Chapter 14: Reading by Children: Independent Reading and Writing and Literature Circles
A students personality goes hand in hand with their motivation and desire to read. It is important, as a teacher, to understand your students literary personalities. I really like the response to a reading inventory survey because the student can express how they feel and what they think about reading. Creating a well-rounded classroom library is essential. I love the idea of continuously collecting books to keep in my future classroom. I remember being able to pick out a book and always finding one I ended up loving. My teachers always had great books in their class libraries. I think keeping a well-stocked classroom library with all of the available genres can help students of all different personalities get excited about reading in class! I also like the suggestions in the book for categorizing classroom book baskets. But, I probably wont need ones such as alphabet books and pop-up books since I hope to teacher at the intermediate level. What really drew my attention was the category for books written by students in the class. That is such a great way for students to be able to share books they write with other students in the class. It would probably be fun to make them anonymous and at the end of the year, guess who wrote each one.
Independent reading is a crucial and very big step for many students, especially ones who don't enjoy reading. It is important for students new to independent reading to have books that are not too challenging, but not ones they have read over and over. You need to find a book that is "just right" according to the Goldilocks strategy. These books should be something the student is interested in, has the right amount of pages/length, is a favorite author, is at the proper level, the student can read most of the words, is reminds the students of their past, has good pictures/illustrations, and is funny to the student. Students must also learn to think as they read, rather than just reading through the words. Sticky notes are a great way to encourage students to be thinking as they are reading. Other ideas, and one I remember from elementary school, ix reading response journals. Here students should be free to write their ideas, likes, and dislikes about a book they are reading or have read. I think this helps students to learn how to reflect on what they have read. It is best to have a few guidelines for what students should be writing about, while still allowing them to write freely about their thoughts.
Independent writing is a new process for students in elementary school, too. As a teacher, I think it is important to relate both reading and writing together. Again, when having students work on a writing assignment, it is important to have guidelines, while still allowing them to write freely of their thoughts and ideas.
