Last year I started teaching reading in an entirely new way, and I LOVE IT!!! I teach about a 20 minute whole group lesson, the "meat" if you will, and then we break for 4 different centers. What's really cool, and motivating for the kids, is that they get to CHOOSE the order in which they go to their centers. This means that they aren't always with the same friends from day to day, or even from center to center. Another really neat thing is that for the majority of the centers, they get to also choose where to sit, be it on the floor, on a bean bag, at a table, etc... Their choices for centers are as follows:
1. Read to Self - for this center, each student has their own "Book Box" in which they've "shopped" for their own "Good Fit" books. This is really motivating for the kids, because they can choose books that are not only interesting to them, but also books that they know most of the words on a page. During this time, kids find a quiet space and quietly, yup, you guessed it!...Read to themselves!
2. iReady - this is a computer program that is installed on each child's iPad. This is an interactive online learning environment designed to assess students and provide individualized instruction based on each one's unique needs.
3. Writing with Mrs. Reitnour - This is usually a worksheet to go along with whatever the main lesson is for the day.
4. Independent - this varies from day to day. Mondays the kids read with a partner, Tuesdays they practice Spelling words, Wednesdays they practice Tricky words, Thursdays they read, or listen to reading, on an AMAZING app on their iPads called Epic, and on Fridays they practice writing an individualized list of words.
You might be wondering what I'm doing during this time. Well, I get to conference with the children while they are reading from their book boxes. This is so neat, because I get to hear the kids reading from books of various levels, and books that they ENJOY reading! What's more, we set goals from our CAFE menu (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expand Vocabulary) to work towards becoming better readers, and we learn specific strategies to help us meet our goals. So far, I am seeing amazing results by teaching reading this way.
For more information about this framework for teaching reading, click HERE.
1. Read to Self - for this center, each student has their own "Book Box" in which they've "shopped" for their own "Good Fit" books. This is really motivating for the kids, because they can choose books that are not only interesting to them, but also books that they know most of the words on a page. During this time, kids find a quiet space and quietly, yup, you guessed it!...Read to themselves!
2. iReady - this is a computer program that is installed on each child's iPad. This is an interactive online learning environment designed to assess students and provide individualized instruction based on each one's unique needs.
3. Writing with Mrs. Reitnour - This is usually a worksheet to go along with whatever the main lesson is for the day.
4. Independent - this varies from day to day. Mondays the kids read with a partner, Tuesdays they practice Spelling words, Wednesdays they practice Tricky words, Thursdays they read, or listen to reading, on an AMAZING app on their iPads called Epic, and on Fridays they practice writing an individualized list of words.
You might be wondering what I'm doing during this time. Well, I get to conference with the children while they are reading from their book boxes. This is so neat, because I get to hear the kids reading from books of various levels, and books that they ENJOY reading! What's more, we set goals from our CAFE menu (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expand Vocabulary) to work towards becoming better readers, and we learn specific strategies to help us meet our goals. So far, I am seeing amazing results by teaching reading this way.
For more information about this framework for teaching reading, click HERE.