As a reading specialist, I am exposed to a great deal of professional learning that makes me really want to get back into the classroom and try these things out! Now that I am having one of those "nostalgia moments", here are 5 things that I would do to kick off a new school year of literacy:
- Explicitly teach the comprehension strategies: With the Common Core on the scene now for several years, there is even more of a need to get students identifying and then applying the comprehension strategies while they read. Teaching these strategies through the gradual release of responsibility, lays the foundation for units of study that purport that they are "Common Core based". A great tool for making strategies concrete is Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor. My favorite lesson is the inferencing lesson using an old shoe!
- Create literacy independence: Reading stamina and the joy that comes with writing, listening, and speaking cannot be forced on students through trite worksheets, or left to chance. The gradual release of responsibility can be used to get students reading and writing by choice and not by force. The Daily 5 by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser is a great resource to breed this independence.
- Institute daily writing and independent reading: Students aren't reading and writing enough. According to Richard Allington, more time reading at a child's independent and instructional level correlates to higher reading achievement. So, if I had a classroom of students again, I would devote a block of time daily where students would be reading self selected texts (in fact, when I was in the classroom, I did just that!) There would also be quick writing opportunities- a folder of pieces kept where students can expand upon those pieces or the teacher could have the students use them for guided practice opportunities.
- Delay the start of guided reading (at least for a few weeks): I have had the unfortunate disaster that comes with jumping into guided reading groups too soon. I learned that you have to take the time to build routines. I would suggest starting the second or third week of school just going through the rotations, and modeling through fish bowl appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, and then move to using a book.
- Find opportunities for close reading to be explicitly taught: When the term "close reading" came along with the Common Core, my first reaction to the term was: "Huh? But this is just real reading?" We want students to be synthesizing as they read texts- bringing together all their strategies to make the picture complete! So, especially in grades 3rd through 5th, I would teach the signposts outlined in Notice and Note by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst. I would probably teach one per week, and then transition to the nonfiction signposts detailed in their second book, Reading Nonfiction.