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NEED SPECIFIC EXAMPLES-PLEASE SHARE

by How does your intermediate reading program look?

Mar 17, 2011

I am hoping to get some specific advice to this question, so here goes...

I am a second-year, fourth grade teacher and feel like I have never gotten my reading program off the ground. In my first year, I started the year very traditionally using the basal and leveled readers in small groups. This was so incredibly dry, however, that I soon switched over to teaching a novel. When the novel was done, I didn't know what to do and moved back into the basal. From there we went back into another novel and to the basal and then finally ended the year with more independent choice books. Feeling the pressure of THE TEST, most of my third quarter reading period was devoted to test prep via old state tests. Come June, my test scores were good-93%.

This year, I started out with the idea that I would implement the Sisters' Daily 5- an independent station sort of approach. Well, soon enough I caved into the Testing Demon again and decided to go back to more whole group teaching b...See More

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Marie I'm a reading specialist, so this is information from what I am aware a number of classroom teachers are doing at my school.

We have a curriculum called "Making Meaning" that works on comprehension strategies and cooperative learning. This is taught 4 days a week. It incorporates more of a read aloud/shared reading approach. One day a wee...See MoreI'm a reading specialist, so this is information from what I am aware a number of classroom teachers are doing at my school.

We have a curriculum called "Making Meaning" that works on comprehension strategies and cooperative learning. This is taught 4 days a week. It incorporates more of a read aloud/shared reading approach. One day a week, the teachers typically use the basal to teach a strategy/skill to the entire class. The rest of the week, they use guided reading during which students are placed into guided reading levels. At this time, students are working on guided and independent practice of the strategy/skill that was taught from the basal. Mini-lessons are also added at times during the week, depending upon the guided reading groups' needs. Teachers sometimes use the basal as a whole group reading activity or have students listen to the story at a listening center. Novels are not used on a regular basis. However, teachers try to incorporate teaching 2 -3 novels during the year either as a whole group or possibly even as a lit circle because we happen to have some sets of books by the same author or on the same theme. Some of the teachers also have conferencing time at another time in the day, when students are reading independently with self-selected books.

We are required to utilize the guided reading approach. Use of the basal is pretty much frowned upon by our principal; however, he is okay with just using it once a week to base the strategy/skill lessons on, as long as it's done as a shared reading. This is because there are so many students who are not reading at the level the basal is written at.

A lot of teachers also devote much of third quarter to covering material for "THE TEST."

On 3/17/11, How does your intermediate reading program look? wrote: > I am hoping to get some specific advice to this question, > so here goes... > > I am a second-year, fourth grade teacher and feel like I > have never gotten my reading program off the ground. In my > first year, I started the year very traditionally using the > basal and leveled readers in small groups. This was so > incredibly dry, however, that I soon switched over to > teaching a novel. When the novel was done, I didn't know > what to do and moved back into the basal. From there we > went back into another novel and to the basal and then > finally ended the year with more independent choice books. > Feeling the pressure of THE TEST, most of my third quarter > reading period was devoted to test prep via old state > tests. Come June, my test scores were good-93%. > > This year, I started out with the idea that I would > implement the Sisters' Daily 5- an independent station sort > of approach. Well, soon enough I caved into the Testing > Demon again and decided to go back to more whole group > teaching because I didn't feel I could monitor the kids > well enough when I was doing mini-lessons and then > conferencing with self-selected reading. It felt fluffy > even though I implemented the book exactly as written. So, > back to the basals again and then to novels and back to > independent choice books/conferencing and then a novel and > then a few basal stories... > > I am so at a loss for what a meaningful fourth grade > reading curriculum looks like. I really don't believe (no > offense intended) that a basal reader can be meaningful by > itself. At the same time, I don't believe it is feasible in > our test-driven society to leave all reading selections up > to the students. > > Can someone (hopefully more than one person) please share a > detailed description of how you teach reading, what you > use, how you engage kids at this level? > > THANKS SO MUCH! :)

Apr 13, 2011

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