Read Around

http://www.vate.org/pdf/ideas/idea_may_05.pdf

Edurance

Before reading One-Minute Fluency Measures by Theresa A. Deeney, I never thought endurance and reading went together. I did not even stop to think about how a child could have amazing speed and accuracy along with comprehension but could tire out quickly and lose their skills.   Denney defines endurance as the ability to continue reading with appropriate accuracy, rate, prosody, and comprehension over an extended period of time.  After reading Deeney’s article, I understand the importance of evaluating a student’s fluency by taking endurance into consideration.  Instead of stopping a child while reading at the one minute mark, teachers should let the child continue on reading in order to take endurance into consideration.  I think doing this will give the teacher a better grasp of how well their student can read. I also believe this can help the teacher choose the proper books for students to read and improve their skills.

I love reading aloud!

As a second grader I hated reading.  It did not come easy to me and I felt as though it was a punishment. When I entered the third grade our class had a teachers assistant.  I thought she was so cool, just the best.  Everyday for about 20 minutes, she would read aloud a section of The Trumpet of the Swan.  The way she read with just ease and her voice made me fall in love with reading.  This weeks article by NAEYC & IRA talked about the importance of reading aloud and I could not agree with it more.  It not only gets some children, like me, interested in reading, it can help them develop reading skills and further their understanding. I do not think reading aloud should be solely for the lower elementary grades. I think it can be beneficial throughout someones high school years. My teacher read aloud to us in my Information Sciences 330 class and I looked forward to it almost every week!

You can ALREADY read!

A major concept I had never thought of that stuck out to me in the readings was teaching children they could already read. Donna Bell focused on this in her and Jarvis' "Letting Go of 'Letter of the Week.'" Bell says most children coming into kindergarten have not had experiences with books or reading and therefore believe they do not know how to read. We as teachers have to show the children they already know how to read.  I loved the concept of using items from their day to day lives with words written on them such as McDonald's or well known movies.  As they shout out the answers it not only shows the children they can read and understand the words, it unites the classroom.  I believe this method will give students confidence and get them excited to learn more. I think it will also help put all of your students on the same level as most of the things you use almost every child in the class room will recognize. When children are excited and confident in their learning, there is no limit to what they can do.