Interim Assessment #1



“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

~ Joseph Addison ~

Purpose

The AF Independent Reading program is designed to get as many high interest books into the hands of our scholars as we can, so they can read, read, read. Independent Reading class is the time when our scholars have the opportunity to apply the essential reading skills that they learn in Textual Analysis and Literature class to books of their own choosing.

Overview

The goals of Independent Reading class are to:

• Inspire scholars to be life-long readers by having them read texts they love to read … and read successfully

• Improve scholars’ reading comprehension by providing them with a lot of “just right” texts on their independent reading level

• Encourage scholars to use strategies they’ve learned, so that they can successfully read and understand fifty books over the course of the school year.

• Build the reading stamina of scholars, so they can read for 45 minutes with focus and without interruption by the end of the year

Because scholars are practicing the skills that they learn in their TA and Literature classes during Independent Reading class, some of the strategies taught in Literature class should be reinforced in IR class through conferences that you conduct with each scholar. Teachers should check in with the scholar to make sure they understand what their reading. You might start a conversation by asking them if what they’re reading makes sense and explaining what’s happening in the book or what the are confused by. For more examples of ways to conference, see Appendix A: Questions to Use during Conferences.

With the exception of the 2-3 minutes that a scholar may spend conferencing with you, the bulk of a scholar’s time should be spent focused and engaged with a text—reading.

Some AF principals have adopted Book Club as their independent reading model. For more information on AF Book Club, read through the Excellence in Book Club document.

Texts Used

We asked the experts, AF teachers, and they recommended 500 books as great IR selections for your scholars. Appendix B of this document is the AF Independent Reading Book List for Grades 3-8. All of the books are leveled according to the Fountas & Pinnell leveling system so that your scholars can choose their just right books.

Class Structure

Start all students reading

It’s important for the teacher to start the class with the firm expectation that every student immediately gets out a book and reads. The teachers should stand in a position to see every student, and the teacher should insist that all students are reading. A few key expectations:

o Students should hold their books above their desks (so that the teacher can see the student’s hands and the book), and they should silently read.

o Students should not be allowed to get new books at the start of the reading class.

o There are no bathroom trips during IR. (A teacher may institute a one emergency per trimester policy.)

**A common mistake that teachers can make is to go straight to conferencing or checking without ensuring that the entire class is focused and reading.

Conferencing, Assessment, Goal Setting, and Hype!

Beyond a ton of time spent reading, a huge part of Independent Reading class is conferencing, assessment, and goal setting. During this class, the teacher is always active.

Conferencing

Good readers are not born; they are coached. As the Independent Reading teacher, it is your job to coach each reader in the most supportive way. That may mean revisiting a particular aim from Literature class that a scholar is not quite getting during a conference. As the Independent Reading teacher, you should hold short conferences with every scholar two or three times per week. See Appendix A for a complete list of questions to use during conferences.

OBJECTIVES FOR CONFERENCES: When you conference with a scholar during Independent Reading class, you are:

• helping him/her choose a “just right” book

• checking to make sure he/she understands what they are reading

Assessment

As the Independent Reading teacher, you must ensure that your scholars are accountable for their reading. They must keep a simple reading log that indicates what they are reading and shows continuity between at home reading and in school reading. Additionally, they should be responding to the text they are reading. This response should not be static. As your readers learn different reading strategies and skills, they can vary their responses. As your readers gain stamina over the course of the year, you may introduce a menu of accountability options. Appendix C includes examples of ways AF teachers have tracked IR in the past. For example:

• status of the class

• retelling/summarizing

• spiraled reader response questions

• journal entries

• sticky notes

• letters to the character

• reading strategies:

o text to self connections

o text to world connections

o text to text connections

o predictions

o visualizations

o confusions

o open-ended questions

Literature teachers will track scholars’ independent reading levels using the F&P Benchmark Assessment System. As the IR teacher you should be in contact with the Literature teachers about scholars’ independent reading levels using the F&P system. This way, you will be able to point your scholars toward the right books in the classroom library and help them become better readers even faster.

Goal Setting and Pacing

We want our scholars reading tons. They must be taught to make long range goals as well as short term plans. If the goal is to read 50 books per year, scholars must be aware of how long it will take them to read the book currently in their hands. Teacher must help scholars pace themselves through a book so that students set realistic goals. For example, it is not reasonable for most scholars to complete a 300 page book in a week, nor is it acceptable for scholars to spend one week reading a 65 page book. Teachers should help scholars understand how reading rate, text difficulty and interest play a role in determining how long a book should take to read. Scholars should get into the habit of setting daily goals that help them move through a book in a timely manner.

In addition to school-wide initiatives, you need to have a way to track the progress of each reader in your classroom. You and your scholars should be aware of how near or far away they are from the class and individual goals. Make sure to have a strong visual of the team’s progress so that you can intervene with scholars who are not reading as much as they should be and a way to celebrate all of the success that your scholars will have.

Hyping Independent Reading—ALL OF THESE ARE SO GREAT!

Here are some ideas of ways to hype IR in yours classroom and school.

• Celebrate great books! Read aloud excerpts of high interest novels. It’s amazing what sharing a paragraph or two of a great book will do to increase interest in a book.

• Have scholars share favorite lines of their current IR book. Select 2-3 scholars to read aloud a “must hear” moment from their book (scholars also practice fluency as an added benefit).

• Ask students to do 30 second book commercials for books they’ve finished. Remind them that commercials give us highlights and leave us wanting more.

• Have students give book talks. Scholars introduce their favorite book to the class. They give a 3-5 minute presentation of the book by describing the following: the character of the protagonist, the setting, the plot, what they think the theme is and how is connects to the book, and two specific reasons why they liked it and would recommend it to others. See the “Book Talk Rubric” in the “IR Hype, Goal Setting, and Tracking Tools” folder.

• Set up an account on and join the group called Achievement First. This is a networking website for readers/writers. As a network, we can build our own page or you can build a page with your class. Scholars can use the page to review/rate books and to post their own writing.

• Turn and talk during IR. After fifteen minutes of reading, ask scholars one question about the book they’re reading. Have them briefly turn to a teammate and talk about the questions.

• Create a “Recommendation Board”. Similar to a “Staff Selections” bookshelf at a bookstore. Post the recommendation card and the book together on the shelf.

• Have each student maintain a booklist logging books that they want to read.

• Invite students to discuss great books at a special lunch. For example, allow scholars who have read a book by Judy Blume to come together to share their thoughts or comments over lunch and “fudge”.

• Take kids on trips to Barnes and Noble to buy books for themselves and specifically selected books for their teammates (and then have them presented – “I picked this book out for you because …”).

• Have a challenge to read a certain amount of books by a certain date. AFCHMS has an annual wig challenge. Teachers wear silly wigs if everyone reads a certain amount of books.

• Divide up the fifty book goal for the year and split it up by IA cycle. Then, hype it in morning circle and at town meeting. Finally, have a celebration every six weeks (it makes you keep track of the reading as a school). At the celebration, have a raffle to additionally reward students who have met the reading goal for the cycle. At Amistad MS, students who won the raffle got the privilege of throwing pies at administrators during a town meeting.

• Get books on tape for kids who have difficulty meeting the reading stamina goals.

• Plan a special scholar dollar trip for kids who have read a certain number of books.

• Plan a Battle of the Books or Book Bowl. At AFHCMS a teacher was assigned to kids by the book that was chosen.

• Create a strong visual inside and outside your classroom so that everyone (scholars, teachers, deans, and principals) knows how many books every kid has read and can respond accordingly (support/follow-up/consequence for students who are not on track to read enough books and praise/celebration for those who are).

• Praise and celebrate scholars for reading improvement during class and school celebrations.

• Have a team at each school site—perhaps two representative teachers plus a dean—who think about a structure to keep the energy around reading mania going at the school; this team should strategize school-wide ideas to problem solve and celebrate.

• Hype your scholars on their own reading progress and create enthusiasm around Reading Mania—kids should know their level and get excited about movement.

▪ Post the levels (from A-Z) on the wall of the school with the students’ names on cards below. When a student moves up a level, celebrate them and have them move their card forward.

• Invest parents by sending notes home to parents when their child moves up a level or inviting them in to read with the class.

• Conduct a school-wide “Read-a-thon” or reading lock-in

• Create a class book goal. I.e. The class of 2019 reads 2019 books by a certain date. The teacher and scholars break this up into manageable chunks.

• Participate in the Pizza Hut Book-It Program. Scholars receive a coupon for a free personal pizza each month they meet the goal.

“There is no substitute for books in the life of a child”

~ Mary Ellen Chase ~

Independent Reading Aims

|Setting up a Successful IR Class |

|Great readers are able to: |

|Maintain great reading posture |

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|Track their reading with a finger or some sort of place holder. |

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|Navigate and use the library effectively |

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|Choose the “just right book” |

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|Check out and return a book |

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|Abandon a book only when appropriate. Appropriateness defined as… |

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|Improve their reading stamina (amount of time reading) |

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|Improve their words per minute |

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|Read quickly: about a book a week or every two weeks |

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|Stick with the same book at home and at school |

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|Keep a record of their reading: books logs |

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|Reflect on their book log in order to assess their own reading |

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|Use strategies and skills learned in Literature and TA classes to help their independent reading |

Thank you to KIPP INFINITY and WILLIAMSBURG COLLEGIATE for sharing their time, enthusiasm and curricular ideas with Achievement First.

Appendix A: Questions to Use during Conferences, from KIPP Infinity Charter School, New York; see documents in “Conferencing Tools” folder on the Shared Server

Appendix B: AF IR Book List for Grades 3-8: see excel documents in “Book Lists” folder

Appendix C: IR logs and example tracking sheets; see documents in “IR Hype, Goal Setting, and Tracking Tools” folder

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