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Purpose:
To develop reading fluency
Time: 30 minutes
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Children should be using this period of time reading books on
their independent reading level. It is necessary to have a
variety of genre and reading levels available in the classroom
to meet the needs and interests of the children.
The teacher has a primary role in motivating the students to
read, and to ensure they are reading books that are
instructionally appropriate. Several tools are available
to assure that will happen.
Books
in the Classroom
Books,
books, books! We can't expect students to get excited
about reading if there are not an adequate number of books in
the classroom. Five hundred plus is a recommended number.
how do you get that many books in each classroom? You may
need to start with fewer and build. I began with only 50
books. Books can be checked out of the school library.
Budget money for books rather than paper since it will no longer
be necessary to do all those worksheets. Some teachers
check out books from the public library, others shop at garage
sales.
The manner in which the books are displayed also impacts
reading during this block. Students must be able to see
the covers of the books if we want them to read. Remember,
during self-selected reading the teacher is selling the concept
of reading books.
Conferencing
Conferencing
is the accountability factor in self-selected reading. The
students will be more attentive to their books if they know they
will be discussing the books with the teacher.
The classroom teacher usually conferences with approximately
4-5 students daily. The teacher does conference more
frequently with the less fluent reader(s).
The reading conference is three-pronged:
- A focus on comprehension. Questions should be high
level and based upon the literary elements.
- A focus is on the student's ability to support
comprehension using text or illustrations. Te students
use literary bookmarks to indicate specific literary
elements of text as they read.
- A focus is on the student's ability to use the reading
cueing systems. A student who is having difficulty
receives immediate instruction.
The book used during the conference does not have to be
finished, but the student should have completed enough text to
do a "retell" and answer specific questions.
Management
Students
should maintain a folder containing their book and a reading
log. The students should record pages read and a brief
summary daily. Literary Element bookmarks are also kept in
this folder.
Teachers should maintain a reading portfolio for each
student. It should contain a record of the conferences as
well as Reading Logs as they are completed. A
self-selected Reading Assessment Rubric for grading purposes
should also be kept in the portfolio.
Materials
Needed
-
500-3,000
Books
- Self-selected Reading Folders - one per student
- Portfolio Folders - one per student
- Reading Conference Forms
- Reading Log Forms
- Sets of Literary Book Marks
- Self-Selected Reading Assessment Rubric
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