It's almost the end of the school year. Where are my readers? The 13 readers who started the year at level A are now at levels ranging from K to M. Not too bad! We have spent the last two weeks on higher level comprehension strategies. We started with fables and went on to Leo Leoni stories.(It's the 100th anniversary of his birthday.) The children worked on finding the lessons in these stories. That is a strategy that is assessed in 2nd and 3rd grade.
This week we are going to review finding the important information in nonfiction texts.
And then we will do some story mapping.
Good by to first grade and hello to third grade for next school year.

Last week I started my last round of running records for this school year. The top readers were first to be tested. Each of them read a level M fiction and nonfiction selection. All six did very well with only one reading error among all of them and no comprehension errors. I don't test past this level because most of the texts are not appropriate for first graders. I will test the middle level readers this week and save the lower level readers for the last week of school.
This is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leo Leonni. We will be doing some whole group study of his fables this week.
Next year I will be teaching third graders. My last 7 years in first grade have given me a broader perspective on how and what I will teach in reading and writing this go round in third grade.

So how am I doing with conferencing individuals more than once a week??? Not to well. I need about 20 minutes more each morning. There needs to be a better balance between guided reading groups and self-selected reading. Can 1st graders really choose their own reading and show growth? I will find that out during the next 6 weeks. More of my time will be spent with individuals than groups. I think it might work.

What a day. Some how, I meant with every group this morning. The class was very quiet...probably due to a long weekend or late night. I am giving written response assignments to each group. That makes them reread their text and keeps them focused on the reading task.

After school, we started our writing circle multi-age group. There are 24 kids in the group from K5 to 5th grade. Today, we started an idea page, wrote, met each other, and shared. Next week we will create our writing map.

I would like all my readers to do a better job choosing their own reading material. Some of them are but too many are still reluctant readers. We are going to try something new with my most reluctant ones: after they finish reading a book in group, they will reread it on their own and then illustrate 3 three parts of the book and add text to their illustrations. These readers love to draw. I'm hoping the opportunity to draw about their reading will encourage them to read more and to choose more appropriate books for their independent reading.
Another thing we have done this week and will continue doing is using the series of books, You Read to Me, I'll Read to you. Besides the fairy tales, there are poems about reading. The kids love getting a chance to perform this short readers' theater for the class. It is helping with comprehension and fluency.

Today is National Read Aloud Day. I forgot to tell my kids about that. So tomorrow I will let them know that we will be celebrating a day late. At 9:00 I will let them know that they will have one minute to read aloud to the class (using our new MIC system) and that they had time to choose a piece and practice. I'll let you know how it goes. I will have to choose a piece to read, too.

This has been a long week and it's only Wednesday. The kids seem to be suffering from some sort of behavior regression. As soon as I start working with a group, they stop doing their independent work. For the remainder of the week, I will be working with whole group or one-on-one at the kids' tables. Sometimes we have to go back to the beginning. More later.

This was a tough week. We spent our social studies time reconnecting as a community. This is something we should do more often. Tribes training has been very helpful. We are continuing to do more one on one instruction in reading. It works like conferencing in writing. The results are positive up to now. My concern is that we don't have enough group discussion. I'm trying to fix that by spending more time discussing our read alouds. We finished our latest chapter book read aloud. It was amazing when a group of girls laughed as a read the section about Charlotte's last day. Hmmm...what does that mean???

One of my big concerns is the fact that the first graders are not in love with reading but are in love with their electronic games. Yes, there is a place for technology but where is the deep thinking, the sharing of cultures, the love a good story or the love of learning new information? So tomorrow I am going to just sit and read for the first ten minutes. I am going to love what I am reading. Hopefully, the children will notice. Maybe I need to do more modeling of the love of reading. More later.

Today I met one on one with my lowest readers and then pulled them together for a group read and discussion. They did much better in group after the one on one sessions. And it saved time in the long run. We will continue doing this. During math the kids wrote what a triangle was. Then they read their discriptions and a drew what they said. Finally we had a good description!

Starting this week, I will work more one on one with my readers. I will also think about starting book clubs with mixed ability groups.

After reviewing my pensieve I discovered that the students make significantly more progress when I meet with them one on one during reading. I will now meet with my struggling readers one on one before having them join together for discussions. My advanced readers seem to do better when they have an open discussion format. Always revamping!

I finished my running records for January. Most students are reading better than they think they are. My lowest readers are now independent on level H. Next week, we will focus on how much fun reading is. We will read a bigger variety of books together. Also, we will look at books that were made into movies. Somehow, the students have to be convinced that reading is more fun than playing with a DS or a Wii. On our visit to the library we will search for books on unusual topics.

Now that we are half way through the school year, it's time to reflect on what has worked and how to make the classroom work better. The kids have been asking if they can write as soon as they come in the morning. And maybe that's a good idea. Here is a summary of what we want to do. During the morning, the kids have to make their own schedule to accomplish: word work, reading, writing, snack time. I will try to do 3 mini lessons during the morning. I will meet with individuals and groups organized around needs and what happen the day before. I will continue to use "Mon Pensieve" notebook to keep track of what I am doing. I'll start this on Tuesday, introducing changes a little at a time. More later!

I started doing my midyear running records today. It's always interesting to see how close my "guessed" level is to the formal running record. So far, both agree. My not-so-advanced readers have been working on putting sounds together faster and using context to determine whether or not new words make sense. It is hard to meet with eight different groups so I have been using peer coaches to help with rereading and fluency. It helps both the coach and the reader.

I rearranged reading groups again. I have to spend more time with my struggling readers. To do that, I am meeting with them for about 20 minutes first thing in the morning and then again right before lunch. I listen to each of them read an old story before they go home. I will keep track of the difference this makes.