This past week in reading workshop, we spent time growing our independent reading stamina. The kids worked hard to…
- Be URGENT. (Quickly find a spot and get right to work.)
- Stay in one spot.
- Work quietly. Shhhhhh.
- Warm up to each book and point to the words when reading.
- Read the WHOLE TIME…build stamina!
The kids have gotten quite good at finding books that are “just right” to keep in their book boxes. We established the class wide habit of rereading books if they read all of the books in their book box. This led to a discussion of how readers set goals for how many books they will read. We introduced a bookmark for keeping track of this number each day. Before each reading session, the kids thought about how many books they read the day before and about the books they had in their book boxes. They then set a goal for how many books they wanted to read that day. They tracked their goal for a few days to see if the number of books they read was growing each day. This also helped them notice if they actually had picked books that were “just right”. All in all, they spent a lot of time reading this week and building great reading habits. Way to go first graders!
We are looking forward to starting our “take home” reading program in the next few weeks. The first graders will get the chance to take a book home each night. These will be “just right” books, so the students will be able to read them independently. We want these books to be effortless so that students can gain confidence in themselves as readers. We are finishing up all the preparations for this program and we will let you know as soon as it is up and running.