Workshop Highlights:
Self-Selected Reading Block:
3 Components:
-
Teacher read-aloud: Read a variety of genres. Read many books from your
students book baskets. Chapter books can also be read over several days.
(I personally read my "rounding up the rhymes" books to my students during
SSR a couple of days before doing the "rounding up the rhymes" with my
students. I also read many thematic books as well.) As you read to your
students, you are "blessing a book" - sparking their interest, so they
will want to read it as well.
-
Students read books of their choice: Having book baskets placed at tables
works the best. That way, students won't be wondering around the room to
find a book. The purpose of this segment of SSR is to READ! A table captain
can easily get the basket for his/her table mates and return the basket
when done.
What's inside the basket??? - Students read at different levels,
so different reading levels of books must be included, as well as different
genres. Some ideas Cheryl shared: chapter books, favorite author books,
magazines, restaurant menus, travel brochures, non-fiction books, etc.
(I personally put theme books in my baskets as well. If we are studying
whales, then I will have several different reading levels of whales in
my basket as well. My students are always happy to share new information
with their classmates.)
During this time of SSR, the teacher conferences with students. The
teacher will meet with 4-5 students daily for about 4-6 minutes. At this
time the teacher will ask the student about his/her book. The student can
also read a page, so the teacher can check on oral reading skills. It's
not a time to write things down when the child is standing there, even
though it's very tempting. When the student is leaving your area, then
you can jot down some notes if you wish. A teacher can have a reading log
for each student to record this information.
-
Students share: You can have a "Share Chair" where students can take turns
sharing their book with their classmates. 2-3 students a day is fine. You
may also use a podium. Or you can make a TV screen out of a box, suspend
it from the ceiling and have you students pretend they are on TV as they
share. You may also tell your students to turn to a partner and share something
about the book, or you can have the table captains share with their table
mates. Variety makes perfect! By having students share their books, they
are "blessing them" as well. This encourages other students to read more
books. A little microphone bought at the Dollar Store works well when sharing.
Guiding Reading Block:
Cheryl shared that this block is the most controversial. (I
can attest to that, even in our district, there are debates on how to teach
this block.) She and her fellow authors would like to go back and change
the title of this block to: "The Comprehension Block."
During this block, students should read on grade level text for 3 days
and below grade level text for 2 days. You can easily use your basal for
the 3 days - instant multiple copies of books! On below grade level days,
you can use poetry, reader's theater, scholastic news, etc.
Before reading a selection, always assess prior knowledge (KWL chart
or whatever you choose to use) and teach a mini lesson (ties in with setting
a purpose for reading). You should also introduce vocabulary words from
the story. RIVET is a popular way to do this. But you can also have the
students find the words in their text and use a WIKKI stick to circle the
word.
Then students read in a variety of ways:
-
Teacher Reads Aloud
-
Shared Reading
-
Small Flexible Groups with Teacher
-
Whole Class Reading
-
echo
-
choral
-
Playschool/Book Club
-
Partner
-
Independent
These rank in order from the "highest teacher support" to the
"lowest teacher support." So as the year progresses, you are to work downwards. **
Setting a purpose for reading is very important. It gives the students
a focus. Cheryl shared that you can give each student a sticky note and
tell him or her to place it in their text as they are reading to identify
a "very important point." You can also give students a sticky note with
4-5 cuts in it (just make cuts up to the sticky part before handing them
to students). Students rip the strip the rest of the way when they are
ready to use it. They can identity characters, setting, etc.
At the end of this block, students meet as a whole group and discuss
the focus question. Or to add more knowledge to whatever graphic organizer
you used to begin this block.
Cheryl shared that famous athletes need to practice, practice, practice
to reach the top. We as readers need to practice, practice, practice as
well to become great readers!
Words Block:
High frequency words ONLY!!! Monthly words, a group of compound
words, a group of contractions, etc., should not be placed on the WW. These
should be in another place in the room.
Your word wall should be visible to all students in the classroom.
Five words go up weekly. These should be kept in an isolated place until
the end of the week when you add them to the WW. These 5 words should be
practiced 2-3 times a week. On the back of your half sheet of paper on
which you do this activity, you do the "on the back" activities.
Teach onsets and rimes. Onsets are all the letters up to the first vowel
and rime is the rest of the word. For example, in the word "trust" - "tr"
is the onset and "ust" is the rime. When playing "Guess the Covered Word",
cover the onset and rime separately. You uncover the onset first after
students have made several guesses as to what the word is. By revealing
the onset first, you probably can eliminate some of their guesses. Then
you reveal the rime. I always say, "Voila" before revealing the rest of
the word, and the students love it. :o)
Cheryl defines "rime" and "rhyme" in the following way"
rime: words that share the same spelling pattern
(rain and train).
rhyme: words that share the same sound pattern (rate
and bait).
Once the WWW's are up, don't forget them. You need to constantly
review these as well, with the many activities that have been mentioned.
Writing Block:
An overhead works well with this block. Teacher models a writing
passage first and thinks aloud as he/she writes. If the teacher does not
"know" how to spell a word, he/she circles it. Students love to copy the
teacher, so by modeling you can guide them in the correct direction that
you wish the class to go. You should also teach a mini lesson after you
finish writing. Perhaps you used too many "ands" as you wrote the story.
You can go back and model how to place commas in a series in your modeled
writing. At the end of the modeled writing, you should edit the passage
with the students.
This is one checklist she shared:
-
name and date on page
-
capitals
-
punctuation
-
circle words not sure of spelling
Then students write in their journals on topics of their choice. If writing
in a spiral bound notebook, students write on the right and illustrate
on the left. After 5 pieces are written, students sign up for a conference
with the teacher. As the teacher edits the writing with the student, the
teacher should let the student hold the notebook, so he/she is focused
on the page. If the teacher takes the notebook out of the student's hands,
then the student will be looking around the room and not be focused on
the editing process. A cute idea Cheryl shared is to buy those sun visors
and print name and "editor" on each one. When it's time for a student to
conference with the teacher, the teacher puts on his/her editing visor
and the student puts his/hers on as well.
Cheryl shared that there are 3 things that students are NOT
to say during this portion of the writing block:
-
I'm through.
-
I'm finished.
-
I'm done.
Students can always write another story if they think they
are done. They may also illustrate on the left as well. They always need
to use the editor's checklist before moving on.
Cheryl also shared the following writing stages that kids go through:
-
picture writing
-
driting (combination of writing and pictures)
-
scribble
-
random letters
-
words copied from room
-
Cheryl calls this the "love stage."
-
I love my mom.
-
I love my dad.
-
I love my teacher.
-
words sounded out (match with symbols)
-
sentences with words sounded out
-
share "stories" with invented spelling
-
conventional spelling
At the end of this block, students share what they have written
(again 2-3 a day is fine). You can use an author's chair if you wish. As
the student holds their writing page up to read to his/her classmates,
the students can look at their picture if the page is folded back. Students
who have published their work should share their books with their classmates.
You may even choose another way to share: share your story with a partner
or table captain shares his/her writing with his/her table mates.
Additional thoughts:
I thought that the following was neat that Cheryl shared:
She began the presentation by asking us to look at a "very confused"
drawing from 4 different angles. (It was "How a Beginning Reader Sees Reading"
by Jimmy Howle). Then she said to read it. It was very hard, but by looking
at it on an angle, it was possible for many. Of course some never did get
it and others took a lot longer to read it. Those who "got it" taught their
table mates how to "get it." And many did get it when it was explained
by a table mate. Just like it is in a classroom, students learn from one
another - not everything from the teacher.
An organizational thing Cheryl shared was the following: Buy a plastic
handled cutting board from the dollar store. Tape on index cards in an
overlapping fashion. Write students names on the little piece that is showing.
When you wish to take anecdotal records on a student, simply flip to that
student's card and write on it. After the cards are full, place them in
a sleeve, which has been labeled with the student's name. Then place new
index cards on the board in an overlapping fashion.
I loved the sleeve idea. You take a 3-ring notebook and place enough
plastic sleeves (page protectors) in it for each student in your class.
Then you use tabs on the sides to write the students' names on. You can
place writing samples, anecdotal records, or whatever you wish in the sleeves.
Cheryl said that this is a great way to share with parents at conference
time. You may also place the SSR conference form in the sleeve as well
to pull out when you're done conferencing with the student.
I know that there was tons more, but I'm not thinking anymore after
writing all this. Bridget from Ohio, do you have things to add????
Sandy/2/OH
Bridget/OH Adds:
Here are some things I ordered/bought for our staff today that I "discovered"
through Cheryl yesterday:
Wicky Sticks---great idea! Use to underline words (teacher), students
"circle" words in their text (vocabulary). I also found some sticky "hands"
in Oriental Trading that I am going to try...Grab a Vocab or something
dorky like that. LOL
"Martian Fingers" (Also known as Witches fingers)---Use in partner reading
to track print
Plates--best way I can describe these is that they look like a flower
and are a frosted kind of plastic...don't know if that's a clear description...check
Target or K-Mart...Write questions for Guided Reading on the petals of
the flower. Put a spinner in the middle and VOILA! A different way to engage
students in responding to literature!
Placemats--cut them into puzzle shapes and write questions on the back
of them
PVC phones---heard a lot about these...didn't get it...Cheryl demonstrated
and don't you know I had a purchase order raring to go this AM for every
classroom!
Dollar Store Microphones--great idea
Give the Story a Hand--use garden gloves...write on each finger and
the palm of the hand...character, setting, etc.
Beach Balls--love these...was helpful to see how she had one done for
expository writing and narrative writing. Also noticed a science theme
related one on a table.
Loved the idea of having baggies of local maps and travel info, travel
brochures, menus, etc in the SSR baskets. It was great that she differentiated
between storing books in baskets and the baskets that come out to the tables!
Her before reading activities for Growing Vegetable Soup were great...packet
of seeds, carrot (importance of using tangible items) and talking about
her own garden. I chuckled at how many people ate the vegetable beef soup
on the buffet then at lunch!
She used great books that I can't wait to get!!! I wish I had written
down some of the other titles. I was so star struck and having a hard time
focusing because of the talking going on around me : ( but there was one
about a dog with bad breath, one about a crayon box...made me cry...have
to find it...and one called It's Disgusting and We Ate it!
She clarified a lot of the writing block for me and how it is the format
for HOW to teach mini-lessons but that you adapt WHAT you teach to your
curriculum. Can see how this makes the time of curriculum mapping even
more worth while than it is!
I know there's more but I have shopping to do! Thanks, Laura, for all
your patience with my never-ending order!
Bridget/Ohio
**
In a message dated 7/12/2000
owner-4-blocks-digest@lists.teachers.net writes:
<<
5.Inoticed in the CherylSigmon notes:) that the students should read
from highest teacher support to lowest teacher support:
teacher read aloud,
shared reading,
small flexible groups with teacher,
whole class reading,
echo,
choral,
playschool,
partner,
independent.
How do you all feel about this? I was planning on doing partner reading
before groups because I thought the kids would handle it better. what do
you think?
>>
One danger in having folks post their notes from workshops is that what
everyone will read is someone's interpretation of what was said. I know
that the people posting mean well --- however, this portion was reported
incorrectly. I shared a graphic of a continuum I created showing all of
the different formats of support that are used in Guided Reading. What
I said was, "This continuum from highest to lowest support has NOTHING
to do with working your way through the year. Every day, we look at the
level of support and match it to the difficulty level of the text and to
how much support our kids will need to be successful with the text."
By the way, I do feel that some teachers move into partner reading too
quickly. When you put kids in partner groups, you're saying that at least
half the kids can handle the text pretty well. Just be sure you've given
them the support they need to be successful.
Hope this is helpful. I did want to clarify that misunder standing reported
through the notes. Thanks for giving me that opportunity. ---- Cheryl
Private replies to: Cmsigmon@aol.com