Recently our school took on the initiative to "Increase the Volume of Reading!" I am very excited about this!!! Having earned my M.Ed. in Reading, and watching Kindergarten students enter school with ZERO reading experience and leaving that year fluently reading C and D-level stories, this made my heart jump.
Reading for enjoyment is something I do often. Now, it's not as often as I'd like! But cuddling up on my cozy chair with my blanket and a warm cup of Joe ready to dive into a new Christian-fiction or a Bible study/devotional, even a Juvenile fiction chapter book or a professional learning book... now that sounds marvelous to me! (hmmm, I think I might do that as soon as I get home tonight) ;)
Knowing that we can't just talk the talk but we have to walk the walk, I knew it would benefit our grade levels to do some mini-PLC's to pair up with the initiative. So I started with Second Grade!! I pulled some of articles that were easy reads and a few pages that highlighted how important effective instruction is for our students' achievement. About a week prior to the mini-PLC, the Reading teachers were given the articles and asked to read through them, noting any comments or questions in the margins.
The day of our mini-PLC, those teachers who came prepared with their articles and notes added much to our discussion about increasing the volume of reading. They shared out what practices they currently use like reading the weekly story as a whole class. Another mentioned how A.R. has really helped some students buckle down and get into books. They stated the value of the Z.P.D. range in guiding children in checking out books in their independent reading level.
We wrapped up the session by coming up with little additions that could be done to further increase the time our students are in texts throughout each school day. One teacher mentioned adding in Read to Self as a center option. Another one mentioned having a blocked out time each day for books - reading by one's self and/or reading with a partner. We took these ideas down and determined that the time we put into adding more "reading" time to our day, the better readers our students will become.
Though these practices are great ideas, it is extremely important that we take action! Ideas are just that... ideas. Until they are taken down off the shelf and used in with our students, we will never know the value and impact our ideas might have.
So pull down that reading idea, dust it off, and turn it up!!!!!!!! Sing with me!
Increasing the Volume agenda
Increasing the Volume engagement card
Ten Minutes More!
http://textproject.org/library/frankly-freddy/what-s-silent-reading-got-to-do-with-it/
