The other core subject and life-long skill is reading. It is important for students to have confidence in their reading abilities. I think it is important for teachers to point out their strategies on how they read through a story. For example, when I was younger I looked at pictures in order to understand to the meaning of the text. Harvey and Goudvis (2007) preaches, “ we believe we must teach our students to think when they read so they can access information and learn, understand, and remember what they read”(15). I think it is important to stress that a student understand rather than how count how many books you read. Reading workshops are a great opportunity to teach students reading strategies. The teacher needs to explicitly explain how a student must act during reader’s workshop and what tasks we will work on. Students must maintain a quiet environment while reading. Concentration and focus are critical. During a mini-lesson, I will review reading strategies for better comprehension. After the mini-lesson, I will give students an opportunity to practice reading strategies during independent reading during which I would conference with the students. During the conferences, I will ask students questions. I will ask them to read several pages in order to evaluate their reading proficiency. I will take notes during the conferences to gauge progress. The conference also provides the time for me to individually teach students the strategy. At this time I cause see the progress of the student and see how the child is understanding the strategy. I will also be able to noticed how the student is applying the strategy in the process. After, my students had a chance to work on their strategy; I would make the class come together for share time. During share time I would re-emphasis the strategy and share some positive ideas I observed. I think it is important for the teacher to point out what students are doing well so are still motivated to work. I think it is important for students to apply their reading strategies in all subjects. I think it is important for students to understand which strategy works best for them.
This video shows an example of reader's workshop session. This reader's workshop session has a mini-lesson, practice opportunity, and share time.
2 comments:
My focused student for my LAP is constantly getting out of her seat and is constantly moving around. She has trouble focusing when I read stories to her. I found out that when is interacting with the text she has an easier time staying focus on the task. For example, I read the the story Sheila Rae the Brave and every time she was scared of something she would have to put a post it on the the page. This forced her to pay close attention to what I was doing and she understood the story. Also, I had my student point to the words as I read them to her. This allowed her to understand that there are words on the page and she has to pay close attention to the words I was reading. I used her active behavior to guide my lesson in order to fit the needs of my student.
Teachers should be allow to plan their own mini lessons over state standards, students needs and skills. This will allow teachers to focus on strategies for students to become more independent. To determine topics for a mini lesson it is important for teacher to look at the required state standards and observations made in class. As a teacher we need to know our required state standards in order to plan a whole-class instruction plan effectively. We need to make sure our students are having learning experiences that represent all of the standards. We need to learn how to balance the standards and the students needs more effectively. Teachers need to notice what their students are doing during reading time and write down observations because this is great way to modify a teacher’s instruction. I think it is important for teachers to be very flexible and modify their mini lesson according to their students. In order to get students motivated to read we need to bring in text that teacher read outside of the class, and this perfect opportunity to teach a mini lesson on how you did not like the book at first but you changed it. I think it is very important to bring in different genres of text especially non-fiction. I know the students might not like non-fiction but there are ways the teachers can motivate and engage students in reading nonfiction. However, teachers need to properly train their students how to read nonfiction. If students are properly taught how to read non-fiction they will be more exciting to read. It is important for teachers to let students pick books based of level of difficulty, their mood and interest. It is important for the teacher to setup conferences for their students to see how they are progressing and the teacher can work on the students’ weaknesses. As being a teacher it is our job to help build students’ love for books and to make them understand why they are reading, what they reading.
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