Chapter 4: Settling In

In Chapter 4, Miller discusses what she does with her students toward the end of September as they are "settling in" to their reader's workshop. She said that at this point her students know what good readers do, and now they are ready to learn how.
The first step is to help students learn how to select books to read. Readability is not the only factor in selecting appropriate books. Content can also be a powerful motivator for students even if the book is written above their level. I think we all know a student or two who loves reading books simply because they are about their favorite topic: baseball, dinosaurs, princesses, etc. Students who have a broad schema of a topic may be able to read books that are not at their level because of their familiarity and experience with the vocabulary that relates to their topic. We should try not to discourage students to avoid certain books because they are "too hard" if they have the background knowledge to support them as they are reading.
Miller stresses the importance of having students explain why they chose certain books to read and think about what they know about themselves as readers. She talks about how she models making choices to her students and helps them practice making good book selections during reader's workshop. Strategies that she suggests using to help students make good choices are:
-book talks
-sticky notes- to write notes and recommendations to students
-read-alouds- to share some of the books students are reading with other students
-recommending charts- this is the picture on the first page of the chapter that my group was really interested in before we read but it was only briefly mentioned in this chapter. Students write recommendations to classmates about books they have read and why they think someone might like them. It was an interesting idea but we questioned the logisitics of having students do this. What if only a few students recommend books? What if someone goes to the chart looking for a recommendation but no one has listed them on the chart for a book they might like? How do you keep kids from being left out yet still keep the recommendations authentic and not forced?
-go looking together- take a student by the hand and help
-pick one- offer 3 choices and have the student pick one
-conferring
Miller also describes a special bin of "start off stories" she keeps in her classroom that are appropriate for most of her students. They have more words than the books they usually read but the pictures match the words and the text is predictable so they are a good stepping stone for the students. This was an interesting idea that my group discussed.
We had many questions about creating a classroom library that is suitable for a reader's workshop like this one. First, where do teachers get all of the books they use? The books have to be on a variety of levels but also must be quality literature. Next, once you have the books, how do you level them? Do you put limitations on the books that students choose? It seems like it could take years to develop a library like the one Miller has.
Finally, we were wondering about how Miller follows the curriculum during her reader's workshop? Where are the guidelines and how is she sure that she is teaching the appropraite content for her students? Maybe she will clear this up in the next chapter after she has her students "settled in" to their workshop.