Choice #5: Write About Reading

The most recent choice we have added to our Reading Workshop time is Writing About Reading, a choice in which students write letters to me about the current I PICK book they are reading, these letters are written in their Reading Workshop folders and I use these letters as a way of holding students accountable for what they are reading during their independent reading. The focus of the letters is not to summarize the facts of what they have read, but to show their thinking about what they have read. The letter they write include a short summary of what they have read most recently read, responses to reading workshop questions that encourage students to show their thinking about what they have read, and answers to questions that I have recently asked the student about their reading. The initial response to this choice has been, at most mediocre. It seems that most students have written some sort of Reading Workshop Letter in previous years and do not have overly positive feelings towards this. This will present some challenges for me as I strive to make this a choice that students enjoy. In my Week 8 Reflection survey for my collection of data I will be asking students about their feeling towards the Writing About Reading choice and will then have a better understanding of students’ true feelings towards this choice.

One way that I hope to keep students engaged in this choice is through my responses back to them about what they are reading. I strive to use my responses to student’s letters as a time to connect with them about what they are reading as well as time to connect with them on a more personal level. My goal is through prompt responses and showing my own effort being put forth that students will be motivated in their own writing as well.

Student’s letters are due approximately once every other week, and with 25 students I have 5 journals due each day. The students were given a color folder where different Reading Workshop materials are kept, including a place where they write their letters, their color represents the day in which their journal is due. I am currently 3 days into the first week of journal being due and so far their letters have been good, some stronger than others, some showing their thinking with good details, some trying to get away with as few words as possible. But for now I am happy that all letters are being handed in on time with some sort of letter written. We will work on continuing to improve the quality of these letters as we move forward.  

We are currently established in four choice activities during Reading Workshop: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, and Write About Reading. (the reason that this post is titled Choice #5 is because I have also introduced the choice of what students choose to read for their independent reading book selections) One shift I have seen with these choices is that Read to Someone is not as popular as it once was, which has eased some of my concerns about this choice. I think part of this shift comes from the new responsibility of having to Write About Reading, students are finding that they need to use some of their Reading Workshop time to work independently on their letter so that it is ready on their due date. I do have some students who are continuously choosing to Read to Someone, and while I do feel this is a good choice, I also do not think it is one that they should be doing every day. We currently only have one block of time per Reading Workshop period in which students can make a choice. As we establish routines I am hoping that we can shift this to two choice blocks per Reading Workshop period. (at least a few times a week) I am finding time to be one of my greatest challenges.

Next up is Working on Writing a choice in which students will be able to use their time to work on and reread their own writing pieces that they are producing during Writing Workshop.

Choice #4: Listen to Reading

We have made an I-Chart, modeled, and practiced the Listen to Reading choice for two weeks now and it is now a choice for students each day. The way this works in our classroom is that I have 4 student computers in the classroom that can all play CDs, I purchased headphones for each of these computers and it now serves as a wonderful Listen to Reading center.

                                I-Chart for Listen to Reading Choice

I was not sure how this choice would go over in 4th grade as it seems like something that may be better suited for younger grades, but I do believe that for some students their comprehension of the story will increase by listening to it being read. The stories that the students listen to during Listen to Reading are the stories for our basal series. Each week (most weeks) we have a focus story from our textbook, and since the curriculum set also came with each of these stories on CD it has worked out great! When the stuent makes the choie to Listen to Reading on Monday or Tuesday they are able to listen to the story as they read it for the first time. If they choose to Listen to Reading on Wednesday or Thursday they should have already read the story independently, and we have started/finsished reaidng it together as well so it is more of a review or rereading. If a studnet chooses to Listen to Reading on a Friday they can choose to listen to any of the stories from our textbook that we have read together so far this year. A few of the downsides I am seeing with this choice are that only 4 students can listen to reading at a time and that I am very limited in what students can listen to. The upside is that students seem to be liking it! I think because it is something different it peaks some of their interest as well. There are some studnets in the class that I feel would benifit more from listening to the weekly story than others and as we are continuing to introduce choices I am continuing to work on ways to make sure each student is making choices that help them become better readers. As we continue with this process I hope to be able to better differentiate these choices with students. Right now on the top of their weekly logging sheet students are told certain choices that they "must do" each week, and for everyone they are the same. My hope is to soon have certain choices that certain students must complete each week. I feel this is one way that I can ensure that some of my lower readers are able to get to the Listen to Reading choice.

                                       Listen to Reading Choice

The management of this choice (unlike Read to Someone) has been minimal, the students are very on task when they are doing the Listen to Reading choice and I just have to check in at the start to make sure they are able to get started right away and check on them from time to time to make sure they are not doing anything else on the computer. I like the Listen to Reading choice! :)

In some of my most recent data collection when I asked the stuedents what their favoarite Reading Workshop choice was up to this point and of my 25 students 12 prefer Read to Self, while 9 like Read to Someone, and 4 like Listen to Reading best. I am happy to see a spread of opinions, reaffirming that choice is good because not everyone loves just one choice. One of my struggling readers did say they like Listen to Reading best and I smilied when I read his reason why, "because iI am getting it better!" I am thrilled that he realzies this choice increases his comprehension! Then there is my "I Hate to Read" student who said Listen to Reading was the favorite choice "because it involves less reading." At least he is reading, and involves just as much reading, it just may not seem like it to him! :)

When asked on a scale of Love it! Like it! Ho Hum! and Don't like it! how they feel about having choices in Reading Workshop 16 students Love it! and 9 Like it! with no one saying Ho Hum! or Don't like it! I feel like what I am doing is working, it is keeping there attitudes towards reading positive.

Choice #3: Read to Someone

This is a choice that I was nervous about introducing, but after a little over a week of modeling and practicing I am ok with the way things are going. We have spent A LOT of time talking about how to complete the Read to Someone choice correctly, we created an I-Chart, modeled, practiced, and reflected. I was thrilled when during our reflections one of the things that students disliked the most about the choice was that the room wasn’t as quiet! A quiet environment for reading is clearly something that is important to them, and that is great! Now we just have to work on making the Read to Someone choice a little quieter. I do believe that part of the problem was that we were all practicing the Read to Someone choice and with that many people reading aloud to someone it is bound to be a little louder. On Friday students were given the choice between Read to Self and Read to Someone, approximately half of the class chose to Read to Someone and the overall environment was much quieter than it had been in days prior when everyone was practicing Read to Someone.

                                         Read to Someone I-Chart

Last week was the first week that we also had a “Story of the Week” from our basal series. We are working on the routines of what this mean during Reading Workshop, and since I am making changing in how I have done things in the past this is also a learning time for me. As of right now our weekly implementation of the weekly story looks like this:

Monday: Introduce story and vocabulary for the week, do teacher read aloud from the reading book with focus on a specific reading strategy.

Tuesday: Review vocab. and weekly reading strategy.

MUST DO CHOICE: (on Monday and/or Tuesday) All students must read the weekly story by the end of Reading Workshop on Tuesday – they can choose Read to Self, Read to Someone, or soon Listen to Reading.

Wednesday: Read Part 1 of the weekly story together in an interactive format, this week was a story about a dogsled race so we flipped over our tables and made them into dogsleds. J

Thursday: Read Part 2 of weekly story together.

Friday: Comprehension Quiz (sometimes given earlier in the week)

Choice Time is also given each day, right now students are given the choice of  Read to Self  or Read to Someone, as not all choices have been introduced yet.

It was a busy week with the introduction of Read to Someone and the weekly reading basal story, but overall I thought the week went well. On Friday I gave the students a  quick survey in which I asked them on a scale of : Love it! Like it! Ho-Hum! or Don’t Like It! about there feelings on different areas of Reading Workshop. When asked the questions, “How do you feel about having choices in Reading Workshop?” With 24 students (out of 25) taking the survey I had 11 say they “Love it!”, 11 say the “Like it” and 2 say “Ho-Hum”. When asked, “How do you feel about Reading Workshop so far in 4^th grade?” I had 8 say they “Love it!”, 11 say they “Like it”, 4 say “Ho-Hum”, and 1 say “Don’t like it!” These results were good and made me happy about the decisions I have made so far, although I would love to see more readers “Loving it!” There were 5 questions total and I had minimal “Don’t Like It” responses, which I find to be a positive as well!

                                     Read to Someone Choice

At the end of the week I started to introduce the Listen to Reading chart, and as I turned the chart paper around one student said, “I bet we will need to make an I-Chart for this!” They are catching on! I am excited to see how Listen to Reading goes this week as it will be a choice. I have 4 computers in my classroom that students will be able to use to listen to this week’s reading story. We have discussed how this might look and how it will be decided as to who gets to use the computers, but we are still working on putting a plan into place. There are some students that I know would benefit from listening to the weekly story, so I will be working on a way to make sure they are given the chance to do so. I am looking to another week in Reading Workshop! J