Running Records revisited...

I'm bumping this from Fall 2011:

I've had a few questions about when I complete my running records.  Simply put, I do them during my workshop conferring time.  My district requires a running record score on all students in the fall and again in the spring.  For my 4th graders this means I need to complete running records by the end of September. (I usually have scores on my 5th graders form the spring; many of them have tested out of the Rigby Running Record scale).

If I complete two running records each conferring session I'm able to have these completed by the September 30th deadline.  If I feel further assessment is needed, I will complete an authentic running record (using a book of the student's choice), an Informal Reading Inventory (My favorite is the Bader Reading and Language Inventory), and usually I will use the QRI site word assessment to get a balanced view of the reader.  I have found the QRI assessments to be useful when my students are reading past Rigby's level 30.

I personally feel that a running record on a 4th or 5th proficient reader to largely be a waste of time.  At that point it's time to move to an IRI or QRI inventory for a useful, authentic assessment.

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Fall 2012 Comments

I used the QRI assessment inventory to get a clearer picture of all my readers last spring.  What a difference!  Rather than stating that the student was an above average reader, I was able to more clearly articulate what I noticed in my readers and give them directions for next steps.  I highly recommend using an IRI model to assess your upper grade readers!

Conference deadlines

Conference deadlines are tricky!  Yikes!!  I had planned to submit a proposal to the Michigan Reading Association about presenting once again on Reader's Workshop, but this time focusing on "using materials you have."

Unfortunately, my memory failed me as I was thinking the proposal was due by Sept. 30.  I was off by several weeks and I should have submitted my proposal in early September.

So...a moment of sadness ensued...

Then I realized that I have others to consider!  I've decided to look into the American Montessori Society and write a proposal regarding reading workshop in a Montessori classroom.  After all, this is what I do every day.  I teach in a Montessori classroom.  I use the reading workshop method.

Whatever happens, I will continue to research and refine my study and use of the Reading Workshop method.

Reading Workshop.2012

I've hit the ground running this year in my reading workshop.  We've been so busy!  I'm copying a few comments from a post I wrote a year ago because some of my lessons these past three weeks have been the same.

Here's what I said last year about these early days:
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In the state of Michigan students take the MEAP test in October.  We have only a few weeks (approximately 3-4) to remind kids of all the great skills, strategies, and knowledge they learned in the previous school year.  Since I am not a policy maker I have no control over the testing date.  For what it's worth, it makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever to have kids take the summer off, and then take a test in the fall when they are first back to school.  The test should be at the end of the school year!  At the end of the third grade year, take the third grade MEAP.

But since I am not in educational policy we are taking the MEAP in October.  So that's it then.

This year we are once again doing a reading workshop unit, "the First Ten Days," from the Oakland Writing Project, Eastern Michigan Writing Project, National Writing Projects of Michigan, and the Oakland Intermediate School District.  I really like this unit!  In these first ten days the students study the GENRE of tests--what they look like, sound like, etc.   They look at test language, practice writing test questions, and get to know the test from a practitioner level.  It's very empowering to the students to take apart the test and learn about its construction.

Here's a sampling of the work we did this week:

Doesn't it make sense to study what tests look like?  Yes, it does!!

After we talk about what tests look like we talk about how to make them easier to take.  This is only one of our test reading tips posters.

Finally, we look at reading strategies that are useful with all tests.  Here's one we talked about on Thursday and Friday:

The QAR  strategy is one we refer to all school year!  When we looked at MEAP release items from years past we discovered that most of the MEAP questions were either "author and me" questions or "on my own" questions.  That tells us that the MEAP requires us to do more than just read the question and find the answer.
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Finally, this year (Fall 2012) we spent a great deal of time on the QAR strategy.  Students read lots of QAR questions and then tried their hand at writing their own using our National Geographic Explorer magazines. I've been incredibly impressed by the work my students have been doing this year in working with informational text.  It's not about the test, it's about informational TEXT, as this type of text is what students will encounter for most of their educational career, and professional life.

The Grand Plan...

I've laid out my plan for my reader's workshop.  Remembering that it is just that, a plan, I share it here.  I'm excited for my workshops to begin!

My Reader's Workshop Plan:

September

• Establish workshop routines
• Learn the genre of a test
• Getting to know oneself as a reader

October

• Launching the Reader's Workshop (continuation from September)
• Moving into Strategies

November

• Reading Fiction--focus on strategies
• Visualizing, Schema, Questioning

December

• Reading Nonfiction

January

• Reading nonfiction

February

• Reading Fiction--focus on strategies
• Metacognition, inferring, and synthesizing

March

• Reading Fiction
• Literary Elements
• Literary Appreciation

April

• Reading poetry

May

• Genre Study
• Author Study

**This is a pretty basic structure.  I hope to write more at the beginning of each month as I lay out the month's lessons.  Finally, I am a Montessori teacher.  That means that I will adjust the plan when needed to meet the needs of my students.  That's just good teaching...really!  One final thought, each month's work should build upon the last.

Happy Reading!

--Mrs. Perrien

Back-to-School Resolutions!

Resolution setting is not necessarily my thing, as I have trouble keeping them!  However, I stumbled onto this Back-to-School Resolutions LINKY PARTY (Hosted by Teaching Maddeness) and decided to join in the fun!  I'm more likely to keep these resolutions because I'm making them public on my blog.  

Here are my Back-to-School Resolutions!

1:  My first resolution is to keep the paper trail under control in my classroom.  I'm resolve to PREVENT piles from forming by filing things immediately and using electronic filing whenever possible!

2:  I resolve to keep myself from overcommitting!  I am a full-time teacher, wife, and mother.  I need to keep my focus on my family and my work and say NO when something would take away from my kids, my husband, and my students.

3:  Remodel my master bathroom!  I know this isn't a back-to-school resolution, but it's something that needs to get done and we need to do it this year!

4:  I resolve to keep the focus on work when I'm at work!  It's easy to get roped into hallway conversations and lounge gossip.  While at work I need to be working and keep the focus on my students and their needs.

5:  Finally, I resolve to blog each week about my reading workshop!  :)

That's it!  Do you have resolutions to share?  Comment on this post or link to your own classroom blog.

Happy Reading!

Back to School and Back to Blogging!

I have been absent for several months, yep...I can admit it!  Things really got away from me with work, kids, dance competition, graduate work, etc... I really had to stop blogging.  But I'm back and my reading workshop is also back!

I'm really excited to get back to reading with my kiddos, and working in our reading workshop each day.  I've been focused on setting up the workshop for the past few days; I've been planning for the year, setting up the scope and sequence and picking books for read aloud.

For now, I'm going to write about the books I use to set up my reader's workshop and tell what I love about them.  By no means is this the complete list, I have others I use as well, and other books I've read over the years that have led me to where I'm working today!

Let me begin by saying that working in literature circles/book clubs got me started in reading workshop.  My book club program was already in full swing, humming along nicely, when I realized that my students needed a new format for whole group reading instruction.  Using book clubs and having "centers" wasn't working well and I felt as if we were fragmented as a class when it came to strategies.  That's when I started researching the method of reading workshop.

The following resources have been my guides in reader's workshop:

• Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop by Franki Sibberson and Karen Szymusiak
• (useful for strategy lessons and small group instruction)
• Lessons in Comprehension by Frank Serafini
• (Comprehension lessons)
• Around the Reading Workshop in 180 Days by Frank Serafini with Suzette Serafini-Youngs
• (I use this for research on structure, forms for the workshop, a month-by-month plan, mini-lessons)
• Reading Essentials by Regie Routman
• (This book has wonderful notes on the usefulness of assessment feedback, and a GREAT section on conferring!)
• Mosaic of Thought by Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmermann
• (Comprehension mini-lessons!)
• Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor
• (Strategy instruction focus.  Her ideas for introducing each strategy are amazing!)
• Comprehension & Collaboration by Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels
• (I use this most for inquiry circles research and apply that most often to my content area instruction and research.  It's a great way to teach non-fiction reading strategies within the context of REAL work.)
• Notebook Connections by Aimee Buckner
• (I use this for workshop structure, strategy instruction, the first month [unit] of the workshop...)
• Engaging Adolescent Learners by Releah Cossett Lent
• (An excellent resource for content area instruction, with excellent strategy examples.  This book is actually a text I use for my GVSU graduate students.  It's a GREAT book!)
• Solutions for Reading Comprehension by Linda Hoyt, Kelly David, Jane Olson, and Kelly Boswell
• (I use this book as a resource for small groups, especially for working in intervention groups for "striving learners.")
• Conferring with Readers by Jennifer Serravallo & Gravity Goldberg
• (A focus on conferring...excellent resource.)

Finally, I also use several web resources, including the teacher's college site.  Click on their "resources" tab, it's amazing!  (http://tc.readingandwritingproject.com)

Happy Reading!

Amy

When we talk about writing good summaries, which we do often, we refer to the following chart.  Writing summaries and giving oral summaries are a big focus for us this year!  I have found my students are able to give more succinct, yet thorough summaries when we follow this chart.  All students have this chart copied into their reading journals!