Started my summer reading last weekend. I'm almost finished with Skeleton Creek, more on that later but I finished reading Donalyn Miller's book, The Book Whisperer, at the pool on Sunday. I wish I could be a sixth grader in Mrs. Miller's class. She loves reading and sees it as life changing. In her book she discusses the literary classroom she's created. Her philosophy is that kids should be reading and often. In fact, a significant amount of classroom time should be spent in independent books. Donalyn writes that research shows that the average adult only reads 4 books a year and she wonders if we've been killing reading for our students by giving them worksheets and asking them to write post it notes to death. I assume that her ideas would be in line with another book I'm itching to read, Readicide. It gets me excited for a fresh start with new students and a chance to open the world of reading to an aliterate society!
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Our curriculum coordinator at Parkway totally agrees with this philosophy. She was a big proponent of SSR and conferencing with kids through reading workshop. This past year, I gave my kids at least 15 minutes of SSR every day...it was an expectation that they come with a book. It was amazing to see them fly through books. Even those reluctant kiddos were reading daily! I saw huge gains in their work, too. I have some pointers on how to manage it if you (most of which you probably already know), but shoot me an e-mail if you want me to send you some files closer to the year starting!!
MLE--there is a teacher at my school who reads the entire hour on Thursdays. There are no strings attached. The kids just read. For part of the hour, she conferences with them about their books. For the other part she sits down and reads alongside them. Sometimes they will finish early and talk to others about what they read. She had a great reading community going!
P.S. Kelly Gallagher (author of Readicide)is great. I really want to check out Readicide. His book--Teaching Adolescent Writer's--was referenced numerous times in my Fellows work.
MLE--there is a teacher at my school who reads the entire hour on Thursdays. There are no strings attached. The kids just read. For part of the hour, she conferences with them about their books. For the other part she sits down and reads alongside them. Sometimes they will finish early and talk to others about what they read. She had a great reading community going!
P.S. Kelly Gallagher (author of Readicide)is great. I really want to check out Readicide. His book--Teaching Adolescent Writer's--was referenced numerous times in my Fellows work.
The entire hour! Wow!
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