Chp. 3 Readers' Workshop: Real Reading from the Start

In Chapter 3, Debbie Miller discusses that her first grade students began "reading" from the start of the school year.  Each table of students had their own basket of books.  Miller also put in the songs that they had sung in class.  We wished that we could sing more in our classrooms!!! We also loved that Miller began her school year by making charts with her students.  She would have them talk about people they know that read and what do you see them doing.  Some answers included: reading newspapers; going to the library and checking out lots of books; and reading a lot.  Over the next few weeks, students observed what readers do.  They did this in the classroom and at home.  The children also payed attention to where readers read.  

Miller would then send her students off to read.  Some students chose to sing the songs they knew, others chose to look at pictures in books, while others were reading.  Miller would confer with students about their reading.  Now she is trying to find out about them as readers and take notes.  After conferring, Miller would have the students share about what they did that day.

We really liked this chapter and felt like Miller had great ideas.  I liked how she really modeled the behavior that she liked.  She also found the teachable moments to set rules in the classroom, instead of making a list at the beginning of the year.  We are anxious to read the next chapter because we love the picture at the beginning! Stay tuned!

Some Common Themes in Our Reading

Funny how the "rigor, inquiry, and intimacy" keeps popping up from one book to the next. I think most teachers get the rigor part, but the inquiring and intimacy are the components that may be missing in many classrooms. Not ours!--but I think many teachers do not see the the need for students to challenge the text and ask questions or to build a climate that is conducive to feeling safe and intimate. I also like the notion of building around a four to six week plan. This allows for connecting many different texts to a common theme or purpose for reading, and that helps students make more connections and, hopefully, see the big picture. Sometimes, it is all a bit idealistic, and things will not work out as planned everyday, but as long as we are trying to achieve these lofty ideals, we are headed in the right direction. (I hope I am posting to your blog in the right place. If not, I apologize. Jean)

In the book Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller, she outlines the components of effectively teaching reading comprehension in a Reader's Workshop. In the first chapter, she reminds us how important it is to base our teaching on research. Miller stresses that we need to consider the research and actively think about our own thinking as we are instructing. She also discussed how it is essential to plan and really look at the big picture. She advocates creating a plan for a six-to-eight week period of time. At first, this seemed incredibly difficult to me. The abilities and needs in my first-grade classroom change every week. How would I be able to plan for two months? But Miller is talking about a "big picture plan," one that guides her daily teaching and can change as necessary.

Chapter 2 outlined how to create a community in September that allows for readers to flourish. She discussed the necessity of building relationships and a community with "rigor, inquiry and intimacy." We all agreed that we strive to do this and completely agree that is necessary. Miller believes we need to "show" rather than just "tell" students how to behave. Though we do this, we questioned how effective and easy it is to do. In our primary classrooms, we constantly remind the kids to gather nicely on the rug. And when they push and shove, we discuss other options for gathering and we practice what to do. But the next time we gather, we have to discuss it all over again. Does our "showing" really stick? And sometimes at the end of the day when the office is calling for a student and Joe is crying because he tripped, when Luis pushes another student on the way to the coatroom, it is hard to show and discuss other ways to behave. But it was nice to step back, especially in the middle of February, and consider September and our anticipation for the beginning the school year. How far away it seems!

Now that we have some background information, we are excited to read on and learn about specific strategies that we can use in the classroom!