Self-selected members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List are
joining together to explore the Reading Workshop and other ideas
about supporting young adolescent readers. Juli Kendall, a reading
teacher/coach in Long Beach, California, is helping moderate the
discussion. Juli is also keeping a weekly journal of her own Reading
Workshop initiative. Find out more about our project at our Reading Workshop homepage. You'll find
Juli's background article here. Links
to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues are embedded
in these journals. Most often, when you click on them, a PDF file
will begin to download. You'll find a list of the downloads here.
Celebrating seems so natural at this time of year that we decided
to investigate "ways to celebrate reading" with our
students. We read aloud Byrd Baylor's I'm in charge of celebrations
to lay the groundwork for our discussion. It's written from the
point of view of a young girl who finds many reasons to celebrate
for herself. These lines from the beginning of the book help explain.
We wanted our students to recognize the celebration of reading
as an important part of their development as readers. To help
them see that there are already many opportunities to celebrate
at school and in their lives, we made a class list. This proved
to be tricky at the start. However, after several suggestions,
the class began to get more involved. Here's the chart they developed.
How we celebrate reading!
(Class created chart)
+ Making bookmarks-Erica and Juan
+ Reading your book or a book about celebrating--Vuthy
+ "Read Across America" Day (Dr. Seuss' Birthday, March
2nd)-everyone!
Making green eggs and ham
Making Cat in the Hat hats
Reading Dr. Seuss stories
+ Having a party in the library (bringing and eating food while
reading)--Esmeralda
+ Eating Krispy Kreme donuts and reading a long chapter book at
home with your family--Shaquila
+Reading at church, from the Bible or another book-Vanessa
+Reading "The Night Before Christmas" with your family
on Christmas Eve
+ Having a Reading Marathon (reading for 4 hours straight!)--Maricela
In addition, we want them to mark their growth as readers by celebrating.
We choose Star Readers every day to reinforce the qualities of
good readers from the Independent Reading Rubric. We give a "silent
cheer" when someone finishes a reading level and moves up
to the next one. We enthusiastically congratulate students during
Reading Conferences when they are reading Just Right books. And
we are always looking for new ways to celebrate.
Page 350 in The Art of Teaching Reading explains it this
way. "Another way to nourish our children's growth as readers
is to celebrate their progress. Just as we schedule frequent and
early author celebrations in the writing workshop, so, too we
hold frequent and early reading celebrations to bring new energy
to our reading workshops."
So this is how we visualize our students as readers. That reading
will become such a part of the fabric of their lives that they
are no longer "looking at reading (sic) but living with it."
Joseph Wood Krutch in The Desert Year explains it this
way.
There is all the difference in the world between looking at something and living with it. In nature, one never really sees a thing for the first time until one has seen it for the fiftieth. It never means much until it has become part of some general configuration, until it has become not a "view" or a "sight" but an integrated world of which one is a part; until one is what the biologist would call part of a biota. (p. 3)
Celebrating reading
When I asked Leti how she celebrates reading, she told me
that sometimes she eats while she is reading at home. I think
she is still growing in her understanding of "celebrating."
What happened as we went along and what strategies we tried
She frequently asks to have reading conferences and often
tries to find an opportunity to read to the teacher. She seems
to value teacher opinions and celebrations over finding her own
reasons to celebrate. She is still not very independent as a reader
and wants positive reinforcement for what she is doing. She will
raise her hand during Independent Reading to ask a question or
permission to do something. We are responding to her requests
during Independent Reading with "Readers make their own decisions.
Check the Independent Reading Rubric."
How we adjusted and retaught and what progress we've seen
It's just going to take more time than I had hoped for Leti
to become an independent reader who finds her own reasons for
reading and celebrating. This is probably to be expected. My wanting
her to move faster will only put more pressure on her. It may
actually keep her from reading Just Right books and taking the
time that she needs to cement reading strategies. I just need
to hold on for now.
See Juli's December curriculum
map.
Read Juli's next journal entry
Read Juli's previous journal entry
Read Juli's backgrounder about her
work
Back to Juli's journal index
Back to the Reader Workshop Index Page