Don't Forget about Independent READING!

Who doesn't want to create a classroom of lifelong readers? Our most important responsibility is to teach ALL students how to read. Students need guided reading but it is crucial that they also get independent reading in all grades. Many studies have proven a link between time spent reading and reading achievement. The more children read, the better their fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. I understand that some worry that it is a waste of instructional time and fear that our struggling readers aren't reading and only need small group instruction. Yes! I believe in the power of small group instruction- it works! But, I also see value in independent reading. Independent reading is a time students can practice and apply a wide variety of reading skills within the text. This practice helps students build strong habits that will support them in and out of the classroom.  

         

What are the benefits of Independent Reading?

What is independent reading?

Independent reading can simply be defined as students reading on their own. Students choose to read materials they want to read for pleasure or gain information about a particular topic.  Independent reading is where “the train meets the track.” It’s an opportunity for students to practice all that has been taught during phonics and guided reading. Independent reading improves comprehension and helps students develop their vocabulary. Also, independent reading can improve fluency by allowing students time to practice reading the skills they have learned. 

As a first-grade teacher, I teach reading instruction using the "I do, We do, You do" model. This means direct instruction of skills and plenty of practice applying these skills. Independent reading offers the opportunity to practice and apply the skills you have taught them independently. Application at its finest! We all know that some will struggle. We must find ways to support them. Some oppose independent reading for our lower readers. But, why can't these students practice independent reading after they've been exposed to text in reading instruction or a small group? We need to give all students the chance to apply the skills we've taught them. Independent reading gives students time to practice the "I do".

The most important benefit of independent reading is developing a child's love for reading. I understand that having a student read independently will not necessarily foster a love for reading right away, but perseverance and motivation will. Students become motivated to read when they start feeling successful and confident. If we surround students with books that reflect their interests, it will motivate them to improve their reading. My students are excited to read books that they connect with or relate to. These connections help improve their comprehension. This independent reading time gives students time to explore topics they enjoy or maybe they've never learned about. It leaves them excited to learn and read more.

How can I keep my students accountable during 

Independent Reading Time? 

1. Explicitly Teach Procedures and Routines for Independent Reading- 
As with all things in our classrooms, we must teach our students what we expect. 
I teach independent reading strategies just as I teach my students to write a paragraph or solve a math problem. I show them what I expect and have them practice it.

• “Today, I’m going to teach you how to _______. Watch while I ______.”

• I demonstrate the desired behavior. (Example: sitting at a desk with eyes on the book.)

• I call on students to model the desired behavior.

• I asked the students to comment on what they were doing.

• I invite a student to demonstrate what NOT to do.

• I invite one last student to model proper expectations again. (Ending on a positive note.)

Break things down into Minilessons-

I don’t model everything all at once when I model independent reading. I break it into different minilessons:

• How to choose books that are best for them

• How to treat books respectfully

• How to begin reading during independent reading time

• How to create a story from the pictures (for Kindergarteners who cannot yet decode)

• How to learn from the photographs of nonfiction

• How to retell a story you know

• How to gain information from the pictures and text features in books

• How to show respect to your reading partners

• What to do if a reading partner is bothering you

• How to keep your books in a bag or box

• How to use the classroom library

• How to choose books that you enjoy reading

• How to reread books for fun

• What to do when finished

For several weeks, I teach quick lessons almost every day that focuses on one of these aspects, and then students practice reading independently. Remember, even after your students understand what to do, continue to reinforce your expectations each day. Yes, daily! Every day before they have their independent reading time, review a few routines and expectations. 

2. Allow Students choice, BUT Provide Guidance- 

It's important to allow students to select their own books based on their Lexile if they have one. Our students in the First Grade Benchmark and Challenge Universal Access groups have a Lexile. I have books for students who score a number and BR. I provide my strategic and intensive students a choice of select BR books and phonics-based readers based on their ability. If you are using decodable passages for instruction, you can include copies of those passages as a choice. This ensures students have texts that help them feel successful applying the skills you have taught them. Eventually, my students will select books from the classroom library to match their Lexile score. In the beginning, I provide them with books to choose from. They still have a choice, but I give myself time to thoroughly teach them how to use the classroom library.

3. Promote different ways of Reading-

Our students must view themselves as readers, even if they aren't reading words yet! I take time to teach students different ways to read a book, including

• Reading the pictures and making up a story. 
• Retelling a story, I already know- I read TONS of repetitive books and familiar fairy tales in 1st grade so that students can pretend-read these same books to themselves.
• Learn from the pictures or photos- There is so much that students can learn from looking at the images in informational text!

4. Gradually Build Stamina-

As you already know, it's so important to start out small in the beginning. I usually give my first graders only 3 minutes of independent reading time initially. Every week, we add on a minute until we reach our ultimate independent reading time goal. I usually stop at 15 minutes in first grade. Stamina building can start at the beginning of the year, yet remember you still have an entire school year ahead of you. As your students grow and change, you will extend the amount of time that they read independently. From a worrier who wants to get everything done ASAP, I'm telling you to grant yourself some grace if your students are not quite where you would like them to be even after weeks of practice.

5. Track and Celebrate Progress-

You might create a bar graph to chart how many minutes students read independently daily. This is an excellent tool for students to visually see their progress.

6. Motivate students with sharing time- 

At the end of independent reading, I allow a few minutes of sharing time. During share time, students can share a favorite picture or part of a book with a partner or share something that they wrote on a sticky note. It can be hard to carve out share time, but I think it's so helpful in motivating students to stay on track during independent reading. It also creates opportunities to make comments like, "I hope you are finding something interesting to share with your partner!" when you notice an off-task student. Start simple at first. 

7. Provide Positive Reinforcement- 

I'm constantly pointing out students' excellent behavior, including during independent reading time. Students read independently, observe behaviors, and take notes of great things you see them doing. You never want to interrupt your students' actual reading time. But as students are getting started, I say things like: "I see Charlie already opened his book and is reading—wow!" or "Ryan has a book and is ready to start." After independent reading time, I name a few students and the positive reading behaviors displayed during independent reading time. I also love to take photos/videos of students who are following my expectations and show them after independent reading time is over!

8. Treat independent reading as something to value-

We have to teach routines and expectations to help our students build stamina. However, we also have to encourage our students to WANT to develop their reading stamina in the first place! Before I ever begin teaching expectations for independent reading, I take time to tell my students why I love reading, ask them what they love about reading, and build excitement for all of the wonderful stories we will read during the school year.

I hope that what I've shared will help you feel confident about the choice to give your students independent reading time each day. Protecting this time is a meaningful way to support your students' love for learning and build strong reading habits that they will carry with them forever.

Positively Teaching,

Randi Muehlen

Digging Deeper Into Learning Strategies: Close Reading for Exceptional Learners

 By Heather Pfrunder, M.A.Ed.   SDC Teacher and Education Specialist

October 25, 2021

The written word...oh how I love thee!  I could wax poetic for at least 5 pages on how much I LOVE reading, and even writing!  However, teaching this all encompassing and vital subject had me shaking in my boots as a new teacher.  There is just sooo much to cover.  In fact, my first several years of teaching I merely tested the waters of what I might explore versus really developing deeper strategies.  Upon my third school year teaching, and my first at OMSD, I really began to grow in this area.  However, implementing strategies which include writing to learn seemed daunting to students that barely acquired phonics skills and were challenged to learn vocabulary.   So I went down checklists: What do my students need to learn?  What is required that they have exposure and learn to use strategies comparable to their typical peers -- particularly AVID?  How do I select texts?  So hang tight - because this post has every resource I’ve ever created (and 2 I gathered) for ELA -- all downloadable!

What do my students need to learn? 

1. A-typical/autistic students require visuals (i.e. pictures) to help them relate the written word to a concept.  This strategy is also helpful for students with cognitive delays or are Language Learners (that covers 100% of my students and probably a few of your students, too).

2. Repetitive practice to understand the task demand so that they can focus on the actual learning/application of learning.

3. Simplicity - while a concept can be complex to a degree, the format needs to be not too visually busy.

What Strategies Do I Need to Teach?

From a fundamental standpoint I need to address the following skills, as all reading comprehension rests on the following (and note - I usually teach them in this order):

1. Wh- Questions

2. Story Sequence

3. Story Retelling

4. Citing Text Evidence

5. Identifying Themes

6. Metacognition While Reading

Added to that are specific expectations of how learning should occur: AVID (i.e. column notes/WICOR, RACES, Thinking Maps, Costa’s Levels of Thinking), and of course, our district appointed curriculum: Wonders.

Starting with Wh- Questions, try using a mat to reference Wh- Mat Free Resource

Then break it down: Using a graphic organizer

This one I created. It has the blue shading because most of my students

are also challenged with their handwriting skills.

Story Sequence: For this one I typically start with taking pictures of the story.  Students can reference the book to match the order.  Notice the difference between the two sets of visuals: the one I used earlier in the year also includes the text for students to cite.  As they become more proficient, they are expected to find the words in the actual text:

Notice the Select Your Theme at the bottom? After a passage/story

review, they are given options to identify the type of story and the

change or significance of the story.

                                                                  

Story Telling: I created several versions of this graphic organizer, each version addressing Costa’s Levels of Thinking.  Below is the simple level one thinking.

Yup… I love the “Someone, Wanted, But, So, Then, Finally” format of story retelling.  You pretty much can’t go wrong with simple stories.  For added challenge, students really have to pay attention to time frames in a story if it starts with a “flash-forward.”

Citing Text Evidence:  Joint-attention is challenging enough when you are looking at a book and then worksheet to complete your work.  Add a graphic organizer on the wall to this, and well… who’s lost?  Everyone! Sigh… Solution?  Imbed the expectations right into the worksheet.  Make the worksheet a template and apply, and reapply… over time the concept is learned! Not only are we citing text evidence, but we are also reflecting on the Essential Question that is posed within the Wonders Curriculum.

Note: there are two different versions of this RACE and RACES - 

Start with RACE for beginning learners.

Identifying Themes: This always has me near tears.  Abstract concepts are so hard for my students to connect with!  But then I realized that the solution could be as simple as basic story themes themselves!  Aren’t common themes recycled in most literature?  Especially simple literature?  I started with Thinking Maps about story problems/solutions, and then after this reflection, the Thinking Map for Story themes became a matter of visual connect-the-dots.

Story Problems and Story Themes are laid out into Thinking Maps. 

While Thinking Maps are meant to help students organize their own thoughts,

Modeling with them also has benefits.

Metacognition While Reading: While all of the previous graphic organizers can address metacognition with additional visuals and check in’s, there is one strategy that made an amazing difference for my more advanced learners, and that is the CSR Learning Model. Of note that the CSR model is not only a reflection of reading comprehension, but done correctly, it is also done in collaboration with a peer.  So think about Kagan strategies in conjunction with this.  CSR stands for: “The Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) strategy incorporates cooperative learning, vocabulary development, questioning techniques, opportunities to practice, and students’ use of prior knowledge” (Per: nysrti.org/intervention-tools/reading-tools/tool:csr/).

In its simplest of explanations, students reflect on what they “get” or the “GIST” of a passage/story and what they “don’t get” or the “CLUNK” of the passage/story.  Often, this boils down to vocabulary or word usage.  And for this I like to use the Frayer Model to do a deep dig dive on a per student vocabulary.  What I love about this is that vocabulary learning now becomes not based on teacher assigned work, but student identified need.  By the end of the process/last multiple read students really have looked deeply into what the passage says.  (Of note: while this works for all texts, I really like to begin with non-fiction texts of interest, especially those with more academic words.)

This is a simple graphic organizer with the before, during, and after reflections. 

For more on the CSR model you can explore: https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/csr/cresource/q1/p01/#content

Everything I have shared and More can be downloaded here:

Close Reading Strategies for Diverse Learners

So at this point I have shared a lot of resources and strategies.  Hopefully one or more will help you and your students on the very long road to English proficiency.  While all of these resources are created to exist in conjunction with the texts, often the question lies in which text to pick -- after all the provided resources of Mc-Graw Hill’s Wonders program can seem like an ocean when prep time demands that you select from a more pond-sized selection.

How Do I Select Texts?

For this I am suggesting that selection is either for UA/ELD support or if you are in an SDC setting like myself - you are adjusting based on IEP goals. So here goes the short version at the end of a long blog post!

1. I actually like the Phonics Readers to begin teaching how to use strategies.  The simple text helps students focus on the main points.

2. From there I go to the Anthology texts using the above shared graphic organizers.  I focus on main events and new vocabulary. I typically begin each story with a short video clip to introduce the topic and/or vocabulary slides.

3. From there I go into using the Close Reading Companion (Grade 1-2) or Wonderworks (Grades 2- and beyond): story selections are vocabulary rich, with visuals, and tend to be slightly shorter than the Anthology.  I shift to this resource because the embedded questions on the page are much easier to navigate but are also complex enough to challenge and expand their understanding beyond the initial graphic organizers I have shared. Additionally, students can underline not only the work cited, but the key words in the questions being asked.

Over the years I have used supplemental resources (as found on teacherspayteachers.com) or programs like “Read Naturally,” but the idea is that students have access to high quality texts and are commensurate to their typically developing peers.  In this, adapting strategies to work in conjunction with the Wonders curriculum not only meets the unique needs of the students, but allows them access to the general education curriculum.

Like what you read?  Join me in upcoming blog posts where I continue to put these strategies into place and share resources!

Forever in the Middle: Reading Novels Virtually

 

Reading Novels During Distance Learning

I love reading great novels with students and that is the biggest thing I miss from having students in the classroom. It also wasn't something I was willing to give up during distance learning. In the Spring, my classes were about 2/3 of the way through The Giver when schools shut down, and this school year, my classes have read one novel and started a second last week. Figuring out how best to do this has been a continuous challenge so here is a little insight into what did and didn't work for me.

A Shift in Focus

I use novels to reinforce and practice ELA standards in the classroom.  Since we are so much more limited on instructional minutes this school year, I have had to remind myself that if the students don't understand every single detail of the texts, it's okay as long as they can apply what skills they practiced to new texts or make connections to new material. 

The focus is not on the book itself, it is on the standards while using the book as a resource. 

What does this look like in my online environment? My seventh-grade class is using their novel as a supplement to the current unit where we look at the differences in the way people live in other parts of the world. My intervention class is using their novel as a way of identifying narrative techniques and practicing literature analysis as well as responses to literature: areas that they need extra practice with. Earlier this year, we focused on similar standards with the 8th grade ELA classes as we read The Outsiders.

Asynchronous Reading With EdPuzzle

My eighth-grade students read The Outsiders in the Fall and I was happy to find the chapters available on EdPuzzle. The benefit of using this was that I could see exactly who was completing the reading and I also was able to have them answer questions along the way and received instant feedback on their learning.  The challenge was that the students who really enjoyed reading did not enjoy having to listen to someone else read and the students who were not self-motivated did not complete the reading at all. However, I did like the idea of using EdPuzzle and the feedback I received from it. In the end, it was not the best choice for me.

Synchronous Reading During Zoom

My students last year finished The Giver over Zoom. Since we didn't have a set Zoom schedule like this school year, I scheduled "Reading time with Mrs. Valverde" for anyone who wanted to read the book along with me. Attendance was not mandatory and I had a group of around 10 very dedicated students attend each day. They even asked to extend the time past finishing the book to read the next novel in the series. 

This semester, I started reading Forged by Fire with my 8th-grade intervention students and The Bridge Home with my seventh grade Language Arts class. I am reading about 10 minutes at the beginning of the period with each of the classes and using the chat in Zoom to receive feedback. This has worked fairly well. Also, both of the texts are on Actively Learn, which allows me to assign chapters to students to read and even include questions for them to answer at the end of each chapter: another way to check for understanding and keep the students accountable to reading. I can start the day's reading with them and have them finish it asynchronously after our Zoom class is over. 

Virtual Literature Circles

In the Fall, my 8th Honors ELA class read through The Outsiders at a much faster pace than the other groups. This allowed us to run digital literature circles with the students. I had a shared document where they were responsible for specific roles as they would have in a traditional classroom. They then signed up as a group to meet with me over Zoom twice during the four-week session. During this reading club meeting, they were given time to discuss the book with each other in real-time. 

My only role in this was to provide them with the time over Zoom and to listen in on their conversation. I could easily tell who was reading the book by the connections they were making and discussions they had during this time. This worked for 7 of my 9 groups. Two of the groups struggled with members who didn't pull their weight but overall, it was a positive experience. 

Don't let reading a novel with your students virtually intimidate you. I do miss actually feeling their reactions to things that happen in the books we read, but reading something together with a class is too magical for me to give up, even if I miss out on some pieces of it. It all comes down to what you find the most value in for your students. Whatever you choose to do with your students over the next few months, don't feel limited by online learning, but instead view it as an opportunity to do things differently. Who knows? Maybe you'll end up finding a strategy you love and can continue doing when we return to school.

Keep the magic alive, 

Kandyce Valverde

Wiltsey Middle School
7th/8th Language Arts