I had the opportunity to visit Teacher's College at Columbia in NYC yesterday for their 84th annual reunion. I was able to visit 3 amazing workshops by 3 phenomenal educators. I love visiting TC - I always come back refreshed and FULL of new ideas for my reader's and writer's workshops! I attended a workshop on "Small Group Work to Support Readers Moving Up Text Levels" by Amanda Hartman, building stamina in struggling readers with Alison Porcelli, and how to "Have Compelling Comprehension Conferences Even When Kids Read The Simplest Books" with my teacher idol, Kathy Collins!. I'm going to focus on the last two today, since I made a resource for my classroom based on these two workshops and it's on the bottom as a freebie :)
Alison Porcelli had some amazing ideas for building stamina in struggling readers. One of her suggestions was to allow strugglers to partner read the whole time - what better motivation is there? I'm not sure if I can handle it all the time... but once in awhile would be nice! She had some fantastic ideas for "partner games" during partner reading to keep strugglers (and all students) engaged and focused on reading. I loved them!
Be the Teacher - choose a book from your reading bag and give it to your partner. Be the teacher - help them fix mistakes and encourage them when they are doing a great job!
Echo Read - your partner reads a line, your read a line.
Choral Read - read the book together at the same time.
Tricky Teacher - use a sticky to cover up words in your book. Let your partner guess the missing word. Give clues!
On Stage - act the story out with your partner.
American Idol - sing your book!
What’s Next? - Read a page. Ask your partner to make a prediction by saying "What's Next?" Let them know if they're right or wrong!
I added this on to my "have to" for partner reading, which is to discuss a part you sticky noted. I can't wait for my kiddos to see these new, fun choices for partner reading! This list is in my freebie below :)
Kathy Collins is AMAZING. She is my teacher IDOL! She's visiting my district this year and has been working with us on conferring and teaching reader's workshop. I love her! I attended her workshop on conferring, but she focused a lot on reasons for rereading, both for lower level readers and higher level readers. Here's her list of reasons for rereading:
To use a
storyteller or narrator voice.
To notice
something new.
To be able to
say “this book is about…”
To get ready
for partner talk.
To look closer
at the pictures.
To get ideas about
something.
To figure
something out.
I have so many kids at all levels that whip through books in a minute. They don't understand the reason I ask them to reread a lot of the time. I typed this list up and plan to introduce it in my reader's workshop this week with a mini-lesson for each one. It's in the freebie below!
I can't WAIT to use strategies I learned from Amanda Hartman in my reading groups this week. I'll share more about her phenomenal workshop later this week :)
Check out these resources by Amanda Hartman and Kathy Collins:
