Week 3: Finding the Sweet Spot of Instruction Part 2

[Kelly Gallagher]

I love when new teachers join the discussion. Let me add that when the day comes that I think I have the job down, that is probably the day I should retire. It is an impossible job. Don't beat yourself up over failure. See failure as an opportunity to get better each year.

I also find it heartening that two recent postings came from teachers who gave Readicide to their principals. Maybe that is the way to effect change.

[Kelly Gallagher]

Every summer I sit down and start identifying areas in which I want to improve. One area that I am going to look at---based on this conversation---is assigning more weekly chunks of reading (rather than the night-by-night approach).

With only a few days left in this discussion, and with Readicide in mind, what changes for next year are the rest of you considering?

[Thomas Roddy, Jr.]

I agree with Jim, I am planning more writing, but I am also looking at my assignments to make sure they are worth giving. Sometimes I have been guilty of creating work for my students that is inauthentic and not worth grading. If it's not worth my time to grade the work, it's not worth giving it in the first place.

[Jen P]

So true. I had a less than stellar year this year and am reassessing all sorts of things -- one of those crossroad years when things have to change.

[Kelly Gallagher]

Thomas wrote: "Sometimes I have been guilty of creating work for my students that is inauthentic and not worth grading."

I hear you, Thomas. One of the elements that leads to readicide is over-grading. I aim for a 4:1 ratio in my classroom---that students will write four times more than I can physically grade, and students will read four times more than I can physically assess.

I just finished cleaning my classroom yesterday. I through out two large boxes of ungraded papers.

I have also been in a lot of high school classrooms where students are being asked to do work that 4th graders can do. I use this as a guiding principle when planning: "Can a 4th grader do this?" If the answer is yes, I try to replace it with a more challenging task.

[Tan Huynh]

I already started making the changes to this year's reading program in my class. The Monday after finishing Readicide, I had my students simply read a book of their choice for pleasure for 15 minutes to start class. It was possibly one of the GREATEST teaching advice I received thus far. I'm going to reread your book again and continue with your reading approach.

[Clix]

One point of concern I have for weekly reading is that students put it off and then try to grind through a week's worth of reading the night before it's due. I'm conflicted about assigning at-home reading. Most of my students are reading below grade-level, so the 'classic lit' that's part of our curriculum tends to be a pretty big challenge. I definitely want to make sure I support the tougher reading, which will mean doing quite a bit of it in class where I can guide them and check for understanding.

OTOH, I want to make sure I avoid overteaching. I like the idea of slowly stepping back and letting them do more of the searching and questioning, bit by bit. I'm not sure how to do this, though; they are REALLY good at waiting for you to give them the 'right' answers - in fact, if you don't, they just flat out ask why you didn't!

Also, I don't want to assume that they'll do all their free choice reading at home. I feel like that needs classroom support as well. So what's meandering through my brain is weekly FCR goals... 120 pages, I think... with a reading response journal to start class. Not sure about this. Daily? Two or three times a week? And then do my 'official' closer, say, 10-15 minutes before the end of class, and finish up with FCR.

[Mardie]

Clix,

I teach 7th and 8th grades, and I'd have the same concern about assigning weekly reading. Is it an age thing? Do you teach middle schoolers also? I have such a diverse group of readers. Some would be right on top of a weekly reading assignment, but there are still those who are just not mature enough to organize their time for weekly reading assignments, or they would struggle at home and give up.

Having such diverse groups of readers in my classes has made me limit the number of whole-class novel studies. I've used the listening centre strategy to help the students who would struggle to read the books on their own, but to some extent I feel that this is not the answer to helping them acquire the skills and stamina they need to develop in reading. It's OK once in a while, but I really want them reading independently as much as possible.

So, instead of whole-class novel studies, I prefer to do more literature circles (also lots of short stories, poetry and nonfiction). I want to do a better job next year of frontloading my lit circle novels, and perhaps having staggering days will allow me to spend time with each group before they start reading to do that. Like Gary, my mantra will be framing, framing, framing.

[RHE]

I too teach 7th grade, and organization of time is a battle for at least a third of my students. I am wrestling with how to get the struggling readers to read and turn in some form of accountablity that tells me they read it. At the end of the year I started adding the "This is my work..." from the One-pagers, but I am sure I got some bogus work.

[Amy]

I teach seventh graders as well and I echo all of your sentiments about the lack of time management skills for many of them. At my school it is a big jump from 6th to 7th in terms of curriculum and homework load. They will get it in time; it is a learned skill that comes with maturity and experience, I feel. I also feel that parents have had a hand in helping their kids along, and when they stop the kids flounder expecting mom to pick up the pieces. When I assign a long term project, I begin class by taking any questions anyone has on the progress of their project until the day the project is due. I invite discussion daily, yet, it is still exasperating when I find a student who begins it the night before it is due, or even hands it in late. Of course, their grade is reflective of this, and I find the next time they are better prepared having learned the hard way. For some, it takes many "hard ways."

I will still continue to assign weekly reading, and many times I assign reading over the weekend, which has never been a problem. I can tell by the class discussions who has read, as I expect everyone to contribute something. Last year when I gave a quiz after some reading on The Outsiders, (which I am not doing next year, the quiz that is) one of my boy's answers to the short answer questions just didn't make any sense. I felt it was as if he didn't do the reading at all. When I spoke to him about it, I was right! He said that he thought he could get by in my class with just listening to the discussions without doing the reading. An email home to mom solved this problem, and the student had to make up all the reading over a weekend and learned a valuable lesson in the process.

[Kelly Gallagher]

I would begin by giving them nightly reading checks for the first couple of weeks...then stretch it to every couple of nights...then stretch it to weekly checks. Ease them in.

[Alison Kirkpatrick]

How would you go about doing the nighly reading check that eventually spreads out to weekly? I have 48 min. periods with about 25 students in each class. It's got to be quick and accurate. Discussions don't work for this type of check. ??

[Kelly Gallagher]

Write a key word from the previous night's chapter on the board. While you are taking roll, each student takes out a half sheet of paper and explains the word's significance.