{"id":637,"date":"2011-10-24T00:43:11","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T07:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betherebedtimestories.wordpress.com\/?p=637"},"modified":"2011-10-24T00:43:11","modified_gmt":"2011-10-24T07:43:11","slug":"the-reading-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/read.betherebedtimestories.com\/?p=637","title":{"rendered":"The Reading Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I have come across an interesting by product of\u00a0reading instruction in our schools and it has given me some new perspectives. \u00a0This year I have given a reading assessment to about 50\u00a0middle school students over the past couple months. \u00a0This involves students\u00a0reading aloud a passage and then I ask about ten comprehension questions about\u00a0the text. \u00a0All the while I am making note of reading behaviors and how\u00a0successful they are with the text. \u00a0I\u00a0noticed something striking. \u00a0The vast majority did not look back to the text at\u00a0all, in spite of the fact I told them before they started to read that the text\u00a0would remain in front of them and they could use it all they wanted to. \u00a0Sometimes\u00a0they were successful not looking back. \u00a0Often times they were not. After the\u00a0assessment was over I would sometimes re-ask a question they missed and direct\u00a0them to look back to the text to help them and usually they were able to then\u00a0give an acceptable response to the question.<\/p>\n

This lack of text use tells me they don\u2019t see the text as a\u00a0place to go back and dig or even meander. \u00a0In and out. \u00a0Done. \u00a0I can almost see it\u00a0in their eyes, \u201cWhy on earth would one venture back into that maze of words?\u201d \u00a0These are just guesses on my part and the middle school mind is somewhat of a\u00a0mystery to us all, but I am certain that we could do a better job teaching\u00a0reading in our school. \u00a0As an educator, standardized testing lingers in the\u00a0recesses of my mind ALWAYS. \u00a0However, that shouldn\u2019t get in my way of teaching\u00a0students that reading\u00a0is not a race. \u00a0Much like life, it is\u00a0all about the journey!<\/p>\n

One of my absolute favorite authors on this topic is Kelly\u00a0Gallagher. \u00a0I am constantly dropping his name and sharing his resources in my\u00a0place of work. \u00a0One inspiring book he wrote a few years back is called Reading\u00a0Deeply, which kind of says it all. Chris Tovani is another educator who has\u00a0written a number of books on literacy instruction and uses many real life\u00a0examples throughout her work. \u00a0These authors are easy to read, practical and immensely\u00a0logical on this topic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

"Fur and Feathers" - Sylvan Dell Publishing on BeThereBedtimeStories.com<\/p><\/div>\n

So what\u2019s a PARENT\u00a0<\/em>to do about this reading race? \u00a0I think that if we make reading a regular,\u00a0relaxing, and enjoyable event kids won\u2019t see reading so much as a race to get\u00a0through it but a journey to remember. I read to my girls most nights. \u00a0I myself am\u00a0going to make a point to not just use the single speed and direction model of\u00a0reading (steady and forward), but to stop from time to time to ponder something\u00a0out loud and even go back to check out the text we have already read to support\u00a0my ponderings. \u00a0While I usually try to make the reading fun, I don\u2019t think I\u00a0have lingered on the words enough. \u00a0So what if we don\u2019t get through even one\u00a0chapter. \u00a0I think kids like to talk about what is going on in the story as much\u00a0as reading about it. \u00a0I am going to work harder on making each journey one that\u00a0they will not soon forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently I have come across an interesting by product of\u00a0reading instruction in our schools and it has given me some new perspectives. \u00a0This year I have given a reading assessment to about 50\u00a0middle school students over the past couple months. \u00a0This involves students\u00a0reading aloud a passage and then I ask about ten comprehension questions about\u00a0the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,67],"tags":[152,89,153,63,138,151,92],"class_list":["post-637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-tips-for-reading","tag-chris-tovani","tag-education","tag-kelly-gallagher","tag-reading","tag-reading-instruction","tag-student","tag-teacher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/read.betherebedtimestories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/read.betherebedtimestories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/read.betherebedtimestories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/read.betherebedtimestories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/read.betherebedtimestories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/read.betherebedtimestories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/read.betherebedtimestories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/read.betherebedtimestories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/read.betherebedtimestories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}