What I have learned from my data (data = surveys, grades, and observations) is that choice is motivating! When students were asked to write down three words to describe their feelings about the subject of reading at school their responses remained positive! They included words like: fun, awesome, cool, good, fine, love it, excellent, sweet, exciting, relaxing, and interesting, among other positive words! Of course I did get a few ho-hums and OKs, but the majority of the students used positive words to describe reading.
Additional information that I gathered from the surveys was not exactly what I had hoped it would be. At the start of the year I gave students a Reading Attitude Survey, and I administered this survey again in January. The survey looked at their recreational reading, academic reading, and then combined the two for a look at their full scale attitude. I did not see as many significant changes as I had hoped to see, and in fact some of the percentages decreased from September to January. In reflecting on the surveys and the results I am able to see where and how some of these shifts, or lack of shifts, may have occurred. The initial survey was given during the first week of school, which is a time when most students are still in the "honeymoon" phase of being back at school. During this first week students are enjoying seeing friends, having fun, building a classroom community through a variety of different activities, and trying impress their new teacher in different ways. Lets face it, the first week of school is not that rigorous in the academics department. By January the students have settled in to the routines and things may no longer feel as exciting, even if they are enjoying what they are doing. While the overall attitude percentages did not show any significant changes, but specific questions, regarding reading, have shown that students attitudes towards reading at school have become more positive over the year. They have shown that they are enjoying reading and the choices that come along with it.
I am thrilled with the results that I am seeing, even if the data is not as strong as I had hoped they would ultimately be, but do I think they Reading Workshop I have created is perfect... by no means. Moving forward there are things I would like to change and improve on, some things I will try this year, and some things I will implement next year. Some things I would like to change and/or improve are: the Word Work/Spelling choice, looking at the value of the Work on Writing choice (knowing that students have time to write during Writing Workshop), the way in which students log their choices, and a way to find a way to incorporate more than one choice per day. This will always be a work in progress... it will change as I gather new ideas, it will change each year as the students I have in my class change, it will change as we adopt a new reading curriclum, but one thing I am certain will remain, I will continue to offer choices in Reading Workshop.
The Peek into Our Classroom for this week is another choice that the students have had a chance to partake during the month of February. Because February is I LOVE TO READ MONTH I invited my 4th graders to be Mystery Readers in our classroom. We typically have Mystery Readers every Friday (parents, siblings, other teachers, etc) but during the month of February I allow my students to be Mystery Readers if they would like to be. They write down clues about themselves that are then shared with the class on the day that they are the Mystery Reader. I started out with quite a few Student Mystery Readers, but after a few students had their chance to read they inspired others and we have now had to extend our Student Mystery Readers into the beginning of March! Students are embracing this chance to share their love of reading with their classmates. It has been a lot of fun to watch! Below is a picture of one of last week's Student Mystery Readers:
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