RPI: Day 1: Reading is core

I enjoyed when Dorothy talked about acceleration in reading and she

used the escalator explanation:

 

-A good reader just stands on the escalator and goes up, progressing with their reading..

-A reader who struggles, stands on an escalator that goes down and has to

work really hard to go up and make progress.

Especially over the Summer holiday period their progress tends to fall backwards.  

Earlier during the morning session we learnt what is the profile of a good reader?: 

-Can decode well (Sound out words/chunk-segment words/ read on then come back to the difficult word)

-Can predict based on the pictures

-Enjoys reading 

-Can focus for sustained periods of time

-Is able to talk confidently about what they have read

-(Can understand common language forms used by society)

-(Make meaning out of the texts actively)

-(Need to read to learn, Knowledge come from texts)

-(Allows us to come back to knowledge sources)

-(To acquire and use information)

-(They need word knowledge to acquire world knowledge and vice versa).

-(Develop cognitive and emotive skills)

Key point: Readers have to have a processing system and they have to

actively read to learn across different subject areas.

Key takeaway -Students need good readers who are role models. Teacher should be reading themselves at silent reading.

Promote lots of chat with the students about books they have read

and the opinions they formed based on those books.  

I think that we should always be keeping the below comment in italics at the

front of our minds, especially with how we have to fit so much of the curriculum

in when we have time restrictions. “How are we making sure that we connecting

with other curriculum areas…?” The Ururangi exemplar shows connecting a lot

of the curriculum areas (Reading, Science, Te Reo Maori ect) 

Robyn Anderson (DP Panmure Bridge School)  wanted to improve students

attitudes to reading. She provided the reader survey.

The kids then got to look at their data and results from their

survey. Less than half the class read for pleasure. Access was a problem to the public library.

When it comes to reading children wanted more word knowledge in terms of vocabulary.

She created a READING CHALLENGE and checked in with them once a term.

They then asked how they could get younger readers interested.

Sharon’s presentation around oral language discussion in guided reading groups was

informative.

A good note was that it is a good idea to come up with a good set of ground rules. 

A fun game to try with the students is ‘toss and talk’ with a tennis ball.

This was a great planning example that underpins all of the pillars of a good

guided reading plan. It is set out well and very thorough.