Independent Reading Mid-Year Solution Packet



Independent Reading Mid-Year Solution Packet

Solution #1

Cause: Investment/ possibly damaged trust between student & teacher

Solution: Reading-Life-Mapping

• Who? Target your 4- 6 least invested readers

• What? Either in partners or one-on-one, have conversations about the students’ life experiences as a readers to try help the students and you figure out why the students don’t enjoy reading AND to map out which kinds of books the students might enjoy more.

• Where? Plan to have the conversation in an out of the ordinary location (have the conversation over some cookies & drinks at Subway, have the conversation in a safe place afterschool- again with some snacks or some other way to make it feel like a conversation over coffee, have the conversation in a nice outdoor area)

• How? Plan questions to spark conversation & life-mapping. We’ve provided some initial ones below. Then, also feel comfortable straying from your planned questions to dig into moments of reading-agony & reading-joy with your students. Make sure you end the conversation with the student setting concrete next steps & short term goals for independent reading (such as, I’m going to find a book about people like me. Specifically, I’m going to get the book Kendra from Ms. F. to read next. I’m going to check in with her to let her know how I’m liking it on Monday during 5th period.) Here are some sample planned-questions & framing for these conversations:

o We’re going to map out your reading-life to figure out why it is that you’re not enjoying reading right now. Sometimes it helps us figure out ourselves NOW by looking back at who we were BEFORE.

o What’s your first reading memory? Who were you reading with?

o Do you remember ever feeling especially successful or like a failure at reading? When were those times? What happened?

o What do your friends think about reading for fun? Do they read? Why?

o What do your family members think about reading for fun? Do they read? Why?

• Examples: Here is a positive example of a Reading Life Map. We imagine that you’ll want to encourage the student to draw or write out their experiences & connect them together. Our students might have had some positive & negative experiences or mostly negative ones. It doesn’t matter! The point is to get the facts out there, and to then talk about what this means for the future.

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Solution #2

Cause: Extreme reading gaps (students are reading on mid-elementary level)

Solution: Small-group intervention with additional reading diagnosing & Short-term growth goals

|Who? Target 4-10 of your lowest readers who aren’t in special education |[pic] |

|(simply because your students in special education are already receiving |Image A. Running Record Form |

|other remediation.) | |

|What? Meet with your targeted students in one or two small groups to |[pic] |

|diagnose more specifically what reading holdbacks these students have. |Image B. Conversion Chart |

|Once you’ve figured out what reading level, precisely, these students are| |

|reading on then you can help these students set individual short-term | |

|growth goals, find books on their specific reading levels, and re-assess | |

|their reading levels more frequently to give them feedback on how their | |

|additional reading at home is creating change with their reading levels. | |

|Where/ When? Likely this kind of differentiation is going to need to | |

|happen before or after school, during your planning period 2-3 days a | |

|week, or during lunch if you aren’t required to sit with your students | |

|during lunch. | |

|How? | |

|This solution requires a little more skill-building on your part. You | |

|should reach out to an LTL, your MTLD, or Sarah Franzen if you run into | |

|any questions. | |

|To diagnose your students’ precise reading levels, you should use the | |

|FREE Reading Level Assessments provided by Columbia Teacher’s College. | |

|The Teacher’s College website give you basic directions to help you learn| |

|how to mark a running record form like image A in order to identify what | |

|is most holding back an individual reader. | |

|Once you’ve diagnosed your students, you can utilize the conversion chart| |

|(image B) to determine their precise reading levels to help them find | |

|books that are written on their reading levels. | |

|Students who are reading behind grade level can generally grow 1 letter | |

|in reading in 2 weeks when they are reading at letters A- O. They can | |

|grow one letter in a month when they are reading on levels N- Z. Given | |

|this, you can set up additional reading check-ins & re-tests with your | |

|students to see how quickly they are growing & to continue to build | |

|relationships around reading. | |

Solution #3

Cause: Investment & Teacher-consistency (majority of students aren’t reading at home & teacher hasn’t reinforced in a while)

Solution: Implement a new at-home reading Independent Reading Procedure with daily accountability checks!

|Who? Target your whole class to change the tide of IR-apathy! |[pic]Image C. Book Talk Rubric |

|What? Consider the two examples below as ways to overhaul the way you | |

|are holding students accountable for independent reading. | |

|How? Introduce the changes AND rationale for the changes in a | |

|mini-lesson, and then consistently follow up with students. | |

|Examples | |

|Consider having your students do more of the academic reading at home.| |

|A number of our high school English teachers have found with the state| |

|test approaching that schools want even less independent reading | |

|happening in classes. We know that the ONLY WAY students are going to| |

|perform on the state test is if they are building their stamina with | |

|independent reading. Teachers have started assigning in-class reading| |

|for homework. Instead of another sort of bell ringer, students answer| |

|BASIC comprehension questions from the previous night’s reading (such | |

|that even struggling readers who attempted to read could answer the | |

|questions) to hold students accountable for the reading. Teachers | |

|find that they can move through the text faster this way & Ss are | |

|doing more independent reading. | |

|Consider implementing a different accountability system for | |

|choice-based IR. Try having students do book talks at the end of a | |

|book instead of reading logs. Students introduce the 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. Grade using a rubric like image C. | |

|Consider additional accountability tools from ELA website. | |

| | |

Solution #4

Cause: Investment (Students have forgotten why IR really matters)

Solution: Rebuild the buzz with mini lessons & book passes

• Who? All of your students.

• What? Plan to ROUTINELY & FREQUENTLY re-build the buzz & excitement around IR with mini-lessons like the ones I’ve listed below OR completely re-introduce IR, like this 2 week plan outlines.

o 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.

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

o 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.

o 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.

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

o Have each student maintain a book WISH LIST logging books that they want to read.

o Invite students to discuss great books at a special lunch. For example, allow scholars who have read a book by Walter Dean Meyer to come together to share their thoughts or comments over lunch.

o 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).

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

Solution #5

Cause: Investment/ accountability/ extremely low readers

Solution: Build connections with parents around independent reading

• Who? Target your 8-14 most apathetic or disinvested independent readers.

• What? Plan a conversation to have over the phone or in-person with each of their parents. Engage in dialogue with parent about why the target student might not like to read & why reading is so important. Set next steps with the parent, and follow through with them- promises to parents & students are sacred!

• How?

o To create your phone call plan, consider these questions:

▪ What information do you need to know from the parent? Do you know why Shalexis might not like to read? What has Shalexis liked to read in the past? Do you have any advice about how to help Shalexis realize how important reading is for her future?

▪ What information does the parent need to know from you? Parents need to know that the state test is an INDEPENDENT READING test. Parents deserve to know what reading level their student is reading on. In order to grow as an independent reader, students need to read 30 minutes a day, The parents can help the in-school efforts by simply asking if the student read independently that day.

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