Chapta 10

I do have to say, this chapter was actually one of my favorites so far this year. I thought it was insightful and full of useful information that I can apply in my classroom.

In LKSD our students are required to pass or be proficient in an informal reading inventory (RPA or DRA) in order to progress to the next phase. I have never really thought that these reading assessments were valuable. First, I have found that they take forever to teach students how to respond to the questions that are asked and how to write a summary of the text. Also, during the miscue analysis I was never really sure how to mark the mistakes that students made. I always dreaded giving the DRA to my students simply because it was almost painful to watch them pore over the text and try to decipher it.

After reading this chapter I really have found new value for the informal reading inventories that we give our students. I finally see and feel that I now understand why we give them and how they can reflect our students’ reading levels. One thing that I now have on my mind is why the reading inventories are only given up until 8th grade. In a school where all but three students are LEP I would think that we would want to keep records on students as long as possible to see their continued successes in reading. Also, just because a student has made it to the high school reading phases does not necessarily mean that they have achieved and gained all the reading skills that will help them to be successful.

Again, another Ah!Ha! moment for me was when the author mentioned the advantages of independent reading. I have really have had an internal struggle going on all year as to whether to give half my class time daily so students can read independently. As much as I would like to get through all our big units and keep my students passing phases I really do realize that students need opportunities to read things that are of interest to them and that they need to read independently.

More so, students also need guided reading instruction. One issue I agree quite strongly with from this chapter was the idea that the teachers should be addressing reading issues during mini-lessons in the classroom. I’ve had to really, really watch the amount of time I spend in front of students and I always laugh at the fact that spending 55 minutes in front of students lecturing is easier than teaching something in 15 minutes. After working with the same students for the past 4 years I now realize that there is a danger to too much teaching and “over-teaching” something. Direct instruction needs to happen, but teachers have to be careful about how much time they are spending in front of their students. Too much could be just as harmful as too little.

One thing that my students struggle on is giving textual evidence to back up their thinking. One section in our Literature Circles ask students to make and write predictions about what they think will happen in a text. I have really had to go back and help students to identify lines of actual text that led them to construct that prediction. Finding and using textual evidence to back up one’s opinion has proven quite difficult to my students and if anyone has any activities or ideas for a mini-lesson on this I would love to hear it.

Something else that spoke to me as I was reading this article was when the author said that an informal reading inventory could be used to identify errors in the students’ understanding of syntax and various word structures. What the teacher decided to do though, once she identified the errors the student was making, was to address those errors in the writing class! I think that this proves once again that there is a clear and definite relationship between reading and writing. They are not two isolated academic areas but they are deeply connected. When one becomes a better reader they become a better writer.

Again, this chapter was insightful and, I felt, deeply valuable. As I was reading this chapter, I kept thinking of various things I have already done and would like to do that I can use as artifacts for my portfolio.