LikeToRead.com

Reading Habits

Good Reading Habits

• Read! Read in chunks of text, not word for word.
• Reference the text and discuss books.
• Keep a list of unfamiliar words and try to use them.
• Ask constantly, "Does this make sense?" If not, reread or use other strategies until it does!
• Read to someone, with someone, and by yourself every day.
• Set a reading goal. Periodically, assess your goal. Set a new goal. Keep a record of your progress in your daybook.
• Build personal reading time to 90 minutes in one sitting for homework at least 3 times in the year.
• Use an index card to track if needed.
• Use colored plastic to help the words settle down if it helps.

Procedure Lesson for Getting Reading Workshop Started: Building Book Bags

45 minutes

Review what you taught in the previous lesson helping children see the connections. Or, ask the children to begin a thinking tree in their daybooks. Readers use...

Introduction

• Ask, What's the most important thing that readers do?Explain that there are so many things readers do that are important BUT today you want them to talk to their buddies to see if they can figure out what you're thinking is most important.
• Lead the students to see that READING is the most important thing readers do. If readers are not reading, they don't need to learn any strategies!
• Further, state that as their teacher you require them to read (30 minutes) per day and you challenge them to build their reading time to 90 minutes 3 times during the year.
• Ask where READING 30 MINUTES PER DAY goes on the thinking map and then oversee the class writing it (under reading habits). (Build-up reading time is a lesson for another day.)

Input

• Gather students in a space on the floor.
• Explain that readers read for a sustained period of time to build their reading muscles. They don't read the same book necessarily. When they get tired, they switch to easy reads.
• Ask the partners to talk to each other about WHY we try to build our reading time.
• Make sure students understand why reading will help them learn, help them work, entertain them, etc. Reading longer periods of time is the best gift to give themselves if they want to read better. Reading 30-40 minutes is enough time to get lost in the reading zone. They will most likely find reading more satisfying than if they read for 5 minutes at a time.
• Ask children to close their eyes and picture themselves reading. Further, ask them to remember the time they read the longest. Ask them to estimate how long that was and be ready to tell you and the class the number of minutes they think they sustained their reading time - just got absorbed in a book, didn't get up, just kept reading.
• Report to you what that number is - how many minutes do you think you can read in one sitting right now? Remember to try to be accurate because you will be building that time. Record that number by their name on the Building Muscles Reading Chart. Write your name, too!

Guided Practice

• Say something like, Students need a selection of books when the teacher says, "It's time to read," or when seatwork is completed. But we don't want to distract other workers or waste time each time we need a book. Therefore, today each of you will create a book bag with at least 3 books.
• Teacher shows her book bag which should contain an easy read or magazine, a just right book and a difficult book - sharing the difference.
• Introduce the 5-finger rule: read the first page of a book. If you can read every word - easy book. If you miss 5 or more words - difficult book. If you miss 1-2 words - just right book. (The Goldilocks method of selecting books :-)
• In order for the students to remember what you want them to do in the next few minutes, choose a student to model. While the others watch, ask the child to (1) Pick out a book from the shelf. (2) Read the cover to see if the topic interests you. (3) Read the back of the book to find a summary. (4) If still interested, thumb/scan the whole book looking at pictures. (5) If still interested, read the first page. The rest of the class watches this process so they have a visual of what you want them to do.
• Restate the task: Pick 3 books for your book bag - an easy book, a difficult book, and a just right book. (5 books is appropriate as they gain independence with the idea. Some students may be ready to choose 5 today!)
• Ask for questions - problems they foresee with what you have assigned them to do or that you may have forgotten to mention. Seek solutions.

Independent Practice

• Allow 10-15 minutes for browsing and selecting books. When they have their books, ask them to be seated and READ! Or, ask them to find a comfortable place in the room where they can read undistracted.

Closure

• Fill in this statement for me: The most important thing that readers do is __________! (Read!)
• Record reading goal in daybooks: The number of minutes I will read per day is _________.

Follow-Up

In the beginning of the year, teachers have to plan to take the children to the library once a week to select new books for their reading book bags. Before the kids go, have them sort their books in piles: (1) finished reading or not interested and (2) not finished reading but want to. Give them time to return the books they finished or they found inappropriate and select new books. If you do this as a class at least 3 times, your children will know exactly what to do.

Eventually, children maintain these book bags on their own, bringing in books, magazines, newspapers, poetry anthologies, and comic books from home, and selecting from classroom and school libraries. Of course, teachers have to revisit book bags periodically and monitor some children. Also, teachers will need a 2-minute time per week to ask students to check in, stating the longest time they read in a week. Older children can record their reading times daily, average and report during math class!

When meeting with reading groups, ask children to start by sharing what they're reading with one another and a bit about it. It only takes a couple minutes, but (1) the teacher can assess whether children really are reading every day and (2) other children find books they want to read based on recommendations from their peers.

...the highest achieving students (1) received a steady diet of "easy" texts...texts they could read accurately, fluently and with good expression --- and (2) consistently outgained both the average-achieving students and the lower-achieving students year after year... motivation for reading was dramatically influenced by reading success."

Richard Allington, "What I've Learned About Effective Reading Instruction from a Decade of Studying Exemplary Elementary Classroom Teachers,"Phi Delta Kappan, June, 2002.

Involve your parents. Let them know the value of reading at 3 different levels!

When visiting a local bookstore at Christmas time one year, I found parents shopping for books for their children. They were looking for books based ONLY on their child's reading level. I can't even describe my feelings. Luckily, no one told me what I could NOT read when I was young. I still have the books my dad gave me, especially selected for me, and because he loved his choices, NOT because they were "at my level."

Yes, we know that reading "at your level" gives a child a chance to apply the strategies she has learned. But like foods, we cannot have a diet of just one kind of book. I wanted to call out, "Please don't deny the child the joy of reading below level." (I do! I love to take John Grisham's novels to the beach, not War and Peace.) And children can read above level, too, if they're motivated by an interest in a hobby, or a nonfiction text with picture support, or if their teacher read the book aloud previously, or if their dad gave it to them, especially selected for them!

Readers apply different strategies to reading at different levels. Your children will learn those techniques during the year. Explain the value of reading an array of texts to the parents of your students. Hopefully, this letter will help jumpstart your thinking about the letter you want to send.

In addition, refer your parents to my parent page on this site and other resources you have.

Parent Letter:

We recognize that you are your child's first teacher and teacher for life. We would like to team with you to help your child make progress in reading. At all ages, it is important that each child read 3 different ways throughout each day as many days as possible. We teach children to choose independent books to read using the Goldilocks' Method:

Choose "easy" books to read sometimes. These are books where your child can read almost every word without help. If the book is a year or two below a child's grade level, he/she will build confidence, smooth reading and expressive reading. Your child can read these books independently or aloud practicing expressive reading and even different voices.

Choose "hard" (or challenging) books to read sometimes. As a general rule, if a child reads the first page of a book and misses 5 or more words, that book is difficult for the child to read. Reading these books aloud to your child will help build vocabulary, a sense of story and excitement for what's possible. Plus, it's just plain enjoyable to listen to someone read and then talk about books. You are never too old for that!

Choose "just right" books sometimes. If a child can read 9 out of 10 words on a page, that's a "just right" book. By missing one word every so often, your child gets a chance to try the strategies that we are teaching him/her. Every child needs practice using the strategies. If s/he is missing more words per page, it will be difficult to get any meaning from the story s/he is reading independently. When your child comes across an unfamiliar word, it's a good idea to have him run through a variety of strategies to try and figure it out himself. However, the child should not get to the point of frustration. Reading should be fun!