Finding Joy in Everything We Read!

As a mother of two children, I know the struggle of helping my children as they learn to read. When my son was in kindergarten and first grade, he would bring home the most mundane and boring books that were meant to be easy to read. Sure he could read them, but there was little to no excitement in those milestones. It was the reading we did each night before bed. We would read together some of his favorite books, and the joy on his face as he read the words brought joy to my heart as well. In the final chapter of Reading Wellness, the authors remind us that progress is not always a result of hard work, but that sometimes if we "work less", we all enjoy reading more!

Joy

As teachers, many of us are disheartened by the way our schools' achievement has been monitored and scrutinized. It takes the joy out of teaching and robs our classrooms of joy. Though we have to teach those important concepts to our students, we MUST find time to squeeze in those moments of joy when reading. Those are the moments when students can really use those concepts we have taught as they enjoy what they are reading. Through the "Feeling Good" lessons, we help children see how reading can bring joy into their own lives.

Purpose

There is no doubt about it, the Feeling Good lesson helps our children learn to love reading and find ways that any book can make them feel good. Beyond just feeling good about what they are reading, students gain that intrinsic motivation to keep reading and find books and authors they love. 

Implications

Once students find that reading is enjoyable and worth their time, they search for books that will give them joy. They find joy in all that they read, even if it is a topic they don't love. Finding joy in even the mundane makes the task of reading worthwhile.

Intentions

Inner Teacher 

As teachers, we are reminded that "all is lost if we teach children how to read but fail to show them why  to read." (Burkins and Yaris, 2014) As our students discover great books, it leads to increased joy, and that gives our inner teacher much joy.

Balance

While we are required to teach our students how to read and read closely, we have to find that balance so the love of reading happens too. As students begin to read what feels good to them, the skills we have taught will synchronize with their learning.

Sustainability

So many times we offer extrinsic rewards to coax our students to read. Studies have shown that those rewards do no always work. We have to help children find the intrinsic motivation to read. When reading makes a reader feel good, which leads to more reading, which leads to more success with the text. That creates lifelong readers!

Joy

That's what this entire chapter was about! As we find joyful experiences in our own life, we bring more joy to our classroom and students. 

So, go out and find that joy in your life and share it with your students!

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Strength: Productive Effort and Building Reading Muscle

At the beginning of the chapter, a story is shared about a mom who pushes her son.  She left him home alone for the first time feeling that he was ready while she attended a workshop and her husband was teaching.  At one point he contacts her upset and says there is an emergency.  After her initial panic, she finds that the “emergency” is that he spilled the gallon of milk and now has a mess and no breakfast.  She tells him where the towels are and pushes him to clean up his mess and find himself breakfast.  He protests but she tells him she’s going to have to do it and says goodbye.  He is proud of himself 30 minutes later when he texts her that he did it!

Life with our students can be much like this; if we don’t push them to try it on their own, they will rely on our support more than necessary.

Teaching Students How to Select Texts

This chapter was about building our muscles as readers.  Your brain gets stronger as you try things that are more difficult for you.  The authors discouraged against some of the “just right” book strategies many of us use such as the “five finger test”.  If students don’t even try those 5 words, are they really exercising their brains for growth?

Different books are “just right” for different purposes.  While a book may be high-interest and easy to comprehend, it isn’t great for stretching our muscles.  It is great, however, for making us love reading and increase fluency.  This was a new way of looking at “just right” for me.  I have been guilty of encouraging a child to try a “harder book” to grow them as a reader, when, in reality, that “easy” book may be helping them grow a love a reading.  Growing a love of reading should be our ultimate goal, so from this point forward, “go for it kiddo!”.  

The authors talked about 4 different “weights of texts” and how these texts grow us as readers.

Reading Wellness Intentions

As you have seen in the previous posts, it always comes back to the Reading Wellness Intentions.  Here is how Strength fits into that model. 

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Practicing Mindfulness while Reading

This is Jessica from Literacy Spark here today to share with you Chapter 4: Mindfulness from Reading Wellness by Jan Miller and Kim Yaris.  Be sure to check out all the posts from this week if you are just joining us (I posted about each chapter on my blog as well) and don't forget you can access the book online (currently for free!) from Stenhouse Publishers.

What is Mindfulness?

According to Merriam-Webster, mindfulness is defined as "the practice of maintaining...complete awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment to moment basis."

Do you practice mindfulness while reading?  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.  And to be completely truthful, when I read for pleasure, I do not.  I like books that are fast paced, quick reads with lots of conversation.  I'll skip entirely or skim through long detailed paragraphs just to get to the action.  I've been like this since I was a child.  I could whip through a Baby-Sitter's Club book in a couple of hours.  Sure, I knew what happened (which was all I cared about) but I certainly wasn't practicing mindfulness or thinking deeply about the text.

Now as an adult, I realize there are times that I have to force myself to focus more, to read the text slowly, and truly think about what I am reading (like when I read a professional book).  I literally have to read out loud sometimes to make myself read every word.

What about your students?  Are they like me?  Do they just want to know what happened and get to the end of the book?  Or are they truly engaged and aware of their thoughts while reading?  Are they able to switch from one mode to the other depending on the situation?

Breathing Deeply

Burkins and Yaris suggest that the key to mindfulness while reading is simply slowing down and focusing on the text.  How?  By taking deep breaths.  As you breathe, your lungs expand.  Students can feel this by placing their hands on their chests.  The deeper the breath, the more the lungs are used.  The same occurs while reading.  Full comprehension is not achieved unless the text is read deeply.  I love, love, love how this book uses concrete examples  to help students understand difficult concepts!  The lessons are described step by step as well making them so easy to implement.  

Close Reading with Photographs

I bet you have used photographs to help your students understand the concept of making inferences.  But what about close reading?  Burkins and Yaris provide sample lessons in which students are asked to "read" photographs closely.  Students "reread" by looking at the photographs three times.  Upon a quick look, students typically just make a simple observation (There is a girl).  But as students look at the photograph again and for a longer period of time, they should be able to make deeper inferences.  The same occurs while reading texts.  Examples of lessons for both primary and upper elementary students are included in Reading Wellness as well as picture books that can be used in the same manner with three reads.  

Reading Wellness Intentions

As will every chapter, the authors end with an explanation as to how the shared activities reading their reading wellness intentions.

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Reading Wellness: Alignment

Reading Wellness...Wow!!  Sarah from Simply Literacy and Em from Curious Firsties here today to discuss Chapter 3: Alignment.  We hope that you are enjoying this book as much as we are.  It has led us to some great conversations about our own students and what we can do a bit differently this year.  Below you will see a conversation that Sarah and Em had about the alignment chapter.

Alignment...
What does this mean to us?  Well in our own lives it means aligning our values with our day to day constraints.

I feel like alignment in my life is coinciding my school life and my home life.  My day starts and ends with my home life, all while my school life is intertwined. Aligning those two lives is an ongoing learning process and essentially a balancing act that I am still trying to figure out.

I know for me, alignment in my life is integrating and balancing my love for reading, blogging, teaching, and parenting.  It is easy for one to overpower another but I am always working to find that balance.

The authors, Burkins and Yaris, explain that the same alignment must occur for readers but through print and meaning.  Both must be attended to and in alignment.

I teach third grade and I tend to focus my teaching on meaning.  Of course with some students, I need to focus on both print and meaning.  When a student struggles with print, I tend to focus mostly on certain skills and leave meaning on the back burner.  I love how this chapter reminded me the importance of aligning print to meaning and meaning to print.  They go hand-in-hand, not separate.

Since I teach first grade, I find that I do tend to focus my teaching on the print.  Meaning is talked about and I always ask "does it make sense?" but I would not say that my teaching of print and meaning is in perfect alignment and harmony.  I could use some work on that.

The importance of print and meaning is comparable to a puzzle: the pieces versus the puzzle.  Which one is more important.  Both.  They are essential and important to the activity of putting a puzzle together.

I love this analogy.  You can't have one without the other.  And it makes me wonder if this would be a good analogy to help the kids understand the essential connection between print and meaning.

Whenever I read, I tend to comprehend better when I make connections to the text.  I love the puzzle and learning to dance example (pg71). These analogies immediately made me think of when I teach young girls how to fastpitch.  For years, I have taught several girls how to pitch and every time, girls immediately want to jump into full motion pitching before learning the basic drills.  This reminds me of aligning print with meaning.  Girls are not going to be able to throw strikes or throw with speed and accuracy if they don't align it with the proper techniques.  

The authors go on to explain that even the best readers make errors or misunderstand text but they have the alignment of print and meaning to resolve and cross check these errors.

True...I cross check constantly as I'm reading professional and personal books.  But this doesn't happen naturally and the kids cannot see exactly what is going on in my head.  It would be helpful if I did more think aloud modeling to help them see the connection and alignment.

I agree 100%, Emily.  I feel like with most things in life, modeling is an essential.  Integrating the language and ideas from this chapter during think-alouds will help readers to align print with meaning.

Burkins and Yaris say that by offering explicit strategies such as "get your mouth ready" or "look for a small word inside the big word," we are not allowing students to be decision makers or problem solvers.  They state that we are "...telling them how to solve a problem rather than supporting them in solving the problem themselves." (p71)

Typically I use specific prompts to help them use strategies:

Yikes!  I have been doing it all wrong!!!! When print and meaning aren't aligned, my teacher instinct has always been to prompt and help the reader to solve the problem.  My prompts, such as "look back at that word carefully", basically tells the student how to solve the problem rather than supporting them in solving the problem themselves. This part of the chapter was so informative and eye opening.  

Also, while reading this part of the chapter, a past student popped into my head.  I wish I would have read this chapter three years ago.  This past student's reading process was out of alignment.  He was constantly inserting a or the in front of words in a text, and other print cues. The miscues made sense on a sentence level, but his insertions were changing the meaning.  I was always saying "does that make sense?" which led  me to telling him how to solve the problem rather than supporting him in solving the problem himself.  

Oh geez!  This is totally me!  Being a first grade teacher I prompt a lot during guided reading.  But I noticed that later in the chapter the authors do say that some students still need this specific strategy prompts.  I want to reread and explore this.

In the lesson "Does It Match," the authors offer a lesson and extensions to support the alignment of print and meaning.

I love the way the lesson does really help the students to have more independence in their reading.

I particularly like the vocabulary and prompts that are suggested for guided reading, shared guided, and independent reading.

Agree completely!!  But it is stated that some traditional prompting may still be key for some students.  I can see this for a new reader--but overall I want to foster more independence.

Yes, my students spend a lot of time reading independently.  The chapter gave an easy example of what to say to your students during that crucial reading time.  As the students settle to read, simply say, "Raise your hand when you solve a problem.  I want to hear about how you solved it!" (pg. 85)  So easy and so powerful!

When checking for meaning, I like to use "S-T-P" with my students.  This is from Jan Richardson's The Next Step in Guided Reading.  My students hear "S-T-P" (which means Stop-Think-Paraphrase) a lot throughout the year.  While students are either reading during guided reading groups, with a partner, or independently reading, students will read a page, Stop and cover the text with their hand, Think about what was read, and Paraphrase by softly telling themselves what was read.  If students cannot retell the page that was read, then a reread must be done. I think when using S-T-P, students are practicing the constant back and forth of checking and cross checking which will hopefully help readers move along the continuum of proficiency in reading.

I can't wait to try out the lesson and discover the impact that it has on my students.  When reading this chapter, what stands out to you and your readers?
 

 



 

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Motivating Students to Embrace Hard Work

How do we motivate students to embrace hard work?  This question pops up frequently in conversations among teachers. With the recent push to raise rigor in reading, teachers are wondering how to encourage students to persevere through complex text. 

Today we'll take a look at Chapter 2, "Posture", from Reading Wellness to find some possible answers.   

Reading Wellness by Jan Miller Burkins and Kim Yaris

Developing Posture 

Posture is the way in which students demonstrate a sense of empowerment about a task, according to Burkins and Yaris. 

How students do their work depends largely on how they feel about doing the work. 

Many times, students believe that they can't do something, and therefore they are unwilling to try. However, we can teach students to think differently about their work.  

Chapter 2 provides lessons to develop posture.

Leaning In/Leaning Out Lessons

Leaning In and Leaning Out is the metaphor used in this chapter to teach students that even when a task seems difficult, they can still tackle it. Students can Lean In, or embrace a task rather than Lean Out, or resist it.  

We can teach students that they have power over their learning.  We can teach them that their words, thoughts, and feelings impact their learning.  

We can use picture books to model and teach the Leaning In/ Leaning Out language.  Students can examine how characters lean into or away from a learning experience.  

We can model Leaning In through our own words and actions in the classroom.

Reading Wellness Intentions

Here's a look at the connection between Posture and the four Reading Wellness Intentions.

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The book is available for purchase or to read online for free through Stenhouse.

How do you encourage students to embrace difficult tasks? We would love hear your thoughts. Leave a comment below!

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Love - Real Reasons to Read Informational Texts

As the shift in reading has moved toward informational texts, we all seem to have to find a way to entice students to want and love to read those informational texts. Buy why would they want to read them if they have no interest in them, especially if someone tells them they have to read them! But with a special lesson called "Heart, Head, Hands, and Feet" students will want to read informational texts and learn from them!




How many of us have heard the story of Jane Goodall? She went out to study the chimpanzees not because someone told her she had to but because she had the passion to go out and learn about it. That is where we want our students to be as lifelong learners, so the"Heart, Head, Hands,and Feet" lesson will help our students find that passion in what they are reading.

Purpose

This lesson helps students see connections between their actions today and in the future. It also helps students to read informational texts more closely. All of this leads to helping students as they become lifelong learners and find their own passions for what they want to read. 

Implications

After the lesson, students will begin searching for their own passions. Once they start reading about others and how they learned what they felt was their passion, students will become engrossed in looking for books that ignite their own passions. They will look for different nonfiction books about a topic they love and read them. Once they read what they love, they in turn learn to read more closely. And then we are right where they need to be as readers of nonfiction.

Intentions

How does this lesson help with our intentions as a teacher and learner?

Alignment 

This lesson helps us to show our students that they need to move beyond their own experiences and into a world of so much more. Their perspective changes, helping them to find their own passions as lifelong learners.

Balance

The standards say "teach more nonfiction", but we don't always want to. This lesson makes nonfiction real for our readers causing them to read closely without even knowing it. It's a win-win for everyone!

Sustainability

This lesson allows students to find a passion for reading in all different genres. It also helps in different subject areas for students when they transfer it to their independent thinking and reading. Exactly what we want!

Joy

And what joy these students get as they read about something they are passionate about! And the joy we have as teachers as we see our students enjoying what they read and learning from it. The best part is that we don't have to tell them to read it! What joy!

This lesson seems so simple, yet effective. I can't wait to use it with students in my school this year!

If you want to start with the introduction, stop by this post for a deeper understanding of how the book works. Stop by tomorrow as we are introduced to another lesson to create lifelong learners.

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Is Your Classroom Your Happy Place?

Hello everyone!
 This is Laura from  Where the Magic Happens Teaching Blog.  Can you believe that I started school this week? Second grade is surely very different from 1st grade.
I spent the summer reading and learning the new set of standards, creating new materials, and visualizing what my new classroom was going to look like. I love the feeling of an empty classroom, the idea of a new beginning, and the potential and possibilities. More than anything, I kept on thinking (it was more like day dreaming), about a productive, brain friendly, and homey classroom.

It really starts with my classroom library. I have spent years (and tons of money and time) collecting the right books to reach ALL of my readers year after year. I truly believe that the concepts of classroom community and individuality begin with literature.  It is my  first goal, to show and provide my students with the opportunity to explore their own reading interests free from any constraints. 

Or like my little G would say: "for the fun of it!"

I try to build momentum by not opening the complete library to my students on the first week of school.  Instead, I open it gradually:

First the themes

Then the series

After this the nonfiction section

and so on...

 Since we have such a large classroom library, our books are displayed all over the room in colorful tubs that I got from the Target dollar spot!

Having an organized and quality classroom library makes me think that if nothing else, I am attempting  to create the right conditions for reading by my students.

Think about it! A strong classroom library:

• Supports your literacy instruction in and out of your classroom.
• Helps your students to learn about books and author's craft.
• It also provides a central location for classroom resources... hello shared research!!
• Serves as a place for students to talk about and interact with books

And you might think...

But how does she come up with the money to buy the books?

Well, let me just tell you: Scholastic points, yard sales, and The Goodwill are my friends! Last weekend for example, my local Goodwill had really great books for .50 a piece! It takes creativity and energy!!

Because my classroom is also really small this year, I had to become really creative too on finding a comfortable reading spot:

Two beach chairs, a lamp from the Goodwill, a cute rug from Walmart, some wooden letters and Voila! There you go!

Now, this is something to be really jelly about:

My school librarian is so fabulous and awesome. As this is my first year in 2nd grade, she has given me tons of suggestions about transitioning my students from easier picture books to  a bit-more-challenging chapter books.
One of the greatest suggestions that she gave me is to  do a classroom library scavenger hunt. This, in order to teach my students to identify different series, authors, themes, and topics.
Oh! And also to help my students keep books and display materials orderly!

So I do different types of  scavenger hunts:

Click HERE to download!

Click HERE to download!

Click HERE to download!

Click HERE to download!

Or all of them!

I give the students one bookmark and they explore the classroom library, once they find a book that matches one item on their bookmark, they bring me the book and they get a punch! These bookmarks match my classroom library book bin labels.

What is my goal with this?

I, more than anything, want to get my students motivated to read... and to read for fun. Throughout the year, I want to introduce them to authors, great series, themes, etc. Instead of giving them or leading them to a leveled book, I want them to be able to freely express about their  reading choices and pursue them.

They each will have their own book box. With the book boxes there are a couple of whole group lessons that need to be addressed:

• Differences between picture books and chapter books
• Choosing "just right" books (blog post and anchor chart on this coming up next week)
• Keeping a balance in your book box
• How to return books
• Giving book recommendations

I would love to hear and learn from all of you! How do you organize your classroom library? What routines and mini-lessons do you teach to help your students be successful? What things do you do to foster reading motivation??

I can honestly say that there are many happy places for me: my mom's house, my boys' arms, the beach, the mountains, my own classroom!

Until next time!

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