Reading in the Wild

During my few days off of work I picked up Donalyn’s book Reading in the Wild.  It is such a good book for any teacher who teaches reading to students.    She emphasizes the goal of reading instruction is to develop all students into lifelong independent readers.    We want our students to love reading and see themselves as readers in and out of school.

 

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Ms. Miller identifies habits of successful wild readers……..

1.  Students need time to read and write.  If you want your students to see reading as important, you have to treat it as a priority in your classroom.  Dedicate time for your students to read and write. 

2.  Let your students self-select their own reading material.   If reading is going to be enjoyable to your students then they need to have some say in it.  You can make suggestions however in the end you need to respect their decisions.  This does not mean teachers do not teach lessons with given material, it means during independent reading time children can read what they want.  

3.  The best part of reading is sharing what you are reading with others.  So give your students opportunities to talk about reading and let them share books with other students.   Find time or places for students to recommend books for their friends to read. 

4.  Help the students develop reading plans or goals.  Let your students decide (with guidance) what they can commit to do.  You want the goal setting to be successful.    

 

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“The more students practice, the more they enjoy and develop confidence in reading and the more likely they are to read in their free time. “

Reading Emergencies …..stealing time to read throughout the day.......even if it is just a few minutes at a time.    I like this term.  I am going to encourage my students to keep a book or two in their desks at all times so if a teacher comes in the room and they found themselves with a few minutes they can take out their books and read quietly. 

Signs of a Fake Reader/Avoiding Reading

We all have students who avoid reading focus in on those students and their interests and help them find books that will make them successful readers.  

1.  Finishes few books

2.  finishes books to quickly

3.  Abandons books often

4.  Conducts personal errands during reading time

5.  Fidgets or talks a lot

6.  Rarely has a book read

Why are daily read aloud so important??????

I am just as guilty as the next person when it comes to reading aloud.  My reading aloud time is right after the Math Block and if I have students who struggle with Math, I tend to work with them extra and skip my book. I always hope I can squeeze it in later however I rarely have a minute to spare.  Reading aloud is so important and here are Donalyn's reminders why: 

*Highlight great writing

*Model reading strategies

*build community

*expose children to different genres/authors

*builds fluency and vocabulary

*reinforces that reading can be fun

 

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New Ideas I want to incorporate in my classroom:

• ·      Add a student book recommendation to the first grade news
• ·      Create a poster “Currently my favorite book is…..”  someplace in my reading center.  I want to make the poster interactive so the first graders can change their favorites all by themselves whenever they want.  
• ·      Hold a book swap/book drive at the end of the November and January

 

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 I googled book swap images and found this wagon......how adorable......now I want a wagon for my book swap.