11/28/10 - I have just decided to make a student graph for the week so students can write which activities they participate in during the independent time during reading (when I am meeting in small groups). There will be a place for them to reflect each day at the bottom. I hope it will make their practice more self-directed, and beneficial. I will collect each week and decide how things are going. It has taken me awhile, but I think this is how reflection is supposed to impact/improve student achievement.
11/28/10 - I have not been able to meet with my small reading groups as often as I have wanted. So, I set up a schedule. I am ready to post it in the room. It will list the many different learning activities that students can be involved in while I am meeting in groups. My hope with posting these will be to give my students a visible reminder of all of their options, and help to keep them on task during the 40 minutes of independent or small group work. I hope having the schedule will be effective to keeping me on time with whole group teaching, and give me the time I need in small groups to effectively teach there. The program is set up for 4-5 days a week. I will try for 3 days a week beginning this week. As far as the Read Naturally Program goes, I got overwhelmed with that last year. So, I set up a schedule to meet with 2-3 students on Tuesday through Thursday during our small group time. I won’t try to meet with all of them on the same day. I will also stay away from Monday and Friday. I hope having the schedule will help the students remember to practice their fluency each day and to be ready for their read through with me. If I only do 2-3 students a day, I will not get overwhelmed with the amount of time this one skill takes out of our school day. I am excited about this new, workable plan!
I agree with the read naturally program. It can be overwhelming trying to meet with every student in a day. I do like your idea of spreading it out over the course of a few days. Have you found it to be a valuable tool to help with student's fluency? Do you still encourage students to use inflection when they read? Good luck with your new plan.
ReplyDeleteYes, I tell them to read naturally and for understanding. IF they practice, they improve. Now I want to assign a student that they can read to each day, because I don't believe they are practicing at home or at school. I will set that schedule up this weekend!
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