Eeeekkkk!!! Don’t you just love my new bloggy blog design? Melanie from Cutest Blog on the Block did an amaze-balls job. I am just I beyond excited about it! Even more fun, those are all of my fonts that she used so it just makes it feel a little more exciting. I would have posted earlier this weekend but I’ve been a little busy.
My sweet friend just had this little nugget last week and I have been summoned by myself to go snuggle with her.
She is just a bundle of love and I have just been eating it up. I think someone might be catching a slight case of baby fever…
We are still working on the house non-stop! Our outdoor furniture finally came in and we have been cleaning and organizing outside for the past couple of days.
There was also a slight hitch in the plan to blog because of El Bachelor last night. Can I just say…jerk.
What a joke.
I really don’t even want to get in to all of my thoughts because they are not “living above the line” as we would say around here. I am just glad that eees over. Moving on.
We are on the countdown to Spring Break in these parts. Today is Green Eggs and Ham day, which will include the making of eggs in my classroom so I am working on getting plug-ins installed and smelling fresh before the eggs leave their mark.
I just did a post for Hameray Publishing about “Just Right” books. I wasn’t sure if everyone got to peek at it so I thought I would leave the post on here as well. It is something that I feel so strongly about and it might be some food for thought on this Tuesday morning 🙂
The Importance of “Just Right” Books
My favorite part of teaching reading is that moment when a student reads a sentence on their own. They look up at you like, “Did I just do that?” Sometimes, the light-bulb moment is as astonishing to us as teachers that we look back at them with the same look of wonderment. We sit back and heave a sigh of relief that they have actually been listening and participating in shared reading, practicing sight words, and just being the little sponges that they are.
From my first year, I got it that “Just Right” books are vital to have in the classroom. They have to be at the tips of those little fingers on a weekly or even daily basis. Growing little readers isn’t an easy business. It takes time and patience, but it also takes some teacher savvy.
My favorite cringeworthy sentence I read on a blog was “I just watched them read and took notes and gave them books.” Just Right books aren’t passed out on a whim. We use DRA (Developmental Reading Assessments) to determine their level; I know other schools use other assessment tools to place their students in reading groups. It doesn’t matter which assessment piece you use, just as long as you have some way to keep data on their progress and their levels. It also is important that you have this information so that you can show parents and administration. Just “watching” them read is not a valid or reliable way to evaluate their reading levels.
There are many reasons that “Just Right” books are important. One of the reasons is confidence and another is fluency. That look that your student gives you when they read that first sentence for the first time is confidence. If a student feels like the book is too difficult, then they will give up. Frustration starts to build after each page is turned. Sentences like “I hate reading” might start flying out of their mouths. We want to build confident readers.
Fluency is the other key piece to building strong readers. I always tell them to use their “roller-coaster” voice and not their “robot” voice. As students start to become more confident in their reading, then they will start to sound like readers. Applaud them every time you hear them using their “roller-coaster” voice because they will start to use it more often!
In groups, I like for the students to evaluate the books that they read during reading groups. The general rule is if you don’t know more than five words, the book is too hard. If they fly right through it, then it’s probably too easy. We make the final decision as to what level they are reading at, but you always want to hear from them and find out how they feel about their book. You can download a rating card for students to use to let you know what they think of their book’s level of ease and their comfort with it—you can find it at the bottom of the page.
If you don’t have an assessment system in place at your school, I can’t stress enough how important that it is that you go to your administration and fight for it. There is a surplus of research out there that supports “Just Right” reading. If you already have an assessment tool that you use, find ways to group your students and make your reading instruction as intentional as possible!
Happy Reading!
Make sure to head over to Hameray to check out their Wishy-Washy contest that is happening!
