Guiding Readers- Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is titled "Guiding Emergent Readers"





This is a great chapter for me, as a first grade teacher. I know we've all just wrapped up our school year and as I was reading the list of things emergent readers do it had me thinking about how some of my kids had really come a long way!

A couple of key points I found to be important when working with emergent readers:

  • Keep in mind it may not always be best to have students make predictions based on the cover of the book. This is because the discussion tends to wander into stories about completely unrelated topics. 
  • "Walking" through the book is an important strategy for these students. It helps them understand the structure of the book and later helps with sequencing. It helps students remember key words they hear in the introduction to the book as well.
  • Echo reading is very important for emergent readers because they don't yet have all the skills needed to sound out words by themselves successfully all of the time.
  • Remember to praise kiddos for using strategies! - Sometimes we get so involved in our time crunch as teachers that we forget this one.
On page 36 there is a great list of activities you can do with your students listed by different areas: working with sounds, working with letters and words, working with books, etc.

I'm a huge advocate of having a set routine in class. My students know what the routine is for each subject area, especially in reading. In my district we use the Daily 5 program. All of the information I'm gathering from the book so far works great with Daily 5!

Page 43 has a great chart on reading and writing connections for emergent readers. It's perfect to share with parents in a parent conference. It is very simple and parents would easily see where their child is and what progress they can look forward to seeing.

One great activity for emergent readers is creating class books. I just posted on Teaching Blog Addict about a great tool I found that you could use to publish class books online!

If you've just started reading the book--no worries! 
Chapter 1 was hosted by Think, Wonder, Teach
Chapter 2 was hosted by Leading and Reading AND by Tori's Teacher Tips

The entire schedule for the book study is with our fabulous leader in the study, Beth, from Thinking of Teaching


Book Study!

Howdy! Hope everyone had a fabulous Father's Day! I know I did!

Beth at Thinking of Teaching is hosting a book study on Guided Reading this summer.



 I'm hosting a chapter as are lots of other fabulous teachers! I hope you'll join in! The book is called "Guiding Readers: Making the Most of the 18 Minute Guided Reading Lesson"

It was not available on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble didn't have it either. But if you click on the title above you can order a copy from the publisher. But maybe you're really lucky and you can borrow a copy from a friend!



See the schedule for chapter posts at Beth's blog! Kick off is tomorrow!



Thinking of Teaching


Suzy Red

Are you familiar with Suzy Red? I think I had a training from her YEARS ago. So long ago I can't even remember what grade I was teaching when I had the training. Whoa! She has a GREAT website with so many resources for songs. She has written several songs herself and they all have a familiar tune. One of my favorites is the Contraction Song! Be sure to check out her site! You can go directly to the music page by clicking HERE

Back to School Freebie

Howdy all! Oh my gosh. I haven't blogged in more than a week! Well...I took a couple of days off to sleep in and start working out. Then Thursday I started to feel not great, but I thought it was nothing. By Saturday afternoon I was so miserable! I am still unable to swallow....but thank goodness for pain pills. Seriously people! I haven't even LOOKED at blogs. See... I really have been sick! Even my husband was shocked at that little fact!

To make up for being missing from bloggy land and because my mind is already on the next school year I have a freebie to share with you! It's a simple roll and cover dice game with school supplies. Easy to use all school year. I hope you enjoy!



SUMMER!

Woohoo! I haven't had a chance to catch up on everyone's obsessions yet because this past week was the last week of school. I was up until 1 am finishing our class movie on Wednesday night. I was such a sap and got all teary looking at the pictures. I just loved my class and I'm so impressed with how much they have changed! Our class party was wonderful and I did the ugly cry giving my speech about how I loved being a part of the kids' lives. Yesterday I finished moving rooms and for y'all that read my obsession with laminate you'll understand that I HAD to take pictures of how everything fit into my cabinets. That way I can duplicate it next year. {It's ok if you're rolling your eyes....I know I'm a bit weird!} I have some ideas in the works and will post next week, but for now I'm going to enjoy the weekend and take a nap poolside. If you have any ideas for games or products that you want me to create send me and email and I'll get started! Have a great weekend!