Blog Post 1: Laurie Smith’s Miller Section 1 “Is There Enough Time? And Is Time Enough to Support Independent Reading?”

When I sat down to read this chapter, it was late, I was tired, and needless to say I was assuming that what I was about to read would put me to sleep.  I was pleasantly surprised that it did not.


This section was about how a lot of our time in our classrooms is spent and whether we are using our time wisely.  My toes were stepped on just a little bit.  I would love to find the minutes in my class to do more reading.  It wouldn’t be independent reading, since my children are 3 & 4 years old as well as delayed and some are even non-verbal, but if I had more time to spend reading aloud to them that would be great and would benefit them.


This section pointed out the things we do in class that we have been doing for so long we can’t even remember why we are doing them still.  Are these things really necessary to do anymore once children hit first and second grade.  Calendar time was one of the items mentioned, and the fact that from kindergarten on through second grade in many schools calendar is still done the same.  Is it necessary to continue doing calendar time the same way we do it with our kinders, and do they really still need it or get anything out of it by second grade?  Would that time for a first or second grader be better spent on independent reading?  Could the 25 minutes spent on calendar time every day be put towards independent reading?  I believe it could and agree that many other parts of a school day could be looked at to redesign our daily routine to make more time for independent reading with instruction a possibility.  I look forward to trying.