Elizabeth Graham Post 7: Ch. 5 "Organizing an Outstanding Classroom Library"

Chapter 5 of Routman's Reading Essentials focuses on classroom libraries. While I am privileged to organize and oversee the school library which serves the needs of the whole school community rather than an individual classroom library, I still found many helpful ideas in this chapter. Routman recommends providing "lots of choices and books" and allowing students to play a role in the set-up of the library. In our school library, my goal is to help the users (students and teachers) easily find books that they want to read. Books are faced out on display shelves, graphic novels have their own featured section, books are put on top of shelves, and, yes, students can take books off of displays. Many students get overwhelmed when confronted with thousands of books on the shelves and need help finding that "right book" that captures their interest. Putting up signs, book review cards, pictures of favorite characters/series, or otherwise promoting titles helps lead students to those books.

A big, but controversial trend in school libraries has been ditching the Dewey Decimal system for what is called genrefication. Books are organized by genre: mystery, romance, horror, animals, action, etc. whether than more traditional categories. The impetus behind this trend is that genrefying leads to increased library circulation and enables students to more easily locate books they want to read. This is similar to Routman's classroom library that is organized according to the students' interests.

More information:
Exploring Genrefication in the School Library with Tiffany Whitehead

Angelica Guevara April/May Blog #7 You Only Have So Much Time

Routman Chapter 12

The title of this chapter is You Only Have So Much Time and it touched on so many aspect of the classroom and teaching that I had to repeat the title to myself over and over. “We have the same 24 hours a day we always had, but more keeps getting added-curriculum, standards, mandates, new students, programs, in-service, materials, testing requirements…..” not to mention IEP changes, amendments, and ESOL documentation. I must say, all that paperwork is not mentioned in any educational course at the Universities where we prepare to become educators. Teachers have to be extremely organized and disciplined in order to get all their instructional time and paper work done before dinner time. The only way to survive is to learn to multi-task. This chapter mentions doing two or three tasks while performing; such as observe, monitor, and assess students while reflecting on how to become a better educator all while conferencing with a student! That is easier said than done, but it is almost a requirement now days with all that is expected from us and our students. During my students’ independent reading time I conference with my them and observe their confidence level and their choice of book, I monitor their fluency, and assess how phonetically skilled they are. As I do that, I am thinking Oh, that lesson I just taught on contractions really helped Johnny, or Johnny did not get what I just taught him about contractions, I am going to have to go over it again in a different manner.

“Students will happily engage in work that is connected to their lives and in projects in which they can see value.” “Together we determine needs, interests, purpose, and goals.” I have definitely used this as an advantage to me. My students’ self-advocacy programs allows them to reflect and monitor their individualized goals. I take into account their strengths, needs, and interest and that allows me to modify their lessons. The students know I have high expectations for them and we discuss reachable goals by showing them how to connect their learning to their daily living situations. We definitely Cultivate a Love of Learning in my classroom and I would hope all educators do that. Our days are set depending on our energy level. Routman believes first and foremost, we must do whatever we can to ensure that our students love learning. Our students can read our energy and love for teaching and learning. We are their educational role models. We have to make teaching fun and show them that we are enjoying the act of education. They can tell if a teacher does not want to be in school or doesn’t want to teach something, that is when they lose interest. A day in the classroom will be determined by how positive and exciting the students and teacher are. Both will feed off of each other. Both must be present in order to have a smooth and productive day. I know I have to come in with a positive attitude because I am the adult and the leader of my room. If a student comes in stressed out or angry it is my responsibility to try to help that student change his attitude for himself and the rest of the class. Sometimes that is not achieved but if it is, my job is easier and the rest of the class will have a better chance of being creative.

Maggie Delaney March/April Blog 7

"If we want kids to wind up with comprehension, we have to begin with comprehension." The opening to this chapter really hit home for me.  Eight years ago, I switched from being a 2nd grade classroom teacher to a part-time reading tutor/interventionist.  For six of those eight years, I basically taught word recall via various SRA programs.  The result.  Kids can call words.  But their comprehension is grade levels behind.  So many of our students believe that reading is about words, but they are unaware that reading is about meaning (thinking)!

I especially liked the section on making YOUR (the teacher) reading/thinking process visible.  So, for the past two years, I have worked with older kids and given them strategies to use while reading to help make meaning out of what they read!  Interestingly enough, a high percentage of our kids "sound" like good readers (thanks to SRA), but have little understanding of what they read.  I think comprehending and understanding are very abstract ideas for kids and difficult to grasp.  I have worked hard over the years to help make these concepts concrete ideas for my students to remember and use on a daily basis while reading.  I was excited to see the list of strategies that Routman included in this chapter.  Making connections, monitoring your reading for meaning, determining what's most important, visualizing, asking questions, making inferences, and synthesizing.  These are ALL my strategies that I have been teaching!  Yay!!

Comprehension.  I feel like it is my biggest challenge as a reading teacher today.  I plan to refer back to this chapter in the coming years to remind myself of what I need to provide to my students to best teach them this life changing skill.  When your reading has meaning, that is truly when reading becomes so powerful and a love of literacy begins!

Jennifer Novak Chapter 8 -April Post

Chapter 8: Teach Comprehension

Reading comprehension was something that I always struggled with as a reader in school.  First I was a slow reader and had to reread passages a lot, making reading not enjoyable. I am not sure if I was never taught the right strategies or just slow to process what I read.    So I really loved this chapter on teaching children to comprehend what they read. 

In the beginning of the chapter, Routman discussed that there is great emphasis on word calling, automatically, and fluency in the early grades.  I would completely agree with this.  We are constantly assessing our students on their fluency.  However, how appropriate is it that a student can word call from the SRA manual or meet the fluency requirements in the SRA manual?  How well is this really assessing their comprehension? 

Students should be taught strategies to understand what they read.  We are always teaching strategies to decode words.  Making connections, determining the importance, visualizing, asking questions, and making inferences are all very important skills that must be taught in order to gain comprehension skills.  I use many of these skills when teaching my students how to comprehend what they are reading. 

Kelli Wolfe Blog Post #7 (March/April) Guided Reading

I like what Routman says in Chapter 10 of Reading Essentials:  Examine Guided Reading.  She reminds us at the very beginning that Guided Reading can take place at many different times during the day – not just during Guided Reading Group time.  She reminds us that Guided Reading is intended to be a time where students are in flexible groups and are “practicing what has already been demonstrated by the teacher.”  It is important that everyone know this definition.   I have recently observed a few guided reading groups where the teacher is just listening to the students read . . . there is no guided practice going on.  We need to remember to group our students in a way that allows us to get the most out of our time and to be sure they are practicing a skill or a strategy that has already been taught.  

What I liked most about this chapter centered around what Routman had to say about classroom management during a Reading Workshop model.  I, too, hear this question over and over!  “What do the other students do while I am meeting with a Guided Reading Group?”  And, “Creating these centers took me all weekend.”  I truly believe, and have experienced myself as a classroom teacher, that if students are engaged in what they are reading (because they are given choice) and are taught expectations, management will not be an issue.  Of course there will always be outliers, but overall, students pick up a routine very quickly and respond well when they know what the expectation is and are engaged in what they are doing/learning.  

In response to “creating centers,” I think this speaks mostly to teachers who think center work is worksheet work.  In reality, it should be the exact opposite.  I will admit that I have used games as center time . . . a figurative language sort or something of that nature.  I don’t think this scarred students for life, but I am not sure it was the best use of time either. Maybe if I had asked them to watch for examples of figurative language in a book they are reading and recording it in their notebook, they would have gotten more out of their time.  In that scenario, the student is doing the work . . . not the teacher.   It is definitely a paradigm shift and will probably be harder for those of us who have been teaching longer, but it is important that we give students the opportunity to think for themselves EVERY DAY!  Centers full of worksheets won’t do that.

Painter March-April Blog-Chapter 9-Shared Reading

As I was reading this chapter, one part really stuck out to me: "Recently, however, even in Kindergarten and grade 1, big books and enlarged texts have fallen out of favor as an emphasis on prepackaged programs has dominated reading instruction."  I agree with this and am guilty of this myself.  I know that I do not do shared read alouds as often as I used to in my classroom.  I try to squeeze in so much into the few hours I have causing shared read alouds to be put to the side at times.  As Routman mentions, students get vocabulary, fluency, inferring, and the list goes on, from that time. 

I am also guilty of pulling up a read aloud on you tube instead of taking the time to find the book in the library.  This is just not the same as me reading and stopping to discuss and think as I'M reading with my kids.  This chapter definitely hit home and reminded me of what I need to really go back to and make sure that I make more time for.  Shared reading is so important for the kids that I teach that haven't been read to as much at home. 

Sharon Doyle - March/April - The Final Post

     As I selected the topic for my final post for this course, it seemed to end where I began.  Earlier, I wrote from Debbie Miller's Is There Enough Time?.  To end, I looked to Routman in Chapter 12, You Only Have So Much Time.  I clearly see the word 'time' as a four-letter word.  I have yet to find a single teacher as we approach the final nine weeks of the year facing so many interruptions with testing, holidays, and general spring and summer fever, looking for additional curriculum at their grade level because all has been taught.  Instead, March Madness to me is equated with high anxiety, stress, and a general mood that describes one of guarded desperation.

    Routman brings me back to a more centered approach while I can almost hear her yelling, "Take a breath, people!"  She brings me back to those strategies that I know work: use your experience to plan well and embrace the craziness in your plans, remember to think about your goals and the necessities within the curriculum, ask yourself frequently 'why' and if you can't answer this with integrity, move on.  Also, at this time of year, it is important for students to feel satisfaction and success.  We don't want them to give up now, this is a critical time for them to feel empowered.  Engagement and encouragement sprinkled with genuine fun will go so much further than complicated skill and drill activities.  Students also need a sense of closure and recognition of just what they have accomplished.  Reviews that look like games that demonstrate to students a visible measure of what they have accomplished and recognition of what they may not have yet truly mastered provides the teacher and students with valuable information for this time of year. 

     Sometimes, I must remind myself that it is me, not them that has become fatigued.  As each assignment, checklist, and job bombards me, I become less capable of handling the mess.  Routman reminds us that when students are in the room, make every minute count.  This is a time to revisit the lesson plans, assess what has been accomplished and what is needed to lead them into the new year and close this year with a feeling of accomplishment.  This is also a time to evaluate, not so much the students, we know there is enough of that already required, but ourselves.  This is a time I ask my students how I have done for them.  Do they feel that I as a teacher have provided them the support they needed.  At the beginning of the year, I chart with students their expectations through interest surveys for me as their teacher.  I remind them of these ideas and we take a pulse of which have been fulfilled and what is left.  I also ask them if they as students have met their commitments to the class.  I find that this helps students to refocus as to why they are in the classroom and find it easier to maintain attention to the very end. 

      Finally, Routman reminds us of the need to maintain and create structure to maximize participation.  This time of year, we must structure every moment or our students fill the moments with their most creative ideas, not necessarily productive, but definitely creative.  Varying group dynamics with individual, small group, and whole group activities provides variety and interest.  Rubrics that are given at the beginning of the lesson help students maintain focus and holds students accountable.  Assessments that help me recognize 'strugglers' are also important allowing me to provide additional support for students who may not necessarily feel successful.  I want students to leave the year feeling successful and as stated earlier 'time' is the dreaded constant.

Rhonda Dickerson- March-April Blog

March-April Blog

Routman- Chapter 8- Teach Comprehension

This chapter nails it!  So many of my students can read with automaticity- they know every single word- yet they cannot tell very much about the story.  They have a difficult time sharing the main idea, giving a concise summary, discussing why the characters behave as they do, and discovering what the author’s purpose is.  I appreciate the “Try It, Apply It” sections in the chapter.  There are some excellent ideas to aim for in the classroom.

I agree 100% with the list of strategies teachers consider most important for helping them understand as they read.  I would have listed reread as my number one strategy.  “Trust what we do as a reader to guide our teaching.”  The research-based strategies do not dominate the list.  Then why do we spend most of our time on these?  Do we follow the research or go with our gut? 

When I conference with students, I encourage them to reread.  This, however, is not their favorite thing to do!  I hear comments like this: “Why should I read it again?  I already read it!”   I need to model this more when I read aloud to them or with them individually during conference time.  I must make this strategy more visible in the classroom.   I should show them that even adults go back and reread to make sense of text.  I am guilty of reading an entire page and then realizing I did not comprehend a single thing. My strategy- go back and read it again.  They have to understand this is okay to do.

The three simple, yet powerful self-monitoring questions on page 125 need to be in every student’s toolbox.  I am constantly telling them to ask themselves if it makes sense.  If it does not, stop and go back.  I love “Does this sound like language?”  as many will just insert a word that begins with the given letter and keep right on reading! I will add this one to my list!  When I meet with a student and he/she is already into the book, I will ask them to summarize or tell me what has happened so far.  This helps me assess if the student comprehends the text.  Many will show me pictures on the pages and jump to their favorite parts, while others like to start back at the beginning.  We are working on summarizing and focusing on the most important details. 

I appreciate that Routman included a section on keeping fluency in perspective.  Let’s don’t just call words- let’s understand what we read as we read fluently.  Just because a student can read an appropriate numbers of words per minute does not mean he/she comprehends the text. 

Perfect practice makes perfect reading.  It is, indeed, important to strategically teach strategies so the students eventually make them an invisible part of their personal reading.

Anderson's March/April Blog Post

Routman's Chapter 8: Emphasize Share Reading

This chapter was a little bit of a tug of war with the educator inside of me. Throughout the reading I found a few things in particular that really caught my attention. First, that shared reading should especially be done starting in second grade...pause for thought. When I taught second grade we used the Basal reader and had essentially a shared reading time every day - maybe some of the questions weren't structured the same way as the questions in the examples that Routman shared, or the lesson itself wasn't as diverse as those that were given as examples; however reading the same text while students had copies, me reading and them following along, stopping periodically and asking questions then doing some sort of follow up with the text after the story was always part of my daily lessons in second grade.

In kindergarten things are quite different though. When I continued reading I came across Routman's ideas for kindergarten: that they should primarily be rereading new, familiar, and favorite texts, using big books, maybe even a pointer to track reading, then follow this time with guided reading or independent reading. When imagining this in action I can't help but reflect on when I was in Kindergarten - my teacher with a Little Miss Muffet poem written on chart paper with homemade puppets, a star pointer, and a craft that followed. Not to offend my amazing kindergarten teacher but wow, how things changed. With expectations what they are now, and the resources that are available: it is possible for students to have a copy of a text (I don't have student copies of many texts however I do know they exist for Kindergarten), teachers to have a big book, and for so many more skills to be taught during this time. But that tug of war is still taking place...we are working so hard to individualize instruction that it seems we have moved away from whole group shared reading - but to guided reading, small group reading programs, and even push-in/pull-out programs that help students with reading skills. With how busy we are, how can we possibly do guided reading, shared reading, and independent reading daily?

I do love shared reading time, I do read alouds daily (unless this time is otherwise interrupted), and my students love being read to. There are so many skills you can reach through a good read aloud, as well as observations that you can make to help assess students' needs. I enjoyed reading through several of the examples Routman had in her book about what her shared reading time looked like in the upper grades - I would have liked to see her dialog and a more detailed layout of what her lesson would have looked like with Kindergarten to see how closely my read alouds (without group texts or big books) are to her shared reading times.

This chapter has confirmed that doing all three: guided reading (ReadWell), shared reading (whole group lesson), and independent reading is one of the more reliable ways to ensure that my students are getting the most out of our reading block.

Olivia Boykin Blog Post #6 Routman Chapter 12: You Only Have So Much Time

    “How do we do it all and not work sunrise to sunset every day of the week?  Teachers are burning out and retiring as quickly as they can in our district.”  (A group of K-5 teachers in Colorado p. 201) 

    This quote sums up my feelings almost perfectly.  I don’t feel that there is enough time in the day to do everything I need to do and I’m becoming more and more exhausted, getting less and less completed, and many of my students are still not showing they are retaining and applying the knowledge I thought they had obtained this year.  This book was published in 2003 and, even 13 years ago, Routman stated, “…more keeps getting added – curriculum, standards, mandates, new students, programs, in-service, materials, testing requirements – and that doesn’t include the demands of our own personal lives.”  (p. 202)  When she talks about a teacher declining an evening out because she had papers to grade I thought to myself, “That’s me, and I don’t want to be that person.”  An administrator once said to me, “Maybe you just need to find another career.  Maybe teaching just isn’t for you.”  That cut me to the bone because teaching is all I’ve ever wanted to do.  I know I just need to find a balance and find my happy place again. 

Routman says there are many things we can do during the school day to make our teaching lives easier and more efficient so the students aren’t having to do so much paperwork and we, as teachers, aren’t having to grade so many papers.  That sounds great!  Let’s see, I let my students “turn and talk” in math and science.  During small group time I call on students who don’t volunteer and guide and support their responses.  I make notes on each student’s struggles and comprehension.  I use a timer throughout the day to help keep us on track and to make sure we don’t spend too long on one thing.  I do utilize “student-led groups” (though this is a work in progress and is quite a bit of prep work in itself).  I don’t use my transition times as effectively as I used to, especially for my review in the hallways.  The disrespect and lack of caring has gotten to me and the review isn’t as effective when several people are using that time to giggle, talk, etc.  I suppose I can start the day by letting my students read science texts instead of working on a math review paper, but I just don’t feel I can allow them to have time to read a book of their choice, write a letter to someone, or talk about their reading with someone each morning.  As lovely as that sounds, those minutes count toward math and science in my room and I have no minutes to spare. 

Now, my question is this:  If we just talk about our learning, read about science and social studies, discover new things on our own, practice our math facts and skills, and read, read, read for learning and pleasure (my favorite thing to do, by the way) all the while making notes and talking to the students, where am I going to get grades for the students?  If I based my grades on oral answers to my questions in group discussions and/or on an individual basis I’d have at least double the current number of honor roll students every 9 weeks.  Most of my students can add and subtract if someone is there beside them to encourage them and/or walk them through the steps.  Most of my students will connect the dots when asked orally how landforms and earth changes are related and connected.  Put those same students in front of a piece of paper and ask those same questions and 7 times out of 10 they’ll answer incorrectly.  I’ve been in the situation where a child was graded based on what he could do and that child suffered for it because he couldn’t get extra help because his grades didn’t show he was struggling.  I’ve heard (too many times to count) parents say their children have never had a problem in school before because they’ve always been on the honor roll.  If I grade students based on observations and participation will it save me time grading papers?  Absolutely!  Will it show what they truly know when nobody is there to prompt them?  I truly can’t say it will.  Don’t we, as educators, have to show a range of data in order to have students considered for certain types of help if we see them struggling?  If I don’t have the students complete worksheets that I have to grade, how do I get the data?  Yes, I can start uploading everything to the computer and have the computer grade it for me.  Yes, that will save me time.  Should I spend part of my summer uploading items into itslearning for future years?  What happens when itslearning is no longer utilized?  People say it’s going to take our current students into high school, but so many programs have come and gone just in the 17 years I’ve been teaching that I can’t 100% believe that is true.  Do I feel comfortable putting a subtraction or addition math test on the computer?  Not really.  What about those students who followed the steps but made an error in calculation?  What about those students who wrote a number wrong when they copied the problem from the computer to their paper to work it out to get the answer?  Can the answer chosen tell me why they are struggling with this certain skill?  No, it can’t, so doesn’t that still mean I will have to look at and analyze the papers?  I’m not trying to be Negative Nancy, either!  I really want someone who: is a really good teacher, gets everything done during the school day, and leaves at a decent hour without taking work home to tell me – no, show me – how to do that, too.  I miss my family.  I miss reading books.  I miss sleep.  I miss my friends.  I miss having a life outside of school.