Elizabeth Graham Post 6: Routman's Chapter 6 & 7

As I read Chapters 6 and 7 in Routman's Reading Essentials, I was struck by the concept of "just right" books. As a teacher librarian I am all in favor of student choice for independent reading, but I recognize the reality that many students need help identifying what a "just-right" book is. This is something we talk about during our library classes. For example, our third grade students are reading chapter books and many of them take pride in walking around with the largest chapter book they can find on the shelves. Harry Potter #7 anyone? If the student is ready for this reading challenge, I am all for it. However, if they are not ready and are just imitating the look of a reader, they are wasting their time and giving us never opened books to reshelve. I have worked with our third graders to identify some accessible, high-interest book series, compared text sizes, discussed how some series and books have pictures and cartoons while others are text-heavy, all with the goal of making the students self-sufficient book selectors.

As far as making assessments part of reading, I like the idea of "teaching intentionally". Many times when I am reading a book to a class, I will let them know that at the end of the story I will be asking them a question and that they should pay attention and prepare their answer. For example, with the book, Churchill's Tale of Tails, Churchill the pig has lost his tail and tries on other animal tails to see how he likes them. The question for my students was, "If you could have an animal tail, what kind would you pick and why?" At the end of the story, students shared their choice. This kind of question or prompt helps students pay more attention to the details of the story. It also serves as a mini-assessment and lets me know if students followed the plot line and can make connections and meaning from what they heard.

Elizabeth Graham's Post 5: Routman's Chapter 12 "You Only Have So Much Time"

As I read Chapter 12, "You Only Have So Much Time", several key points jumped out at me. As a newer teacher librarian, I have fallen for the cute/cool Pinterest lessons and centers that take some time to plan and create. Perhaps I should have read this chapter first, as Routman warns, "Continually ask yourself when planning work for students, How is this activity helping my students become more independent as readers, writers, and thinkers? If it's not, set it aside." Ouch, maybe I did spend too much time on the snowman ABC cards...

Another point that resonated was the mantra to "Keep Work Meaningful" AKA help students create authentic work. In the library, I aspire to share and publish the work that students create for the wider world to enjoy. If a student writes a poem on a piece of paper, then shoves it in their backpack never to be seen again, was the poem really written? How about publishing student work on school websites, class blogs, Twitter, or other social media sites? Students should work hard to create products that they are proud of and want to share with the school community, their parents, and the wider world of the internet. To me, that is authentic.

Finally, I love the section instructing us to, "Make Time for Personal and Professional Reading." No matter how busy my day, I almost always try to end the day with a chapter or two. As Dr. Pridgen reminds our students daily "have a book in your bookbag", we have to make sure that we have reading material - magazines, journal articles, eBooks, novels, blog posts - readily accessible.