Reading in the Wild Chapter 3

Be sure to click the picture above to be taken to other posts on this chapter.

Chapter 3 of Reading in the Wild is about readers sharing books and their reading with other readers.  My students share together when they read the same books in literature circles, but I haven't had anything in place for students to share their choice reading with each other.  I'm still figuring out edmodo, but am thinking this might be a good place for students to post reviews.  

I've been learning what a valuable connecting resource Twitter is this summer.  I started tweeting just a little at the end of last year with my students, but tweeting out to connect with authors and other classes to share book reviews would be a wonderful way to get students sharing with other readers and authors.  I learned from George Couros, a Canadian ed tech expert, at the Utah Technology Conference last spring that I could have students tweet from my account and just add the hashtags and student initials to the tweet.  I have so many things going on just with Dilly Dabbles, that adding another account would be crazy for me.  So, I just use tweet deck and have a student write the tweet, add his/her initials and the hashtags and then send it.  If you're really wanting to keep your blogging world a secret from your school, you'll want to set up an account just for your class.  I'm pretty out there now with my school, district and community, so I've just decided to go with it. You can find me and my class on twitter @dillydabbles.  Posts from my class will be tagged with #sierrabonitabears or #sierrabonita5 along with any other relevant tags. 

Ms. Miller mentions many other groups and websites available online as well.  Be sure to read this section to see what would be the best fit for your classroom.  

Another great way that my students might share their reviews is a quick video.  I do have 2 ipads in my classroom and should have 7 chromebooks this fall.  Students can record a quick review of their book and post it on our class website or to edmodo.  There are several apps that would allow students to do this without having to load it to a site like YouTube.  Fotobabble allows you to take a picture and then record a narration.  Students could take a picture of the book cover and then give the review. There are many other similar apps that could work for this.  Fotobabble saves the recording and gives a URL to access the saved file.  Students can share the URL on a blog for others to access. That could also be tweeted out or shared with other groups. 

How do you engage your students in sharing and conversing about reading? 

Small Group Reading: Literature Circles

Literature circles are nearly the last component of my small group/guided reading time.  You may have noticed that I only have my students do one activity per day.  This might be different to you as many teachers I know have students visit 3-5 activity centers during this time.  I strongly believe that in the upper grades, emphasis should be on responding to reading.  That is what nearly all of my activities focus on and I don't want to add more centers of busy work just to occupy my students.  I want whatever they are doing to have a purpose and be meaningful.  So, when students finish their activity for the day, they are expected to work on reading and responding to their literature circle book.  Their activities should generally take no more than 1/2 hour and that leaves about 1/2 per day for students to work on literature circle books. 

I shared that my guided reading lessons are usually focused on shorter texts.  Short leveled readers that came with our basal series, articles, non-fiction and short stories are what I most often use.  That meant that I needed a way for my students to also read novels.  So, my colleague started running literature circles in tandem with guided reading and I started to as well.  

I generally have six novels going at one time.  I choose various levels, so I have something appropriate for my struggling readers and something that would be a good challenge for my higher readers.  I like to try and choose books around a theme or author or genre.  This helps so all students get exposure to similar types of books even if they are not the same books.  

Once I've chosen the 6 books for the next time period, I have students come to my reading table one reading group at a time to choose their books.  I start with the low group to ensure that the books that are their level are available.  I give them 2 choices.  Students in the same reading groups do not have to choose the same book, I just call them by group for convenience of putting out appropriate books based on their reading levels. 

I then call a group at a time back to choose.  I give a quick summary of each book and some time for students to choose.  Students often pick up the books, read the cover and sometimes a few pages.  They ask me questions and some ask for recommendations based on what I know they like.  I leave out the books that were not chosen by the last group and as the groups go on, there is usually more choice.  

I divide each book into 6-7 sections and assign a set of chapters for the students to read each week.  Students read the chapters and then write a summary of the section.  We meet each Friday in place of guided reading and each group discusses the reading and their responses.  I post the book title and chapters for the week on these dry erase pockets mounted on the wall behind my reading table. 

This coming year, I want to make their responses more meaningful, so I think I'm going to have a few questions for students to answer.  I'm also going to have an edmodo group for each book and have students discuss in their forum about the book throughout the week.  I haven't worked it all out, but when I do, I'll be sure to post more about it.  Additionally, my study of Notice and Note this summer has also influenced what I'd like to do next year.  Either in their notebooks or on Edmodo, I also want students to record what signposts they notice and what they noted about that.  

You might be wondering about the traditional literature circles in which each student in a group has a role.  I don't give students roles, because I felt like students read only to find what they needed to fill out their portion.  I wanted students to read for comprehension and enjoyment, so we don't assign roles.  We run it more like a book club. 

I'm lucky that my school does have several 10 book sets of novels for small group reading.  I've also increased my own collection with the $1 books that Scholastic offers throughout the year.  I always purchase sets of 10.  This gives me a teacher edition and an extra or two to have on hand.  I usually like to keep my groups to 6, but if the book is very popular, I allow up to 8 in a group.  You can see my post about how I number and track my group sets of books here.  

Do you have literature circles or book clubs in your classroom?  How do you make it work for you?

Small Group Reading: Deeper Reading

Deeper reading is based on a guided reading lesson, with the objective to get students deeper into texts.  This is where I do my guided close reading.  I take a text we have worked with before either in guided reading or as a whole class and we look deeper at it.  I choose small, significant parts of the text and we have a discussion about it.  After reading the book Notice and Note, I plan on using this time to reinforce understanding of looking for signposts in this small group time as well.  This is also the time I reinforce whole group language lessons as we look deeper at places in texts where language elements we have learned about are apparent. 

I generally meet with this group for about 20 minutes.  Since I meet with the guided reading group first, I sometimes ask this deeper reading group to read the selection or answer some questions about the text on their own first, while I'm meeting with the guided group.  This is helpful for longer texts or selections I want to really dig into.  This is most often the case for my highest reading groups. 

How do you work in close or deeper reading with smaller groups?

Small Group Reading: Guided Reading Group

When we begin small group time, they gather their response notebooks and a pencil and meet me at my reading table.  I conduct a traditional guided reading lesson with this group.  I usually use articles or shorter texts.  Our district has adopted the Journey's reading program by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  With that program came shorter guided reading texts that pair with each weeks main basal selection.  

My district literacy team firmly believes in the principle of teaching students at their instructional guided reading levels and therefore, do not want us teaching the books that are paired, just because they are paired.  We are to choose books that meet student need and instructional level.  So, I choose the books that are at each groups instructional level and that focus on comprehension skills that were taught the previous week.  For example, if we focused on the skill of main idea and the strategy of inference last week, I'd look to choose a short book that had these as a focus as well at the instructional level of my students.  This gives me opportunity to reinforce in a guided group the topics we learned as a whole class the week before.  I spend about 20 minutes with this group.  

The lesson plan I base my lessons on was created by my district from the teachings of Fountas and Pinnell.  You can see it here. 

Empty boxes waiting for new supplies.

They sit atop the three bookshelves I have in my room for the classroom library.

I have my students keep their reading items in these magazine boxes I purchased from Ikea.  There's five boxes in a pack for about $2, I believe.  They're super popular.  Last time I went to my Ikea, about 40 miles away, they were completely out of them.  Luckily, it's near my parents, so I'll keep checking back when I visit them.  I need a couple to replace some that got ruined last year.  You can see though, that I'll be able to re-use most of boxes from last year.  I just labeled each with student numbers. 

Students keep their reading response notebook, literature circle book and any other book from our class library that they are reading in this box.  I don't allow students to keep reading books in their desks to keep them from being ruined by larger text books, snacks or water spills.  It also makes it quick and easy for students to find what they need for reading time. 

How do you organize student materials for small group reading? What type of lessons do you teach during small group reading?

Small Group Reading: Fluency

For the fluency activity, students re-read the basal selection from our Journey's text from the previous week.  Often we read the selection twice during the week we are focused on a story, so this is usually a third read for students.  For students who struggle with the grade-level text, we have access to the story online which can be read to the students.  I usually have 2-4 students who need this support.  Then students respond to a beyond the text type question from the book.  I meet with this group third, during the hour, and spend about 10 minutes with them discussing their responses to the question and any comprehension or vocabulary hang-ups they still have about the story. 

This next year, I'd like to add more with fluency.  I'm thinking of having students read a passage during a timed amount of time and to graph fluency.  They'd do this right when they come to my table, before we get to the discussion.  

What are some resources you use for fluency?  Do your students track rate and accuracy, or just practice with smoothness and expression with repeated readings? 

Monday Made It: Listening Station Pocket

I recently posted about my listening center here.  Here's how I made the pockets for my MP3 players. It was super simple and I have my 10 year old daughter who was helping me in my classroom to thank for the idea. 

I had this big shoe organizer in my classroom that I was using to hold calculators, but it was too heavy and we didn't use the calculators enough to warrant the space it was taking.  I wanted clear pockets for my MP3's so that I could tell they were all put away at a glance. 

I took the pocket organizer and cut off the top two rows, right under the stitching of the last row. 

I have carpet on the wall, so I used cubicle hooks to hang it right under my cupboards.  You could use command hooks or magnet hooks to hang it anywhere in your room.  

Then, I have four rows left that I can use else where.  You could just add grommets to the top (found in your local craft store and attached with a few hits of a hammer) for hanging so you can use the rest of the pockets.  

What are some other ways you might use these clear pockets in your classroom? 

Small Group Reading: Listening

The next activity I'm sharing with you in my mini-series about small group reading time is listening.

My school has invested in a a few sets of listening book sets that contain an audio cd of the book and 8 copies of the text.  We listen to novels and I assign a section each week, usually dividing the book into 8 sections so we are finished at the same time as genre activities.  

With mp3 players, each student is in charge of his/her own listening and can go back when needed and start and stop as needed.  Here's how I've organized my listening activity station for this next year. 

I wanted a way to be able to quickly see that all MP3 players were returned and kept in an organized and safe way.  I'll have a full post of how I made the pockets work for me on a Monday Made it post next Monday.  The basket on the counter will hold the books for students to grab.  The sign on the wall is an enlarged version of the reference card that came with the players.   I numbered each player so it gets back to it's organized spot. 

At our school registration this year, we'll be asking that students bring in their own pair of ear buds or headphones.  These will be kept in a ziploc bag, marked with the student's name, in their reading boxes.  This way, students are responsible for their own listening headphone device and we don't share ear germs. 

You can read about how I organized my listening center in my first grade classroom here.  

I've used a few different types of MP3 players over the years.  They have to be cheap, user friendly, chargeable (no batteries), and somewhat durable.  Knowing that cheap and chargeable are my two top priorities, durability can be somewhat questionable and I understand that when I purchase.  This is the first year my school has provided the players for me.  I'm super happy about that because my previous set was starting to have a few get broken. (I've had my first set for about 4 years.) Here's the style of players that my new set is. Note that they do need an additional SD card added to them, they don't have on board memory.

This will take you to an Amazon listing of a 4 pack, which is what we ordered. 

I love mp3 players for listening.  Cd players with multiple headphones were a pain for me.  The group had to wait for everyone to arrive before starting and there always seemed to be an argument about something.  Sometimes, you might find a recording or video of a book online that you want students to have access to to listen.  If you don't have a tablet or computer for a small group of students in your classroom, you might consider using this splitter. You just plug it into your audio output in one computer and then connect headphones in each of the ports.  Then several students could follow along to an audio on your computer.  If you click on the picture, you'll be taken to view this product on Amazon. 

I"m still deciding whether to have my students respond to their listening station this year.  I do meet with the group for about 10 minutes toward the end of the reading block to discuss the section they listened to.  Last year, students answered a few questions, and I think that helped them be better listeners and focus, knowing they needed to answer questions.  My teammate, however, doesn't require students to respond.  She uses listening as the student's enjoyable reading time.  What are your thoughts?  Should students respond to their listening or should it be a more relaxable reading experience? How do you set up your listening activity station?

Small Group Reading: Genre Activities

My friend and colleague introduced me to this concept.  I believe she learned about it in a BER presentation.  I love this idea because I feel like it gives my students exposure to more texts than I would otherwise be able to.  For this activity, I set up 8 Genre stations. With 8 set up at one time, I only have to change the activities once every 8 weeks because students only do one per week.  Sorry, no pictures (I took everything down in my classroom before I thought to take pics.), but I'll be sure to do another post as soon as I get them up for the fall.  I put my activities in tote bags hung on command hooks around the room.  I number each bag.  Some of my teammates have a magazine organizer box on the counter for each activity and number the boxes.  The activities might include: 

• Read several articles from a magazine (like time for kids or NG kids or Highlights).  Choose one article and summarize it.  Or compare/contrast two articles, etc. 
• Read a wordless picture book and write a story to go along with it. 
• Read several poems or jokes.  Choose one to share with the class. 
• Read the different versions of Cinderella (or any tale) and compare/contrast them
• Read the book I'll Fix Anthony and then write about the relationship you have with your sibling(s)
• Read one of the fact books (I include several to give choice) and tell some of the most interesting things you learned about the topic. 
• Read about one of the 50 states in this state atlas and share what you learned. 

And many more, the possibilities are endless and you can tailor the activities to whatever your students need. I've created several response sheets to accompany texts you likely already have in your classroom.  Just pair the text with the response sheet and you have your genre activities ready to go.  

The set contains 16 response sheets, that's enough for two complete rounds if you choose to do 8 at a time like I do.  I usually can get through 3 rounds, or 24 activities during the year.  That gives you room to add task cards or other activities/ games, etc. that you already have on hand.  You can get the set here. As I add more response sheets, I'll update the set.  Right now, the set is on sale at an introductory price.  To help you get started, I've made one of the activities a freebie, which you can get here.  

In my last post, about structure, I showed you how I keep groups organized and rotate them around the different assignments.  You can read that post here. 

For the Genre Activity assignment, I place a numbered strip to the left of the group list.  Students are to complete the Genre Activity that corresponds to the number next to their names.  I just change the numbered strip at the beginning of each new rotation, about once a week.  When all students have rotated through all the activities, I switch out the activities and start back with number 1 at the top. 

All of the other four rotations meet with me at some point at my reading table.  However, I don't meet at the table with this last group.  Instead, they share their responses with the class during a 10 minute "Genre Share" at the end of the reading time.  Each student takes a turn presenting.  This is the way I "meet" with them and it holds them accountable for getting it done.  It's super embarrassing for it to be a students' turn when they are not prepared.  

Just a note, I always start each week with my highest reading group at the genre activities.  That way, the rest of the students have the best examples to follow for doing the activities the rest of the week.  I've found my lower students do a much better job with this example set for them.  

Want to win a full set of the new Literature Response Activities pack?  Enter below for your chance to win.  Remember, the set is at a special price for a limited time.  If you purchase the set and are selected as a winner, I'll let you choose anything in my store for the same value for me to send you in place of the Literature Response pack. 

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Small Group Reading: Activities and Structure

Here's post 2 in my mini-series on the activities during small group reading time.  My last post briefly described how I get my students started and slowly introduce one activity at a time.  This one is focused on introducing each activity and my structure.  Each of the activities will get their own post with details on what I do for each in the upcoming posts.  

I have five "must-do" activities that students rotate through.  They do one each day.  Here are the five.  Those of you familiar with Daily 5 might see some similarities here, but there are many differences as well. 

1- Guided Reading: This groups job is to meet with me first thing.  I do a traditional guided reading lesson with this group. 

2 - Deeper Reading: This group meets with me second.  This is where I concentrate on what many are calling "close reading."  

3 - Fluency: I am a strong believer in the correlation of fluency and comprehension.  Students who can read fluently spend less time decoding and can therefore spend more time comprehending.  

4 - Listening: Like fluency, I feel strongly that listening to a book read aloud is so helpful to students; it builds fluency and comprehension.  I think it's just as important in the upper grades as in the lower grades.  

5 - Genre Activities: This is where I'm able to get students reading and responding in various ways.  It's also where I put in some reading tasks cards and activities.  

Be sure to keep following this series for my in-depth posts on each of these activities. 

The Structure

I have 5 reading groups.  With my large class size, 33 last year, I may have up to 8 students in a reading group.  I like to keep my lower groups as small as possible, so the larger ones are always my higher level groups. Last year, I was able to have no more than 7 in a group.  Sometimes, I have a super low student that needs his/her own group.  I meet with this student for a few minutes each day between groups and assign him/her activities custom fit for his/her needs.  

Sorry for the terrible picture.  I snapped it fast as I was cleaning up my room at the end of the year. 

I print the names of the students in each group on a half-size sheet of paper and mount to a card stock with a magnet on the back.  I post labels for the 5 rotations on the board.  I hang the group card under the activity they are assigned for that day.  That's the activity they start with, except for the deeper reading group.  The deeper reading group might start by reading the passage we'll be looking at together or they might just start on their literature circle response. Guided reading starts at my table, and all the other groups go right to their "jobs".  They must complete their assigned task first, before anything else.  

A closer look.

Each morning, I just rotate the groups in a clockwise fashion.  Directly under the space for the group card, I write in directions for students.  I direct the pages for the listening group, give the story and page numbers for the fluency group, and any directions to the deeper reading group. For the genre group, I post a vertical strip of numbers.  Students do the corresponding numbered genre activity.  I change the number strip at the beginning of each new rotation. 

When students finish the activity they "must-do" for the day, they work on literature circle assignments or read a choice book.  I'm considering adding some reading task card options as well if their literature circle assignments get done. 

How do you organize and structure students during your small group reading time?

Small Group Reading: Starting out the Year

I alluded in previous posts to an explanation and mini-series of posts on how I organize and execute the small group reading time in my classroom.  This will be the first post of a few to explain what I do to and how I organize my time and students to allow me to meet with every small group every day.  That's right I said every group, every day.  Each in a meaningful way that supports enhancement and extension of reading skills, comprehension, and knowledge.

Today's focus is all about the first few weeks of school, before we actually get going with small group instruction.  I spend the first 3-4 weeks of school training my students for small group activities and response in their reading notebooks.  Our school district is a big advocate of small group reading instruction, guided reading, and so the majority of students I get each year have had some type of small group reading instruction.  That means they should be familiar with the basic logisitcs of it and general expectations and rules.  That doesn't mean they know my specific logistics and expectations, but it gives me a great base to start from.  So, instead of 6-8 weeks of training, I'm able to do it in about 3-4.

I've combined methods from many sources to come up with what I do.  That's why I love PD books so much.  One of the biggest aha's was from reading The Daily Five by Bail Boushey and Joan Moser.  The newest edition was recently released, and I understand that it is much better than the first edition.  My summer reading list is already huge, so I haven't picked that one up yet, but I recommend it, especially if you haven't read it at all yet.  They explicitly explain how to gradually teach and release your students to work independently during workshop or small group time.

I slowly introduce one activity at a time.  In my class, I call them "independent literature activities".  I didn't want to call them centers just because I wanted my 5th graders to feel a little more grown up about it.  I felt like including independent in the title explained exactly what I expected during this time.  I'll explain each of the activities in detail in later posts.

Then, I start out my class with a whole class novel.  I'm currently reading the book Notice and Note by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst and am excited to teach my students the sign posts.  You can follow our blog book study or go back and read through the posts that were done for the study.  All the information for the Notice and Note book study can be found here.

We read the novel as a class, I read aloud as students follow.  Each student has a copy of the book in front of him/her.  This fall, we'll be reading Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli.  I was able to purchase 25 copies from thriftbooks.com at $2.50 a piece.  All the books were in very good used condition, including a surprise library bound hardback book which I made my teacher copy.  Since I purchased them all from the same seller, I received a $0.50 discount per book and all books ship for free.  If you order at least 20 of the same title with the same ISBN number, use the code APPLE to receive 15% off your order.  Sale items and bundles are excluded.  If you haven't looked at thriftbooks.com before, you'll want to check them out.  Click on the banner below or, if you want Maniac Magee, click on that cover to go directly to that title.  
(These are affiliate links, I'd sure appreciate you using them if I've introduced you to this site.  I receive a nominal portion of your purchase.)

I still need about 10 more book copies to make a class set, but my teammate has a small group set that I'll borrow this year to make a full class set as I slowly gather a few more copies either from thriftbooks.com or my local thrift shops.  As we read together, I do a lot of modeling.  I model think alouds, comprehension strategies and how I record in my reader's notebook.  I'll share all of that with you down the road as I work up my plans for Maniac Magee.

Maniac Magee by: Jerry Spinelli $2.99

After 3-4 weeks, I've introduced all the independent literature activities and we've finished the class novel. We're now ready to start small group instruction and literature circles.

Look for the second post in this series next week which will give an overview of the activities and an in-depth look at the structure of my small group reading time. To a list of all the planned posts and publishing dates, visit the series main information page here.  

How do you start your year to get ready for small group reading? I'd love to read your ideas in the comments or feel free to link up your blog post about building the beginning foundation for small group reading to the linky below.  Please grab the button at the top of this post and link it back to this post when you link up. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Organizing for Reading Groups

Have I told you lately that I love IKEA?  Actually, I don't remember mentioning that on my blog.  Well, I do love IKEA.  I am blessed to have one about 45 minutes away and just a few miles from my parents.  So, I have the opportunity to stop by quite often.

I love the Trofast storage systems.  I have it at my home for my children's toys and I used it in my first grade classroom to organize my math manipulatives.  You can see it in a post I did here.  It's there to the left of the listening center pocket chart.

I didn't need that much storage for math manipulatives in 5th grade, but knew I had to have a Trofast in my classroom.  Well, while perusing IKEA, I stumbled upon this little beauty:

I thought how perfect it would be to organize the books and notebooks and such for my guided reading groups.  So, it came home with me and here it is in my classroom.  I purchased 7 tubs and a package of shelves, they come 2 in a package.  I'm so excited to label each tub and get the caddy full of supplies.  This is going to be so nice to help me keep things organized.

How do you organize for your reading groups?

Ongoing Running Records

If you do guided reading, you may know that an important component of tracking your students' progress is to conduct ongoing running records.  These records can be key to monitoring your students and knowing when they are ready for a new reading level.  Here are two versions of an ongoing running record for you.  One includes 50 boxes and one is blank to allow more room for your record taking.  I've been reading this book:  The Next Step in Guided Reading: Focused Assessments and Targeted Lessons for Helping Every Student Become a Better Reader  which contains a great lesson frame work for pre-readers.  I was able to demonstrate it in a Kindergarten classroom last week and LOVE it!  If you do guided reading in your classroom, or would like to, this is a great resource you should have.