I
will be very honest in saying that I was not expecting to be very interested in
reading about reading but I am happy to say that my assumptions were
wrong. I read Section 1 “Is
There Enough Time? And Is Time Enough to Support Independent Reading?” from
Miller's No More Independent
Reading Without Support. I appreciate the
fact that Miller isn't trying to ignore the fact that most teachers feel the
same way about independent reading: there isn't enough time in the day.
With these 4K babies that seems all too true, especially at the beginning of
the year trying to establish routines.
Miller talked about her experience at a school in Baltimore where she was trying to help teachers find time to incorporate independent reading in their daily classroom routines. She talks about some of the things she saw while she was observing. Most of these applied to our school - calendar, transitions and lining up. While I agree that by 2nd grade the students probably do not need Paddy the Bear to dress for the weather, I do believe that the concept of calendar is important. It teaches components that I feel are important for children to learn such as days of the week, weather and counting. Like she mentioned, transitions seem to take up a chunk of time but I am hoping those get easier and easier as the year progresses. It would be wonderful to shorten some of these important components to the day and allow more independent reading to take place.
I agree in her statement that teachers need to be models for how students should be reading. It seems all too easy to tell children to grab a book, find a spot in the room, and read for 20 minutes. But how do we know they're actually reading and comprehending what's going on? I fully encourage the idea of reading conferences with students because it will allow teachers to really see their students as individual readers. It is important to start these positive habits early with students. Even though my babies can't read yet (and most don't know all of their letters), I need to do a better job of exposing them to reading in multiple ways.
I love how you express the value of learning through reading Caroline! You're right, our children are so young and although they can't read yet they certainly can still be exposed them to reading and pictures. There are so many ways that we can do this. We can do shared reading, independent reading, interactive reading, reading conferences, and reading through technology. All of these reading strategies are beneficial for the young children and they will all help in their reading development.
ReplyDeletePreschool is a little different--it does take more time to do 'basic' things because all the routines are new! As the kids get used to this thing called "school," they will get more efficient and you will get time back. Even though your babies might not be reading words in books independently, can you still do "book talk" conferences with them--just have conversations with them one on one about how they are engaging with the text ("Whatcha reading?")? That would be fun to try!
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