Reading Conferences

After reading chapter 7 in Routman, reading conferences do not seem as hard as I thought were originally. I really like the idea that it can be an informal thing but a good assessment of the student’s reading ability can be gained from it. I have seen my master teacher do informal reading conference and it works so well! She just explains to the kids that she will be asking a few of them to come talk with her about their book that day during independent reading time. She really makes sure they understand that it is just a conversation and NOT an assessment!

With my Juanita buddy, I think I will follow Routman’s guidelines exactly. I think it is important not only to make sure a student understands the book they are reading, but that they think about their choice of book. Asking them to rate the book on how hard it is for them is fantastic! In my main placement, I talked to a girl who chose to abandon her book because she knew it was too hard for her and she didn’t understand what was going on. I think it takes courage to admit that to a teacher! I also agree with Routman when she says that sometimes a short reading prompt is not a good measure of a student’s reading ability. It is much better to sit next to a student with a book and ask them to read aloud while you take an informal running record. Their interest level in the material can really play into how well they read and how hard they are willing to try to understand what they are reading.

I think the overall key to reading assessment is to keep it as informal as possible. There will always be times when a formal district assessment is necessary, but until that time comes, the less pressure there is on a student the better they will do on the assessment.

Emergent Literacy

Sulzby and Teale Article:
Think about classrooms you have visited. What aspects of emergent literacy have you observed in young children? How have you seen teachers support the growth of young children's literacy?

Every so often when I have a chance I will sit down and read with niece (she is now in 1st grade). For her birthday this past February I told her I was going to take her to the bookstore and she could pick out any book she wanted. She looked at me and said, "I want a book that will teach me how to read!" It was the best thing I have ever heard come out of her mouth! We found such a book, a set of books really, and she couldn't wait! When we got home she opened it up and looked at the books. She couldn't read all the words in them yet, which I think bothered her. But the set also came with a bingo game where you match letter sounds with pictures. For example, if you spun the spinner and it landed on R, you had to find a picture on your bingo card that started with an R. She could not get enough of this game! She loved it because she was able to be successful in identifying the first letter and first sound of words even though she couldn't quite read the books yet.

In the classroom have seen teachers support the growth of literacy in the form of partner reading. Last year I worked in a 1st grade class at a private school. All these students already knew how to read and loved doing it! Whenever they were given reading time they always asked if they could partner read. Two girls in particular LOVED to read to each other! Often, one of them would take the role of the teacher and read to the other one as if she were the student. They helped each other sound out words when they got stuck and sometimes even told their own stories to go along with the pictures in the books. The teacher allowed this to happen because the students ended up getting more out of their reading time when they had someone to share it with.



Mason Article:
Identify and summarize the main points of the article.
Identify a specific quote, topic, or issue for discussion with your group.

The Mason article gave examples of how teachers read three types of books to their Kindergarten students: storybooks, informational books, and short phrase books. For each type of book there was a dialogue between the teacher and students that directly illustrated different ways to introduce each type of book, to check for comprehension during reading, and to summarize the book after reading it. For the most part, the technique for storybooks and informational books were very similar. The technique for the short phrase books involved the students more directly in the reading of the story with fewer interruptions during reading.

“…kindergarten teachers use a number of techniques to foster kindergarteners’ understanding of book” (61). Just like everything else in teaching, there is no one right way to teach kids how to read. There is not one way of reading books to a class that will work for everybody because each group of students is different. The more we learn about different techniques the better off we will be because there will be more ideas to choose from when the first one doesn’t work out.