In the remainder of this section, "But That," Miller and Moss provide us with some strategies that we can add to our tool belt. They label these strategies as "Tactics," and they cover a wide variety of topics. They discuss how to guide independent reading through classroom libraries, organization of those libraries, and monitoring. They then tell us to use that monitoring and conferring part to further our instruction and help our students on their level, and with the skills that are specific to them. If we notice that a larger group of students is missing something, that is when we would take the time to "catch" or "refocus" the group. Miller and Moss then go on to talk about the interaction between students. Students should reflect and share with each other. They should even engage in book clubs and lean on each other to help foster their learning and further improve the ability to become successful readers. Finally, we should assess them independently to get a real feel for their learning and improvement.
This last piece seems to tie in everything we have talked about in this course thus far. We should use that monitoring and conferring portion in order to differentiate our instruction. Not all readers may need the same supports, so we really need to examine who needs what in order to provide meaningful instruction. Aha! Validation strikes again! The reflection, sharing, and book discussion section really validates what I took away from Module 6. While we need to guide and demonstrate learning, we almost need to let our students go and learn from each other. It seems as though in utilizing this tactic, our students will take away more meaningful experiences and connections. The idea of assessing students independently is something I think we do anyway. We need to know what they can do on their own. Have they made gains on their own? Or do they rely on us as teachers or their peers to gain insight into what they are reading? By thinking about these things, we can even further differentiate, and mold our instruction to better suit our students' needs.
I absolutely loved this book and actually learned much more than I thought I would. I will definitely be sharing it with my co-teacher, and am looking forward to implementing some of the strategies with her.
Hi Whitney,
ReplyDeleteI love that you enjoyed this book and understood Miller and Moss's whole point of this text is that independent reading isn't effective without instruction that feeds into and supports student reading (strategy focused mini-lessons) and formative assessments such as conferencing and teacher monitoring that also help support student reading by not only differentiating feedback for the individual student but also informing the instruction of the teacher in the subsequent mini-lessons. This is one of my favorite go-to professional development texts for helping teachers understand ways to structure and support effective independent reading, whether this is in a regular classroom or when working in small groups. No matter what, we want our students to be able to take what they are learning and apply it to their own independent reading. Thank you Whitney for your continued insight and thoughtful reflections on your reading.
Sincerely,
Dawn
I really enjoyed reading this book. As I said, I would love to share this with my co-teachers this year. I would love to brainstorm and create a meaningful learning environment for all of our students, not just those with IEPs.
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