SR: Make It Real

" I like to think of shared reading as a shared text experience." Precisely. Using the shared reading strategy allows students to collaboratively discuss, analyze, and read a specific text together. I am a big fan of the "big books" after our activity on Thursday! The language, stories, and illustrations are great, while offering the opportunity for a variety of teaching points. This article includes a helpful chart on comprehension strategies, awareness of informational text, etc. to use during shared reading. I thought the "Buddy Reading" example from Manhattan New School was great! The students used Time for Kids magazines as a shared text and then particpated in a think aloud with a cross-age partner ( 2nd and 5th graders). I find this article's emphasis on informational texts helpful, especially when teaching Social Studies!

IR: Guiding Readers and Writers

I love the first 20 days!!! The chart provided is so helpful, it literally plans your first 20 days of reading workshop. This is so helpful in establishing the routines, procedures and expectations of workshop time. I love the level of detail in each lesson. As a beginning teacher, the first 20 days is especially helpful. Sometimes it is hard and overwhelming to know where to begin and this provides an excellent springboard for reading workshop. I will defiantly use this is my classroom no matter what grade I teach!

article on SR: Shared Literacy

This was a good article to sum up the things we had seen and talked about in our last class. I could identify with her when she described the way she used to teach. It is very different from the balanced literacy method. I was thankful to see skill and strategy explained, and the three language cueing systems, semantic, syntactic, and graphophonemic, talked about in more detail and with examples.
I am not familiar with the term masking. I see her examples, but am not sure exactly what masking means. Could someone clarify this for me?

IR: Offering Children Opportunities for Practice and Response

I think this is my favorite article yet. I am ordering this book. It seems to have so much practical information.
I have been confused as to what a 'just right' book is, and how to choose these for each individual child. This article really clarifies this, going over the individual components that are important in deciding which books 'fit' which readers. I also appreciate the specifics she gives on organizing the books within the classroom, and the beginning strategies of matching children with books, including the use of the Ohio Word Test. I also liked that she gave a sample list of books for each level.
Enlisting parents help is a good idea too. One thing that my child's kindergarten teacher did was to ask us to send in a 'birthday' present for our child to open on his birthday. This present was to be a book for them to keep in the classroom. The front inside cover was to be personalized with a picture and a note from the parents. I thought this was a neat idea, and it added 20 more books to her library.
I also likes her suggestions for what other things may be happening during independent reading, but that she stresses that independent reading on their level with just right books is the most important thing!