's August Blog Post 1: The Habit of Kidwatching

      Reading “The Habit of Kidwatching” by Timothy O’Keefe has reminded me of several important things.  When watching my students, I must make a conscious effort to notice exactly what it is that they are doing during different activities and at different times of the day.   I plan to be more intentional about writing down observations that I see with each student.  This will help me make better decisions on how to improve instruction for all of my students.  I like how O’Keefe points out that kidwatching is a part of the curriculum and should be used to help you reflect on your students as well as your own teaching.  Don’t focus on the number of times you write down information about a student, but rather focus on the information you’ve discovered about each student. Talking with the children about what you notice and getting their input may give you insight that you never expected.  I am getting a binder set up with pages for each student so I can keep all of my notes organized in one place.   I totally agree with O’Keefe when he makes the statement, “It requires commitment, risk taking, and valuing the good in each child.”  We must be committed to doing what’s right for our students!

Kaylee Foster- August Blog Post 1- The Habit of Kidwatching

Timothy O’Keefe, 1997 did a phenomenal job in describing the proper way to “kidwatch” in the article The Habit of Kidwatching. This particular article caught my eye the moment I read the definition of what kidwatching actually is. O’Keefe states that “kidwatching is the continuous, systematic look at how children learn. It is taking what we know about students and turning that knowledge into effective instructional invitations”. This definition alone provoked me into wanting to read and learn more about kidwatching.

 A few suggestions that were provided for effective teaching to occur were to allow students to have a voice, valuing each individual’s contributions to the classroom, providing a way for the students to realize what they are an expert in, and most importantly getting to know each child from the moment they walk into your door. These simple suggestions were a reminder of the importance of student choice and has encouraged me to implement this more in my own classroom. I love that O’Keefe states that “kidwatching is not something apart from the curriculum but rather what holds it together and pushes it forward into new and often unexplored territory”. This is a pretty powerful statement. For educators, kidwatching needs to become a habit in order to find out more about our students and to be able to meet the needs of all of our students.

This article also provides the reader with many tips on how to properly kidwatch by using rosters for the collection of data during reading and writing workshops. Another thing that was beneficial was that he provides specific examples of what coaching notes should include. For example, the teacher should note the level of difficulty, and specific notes about the reading process. This helped in clarifying what it is that we as educators should be looking for while kidwatching.

The two most important things that I gained from reading this article is that setting goals for our students are crucial and listening to our students read is the best thing that we can do to get to know our students. In my own classroom I have implemented kidwatching throughout the entire day but specifically during independent reading time. I am honestly amazed at how many things I have learned about my students through kidwatching that unfortunately has been overlooked in the past.  The article states that kidwatching “requires commitment, risk taking, and valuing the good in each child. However, kidwatching is its own reward.” I am ready for that commitment, are you?

Allison Sumerel's August Blog Post: Thinking Outside of the Box When Teaching Reading and Writing

In Heidi Mills and Jean Anne Clyde’s article Children’s Success as Readers and Writers: It’s the Teacher’s Beliefs That Make the Difference, I was able to see some things that I could look for with my reading students.  I teach the corrective level of reading to my fifth graders.  Even though they were using examples from first grade classes, it totally hit home and made sense.  

Not all teachers teach the same.  Even when you have teachers teaching the exact same curriculum. Different teachers are going to put their own spin on how it is taught.  Some students struggle in reading.  I am constantly trying to find ways to get concepts to make sense for my students.  We try scripted stories, novel studies, independent reading, guided reading, and many other strategies to help the students to be more fluent and comprehend what they are reading.  I try not to focus on the fact that some can read more fluently or comprehend better than others.  I try very hard to individualize it for each student.  What I see most by the time they reach the fifth grade, is that their confidence in reading is not where it should be.  Mills and Clyde said, Children with a foundation of confidence and literary skills are better off than they would be without both, regardless of what comes next. Yes, we try all things in order to improve their skills, but I want their confidence to be where it needs to be too. 

I tried something a little different after reading this article.  Instead of having the students write a response in paragraph form of what they thought two characters would say to one another, like the curriculum suggested, we did something else.  I noticed that some of my students were having trouble writing in dialogue.  We instead used thought bubbles with drawings.  This seemed to make it a little more understandable for the students.  They drew a scene from the story and used the thought bubbles to show what the characters would say.  The article mentioned this with the young boy Matt.  They urged teachers to see different methods beyond the traditional in order to teach.  I appreciated that this article encouraged us to think outside of the box when teaching reading and writing.

Lorraine Walker's August Blog Post 1: Reading Essentials, Chapter 4: Teach With a Sense of Urgency

Lorraine Walker’s August Blog Post 1: Teach with a Sense of Urgency; Regie Routman’s Chapter 4: Reading Essentials

          The word urgency was the first thing that caught my attention while I browsed through the chapters in this book. Every teacher I know teaches with a sense of urgency – our minds are reeling with a list of things that need to be accomplished by a specific date. But that is not what Routman’s chapter addresses.

Routman says, “We need to keep our expectations high. I am constantly amazed at how little we require of students. Here I am not talking about assigning and completing more activities but rather of introducing students to complex and relevant texts and curriculum via high-level thinking, problem solving, and questioning. We need to support students in becoming more self-sustaining, thoughtful, independent readers and writers.”

          The parts highlighted are directly related to our school’s leadership beliefs, so naturally I was compelled to read more. The next section in the chapter is called Do More Teaching – yikes! I am asking myself, how can teachers do more teaching? So she explains that we need to incorporate our own reading lives and model how we behave, think, and talk as readers. Her optimal learning model explains a gradual handover of responsibility. She says there are four phases of learning in the model: demonstration, shared demonstration, guided practice, and independent practice. Each of these phases is explained in the chapter.

          While I am reading I am thinking about how all of this could fit into the day and I am struck with the realization that it doesn’t fit into the day but it is the day. It would take too long to explain the optimal learning model but I shared the idea with the third grade teachers and related it to SC History since they are teaching this subject during their ELA block. In my head I see the optimal learning model played out through the Studies Weekly newspaper we use to teach SC History. The teachers are going to teach the children about the headings, how to identify the vocabulary, and important parts under each heading. They are going to share their thinking as to what they would highlight and why they would highlight it – demonstration. Next, the students will share what they might highlight and explain why they would highlight a particular word, phrase, or sentence – shared demonstration. After that, there will be guided practice and then independent practice where the children are able to identify the important parts and explain why those parts are important and then developing an assessment. So by following the optimal learning model, one is teaching with urgency, not teaching more activities, assigning more worksheets, or giving more tests. My take on the whole chapter is that teaching can be more enjoyable if we give it a chance. Step back, think about what is important, and teach. Read the chapter and be inspired!

Dawn Mitchell's August Blog Post 1: Finding Time for Independent Reading

Dawn Mitchell's August Blog Post 1: Finding Time for Independent Reading

In Section I of Debbie Miller’s No More Independent Reading Without Support she writes that children learn to read by reading but not without support.  I love this challenge she gives us at the beginning of her book and I definitely think it is relevant to us at the beginning of this school year. 

Miller writes, “What if there were a way out? What if there were a way – at least for part of the day – where things slowed down, your students had their hands and minds on great books, and you had the pleasure of conferring with them about their reading and themselves as readers?  No rotations, activities, or worksheets – just you, your kids, and books. If you could find a way out, would you take it?”

Miller explains that independent reading isn’t just Sustained Silent Reading where everyone stops, drops, and reads, the teacher included.  She explained that truly effective independent reading provides an instructional component, an application component, and a formative assessment component so that students have support during independent reading time.  Miller advocates for a reading workshop model.  She knows that to do this well, there has to be a consistent block of time during the school day.

This time is an investment into the workshop structure.  It is an investment into independent reading and more than that, it is an investment into each one of our students.

For the last fourteen years of my teaching career I have worked to implement workshop structure for both writing and reading where students have a supportive context for their application of real world literacy skills.  I know first-hand how we, as teachers struggle against the clock for time to make this meaningful work happen.  This was the first roadblock I had when implementing reading/writing workshop into my own fourth grade class over a decade ago and it is still the first instructional roadblock I always hear from the wonderful teachers I work with.  We don’t have enough time.  I agree.  There never is enough time. 

Time is the great equalizer.  We all have the same amount, each and every day.  Since we cannot make any more time, I agree with Miller that it is worth our time to carefully examine our schedule and look closely for the time that is hiding.  There is time, chunks of it hiding in the minutes of morning work we do to keep kids on task while we take attendance.  I have found a little time here and a little time there in transitions that take too long or routines that may not be necessary to extend all morning.  Debbie also asked to take a long look at our existing reading block and to see if we were really using our time to engage students.  Do they really need the packets of worksheets, the isolated times for all of the activities in the basal reader…? 

I know from my own experience when I moved from a scripted program to an authentic workshop structure where I used time for independent reading and writing, for formative assessments to help me know who my students were as readers and writers, and what skills and strategies they were and were not using to make meaning I could design mini lessons to specifically target what they needed to work on.  This wasn’t always easy, but it was fulfilling and everyone in the classroom grew, including me.  I used every resource I had to create lessons and it was constantly changing because my students were. 

I love how Debbie explains the difference between SSR and reading workshop on page 7.  She says, “When students sit quietly at their desk with a book or magazine during DEAR or Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) time, we might see them flip a page every minute or so, but we can’t see what’s happening inside their heads.  We don’t have evidence of how they’re making meaning of the text, the specific ways they’ve grown as readers, or what they’re struggling with as they read.  Without that information, we can’t teach them how to get better and we can’t be sure that – even if they read every day – all students are becoming better readers this week than they were the one before.”

With knowing already before school begins that we have only 180 days to do the best we can with the time we have, it is vital that we utilize the most effective methods possible.  I want to know that my students are growing.  I want to see evidence of them applying what they are learning in their independent reading.  I want to give this year all I’ve got.  I want to give them independent reading with support.

Sincerely,

Dawn