Inquiry #1 Fostering a Reading Culture in School

Inquiry Blog Post #1

“Fostering Reading Cultures in Schools”

In my Grade 2 classroom, I incite a reading culture with a Home Reading program where students are expected to read each night, fill in a reading log sheet, and bring completed sheets back for a sticker on their certificate. It is encouraged and understood that at the end of the school year there will be a celebration for those students who read the most and there are prizes to be won. I got this idea from the TL at our school who supplied me with the home reading sheets and certificate templates. It has been successful in the past and students feel proud as they see the amount of stickers increase as the year goes by. However, you always get those few kids that don’t fill in their log sheet. How can I get those kids to remember to do so or feel excited about reading? There was a school-wide home reading initiative at the school that was run by the TL for quite a few years, but she stopped doing that due to the amount of work involved with tracking students. Now it is up to the teachers to do their own home reading program if they wish. I have loved it and seen the success with my students!

Another way the reading culture is successful in our school is our wonderful TL has the library open every morning from 9:00-9:30 for any classes to come and do a book exchange. This is in addition to having the library open before and after school as well. I am lucky because my classroom is right next to the library so it is easy to send students to the library for a quick 10 minute book exchange every day. The students keep their school library books in library book bags that the school purchases and the purpose of the bags is to keep the books dry, safe, and cared for. Our TL is strict in the sense that if you do not have your library book bag then you are only allowed to take out one book, where if you have your book bag you can take up to five books out. This is because she doesn’t want the books to get damaged or lost. Because we have a large ELL population at our school, this daily library book exchange and home reading program is great to get English books in their hands to read at home.

In addition, there are other school-wide initiatives focused on reading that the Librarian organizes like DEAR (Drop Everything And Read), Camp Read, Special Inquiry and Research Projects, and Scholastic Book Fairs. I also have a Scholastic account where each month I send out flyers to encourage students to purchase new books (if they don’t have many at home or do not visit the public library very often). This account then supplements my own classroom library with books. It’s a win-win! Below are some pictures of my classroom library.

         Leveled Readers

                     





                                                                                          Labelled by Genre

I have lots of books in my own personal classroom library that are labeled based on genre. In addition, I also try to collect as many books on our themed unit from the school library and put those books into tubs on the carpet for students to read and look at when they have some free time. I will often start the day with a book circle, where students come into the classroom and after hanging up their coats and backpacks, they can sit down in a circle on the carpet next to a book that they can read quietly until we are ready to start our morning.

One thing I know I need to work on is my ability to run successful guided reading groups while the rest of the class is doing a literacy station independently. A book title I came across in my research on Successful Guided Reading Groups was this book titled, “Reading Essentials: The Specifics You Need to Teach Reading Well”. The link to the summary of the book can be found here. The blog site that posted about that book also mentioned some things that the students do while she is working with a small group. According to this teacher, “Students who are not meeting in groups with the teacher are either rereading the text (to increase fluency), finishing a skill from their group (this is what the teacher will often grade), listening to a book of choice on tape (increase fluency and increasing sight words), writing in their writers notebooks or READING.” To read the rest of her blog, follow the link below. Guided Reading tips

A few years ago, our school had a subscription to Raz Kids, where students were able to log in at school or home and read leveled books online with comprehension questions to answer at the end. The students were engaged with this program because they can also earn coins to purchase items in a game-like manner and work towards a goal. The program also allows the teacher to track student progress, see how many times students are logging on and reading, and what level they are achieving. In addition, I was able to access readers and resources for leveled books that I could print and use to create a classroom library of books that are leveled and perfect for guided reading groups or to send home to use for their home reading. This year, our school hasn’t purchased the program yet, but we have a meeting this Friday to discuss, and I hope the majority votes YES!! For more info about Raz Kids or Learning A to Z click the link below.
https://www.raz-kids.com/

Our school also has a very well organized book room where teachers can sign out guided reading sets, find leveled home reading books to send home with students, and lots of book and novel sets with accompanying questions created by the teachers on staff. Our Librarian also has a room with specific textbooks and resources she distributes to the staff when requested. For the primary classes, the DRA reading assessment kit is used school-wide to test students. There is a kit for every two classes so teachers can easily assess students in a timely manner without having to wait too long for the DRA kit.  Finally, our school has a one-to-one reader volunteer program where struggling students can read once or twice a week with a volunteer to build their confidence in reading and learn new strategies to support their literacy needs. All in all, our school has done a wonderful job promoting reading and literacy! But there is always room for improvement!

Some tools, strategies, and resources that can be implemented to encourage and support a school-wide reading program could be using technology more often to support reading. For example, using iPads for students to read into and record their voice while reading, more programs like Raz Kids that get students engaged but help their reading by supplying questions at the end to help their comprehension, or a school blog or website geared towards literacy and sharing resources. I know our TL has a blog for her library but I am not sure how many people read it. I find with blogs, unless you check them all the time, you don’t get notifications that something new has been posted. A program like digg.com may be a way to notify the parent community or teaching staff of new reading initiatives that are posted on the blog.

http://maplegrovelibrary.wordpress.com/

Some iPad apps that might be useful for reading literacy that I found on the Edutopia blog site titled “K-5 iPad Apps According to Bloom’s Taxonomy” are below:

Strip Designer Asks students to retell the sequence of events in a Revolutionary War battle, folktale, science experiment, or the states of matter in the context of a graphic novel. Strip Designer can import maps, images from iPhoto, or photographs taken with a mobile device directly into a comic strip template.

Confer
The most informative assessment occurs when teachers have an opportunity to conference individually with a student. These are the precious moments when a teacher can listen attentively to a child explain how to do a math problem, engage in discussions with them about their writing, or hear their predictions about a book's outcome

i-Prompt Pro
Disguise reading fluency in this fun teleprompter. Provide a reason for students to read with expression and fluency when using i-Prompt for TV reporting, presenting, or giving speeches. Students can write original scripts on i-Prompt or cut and paste in existing text.

ABC - Magnetic Alphabet
Here is an open-ended letter app where students can independently build words without prompting. You can ask children to "show me" what they can spell. When you sit back and watch students demonstrate their spelling, you can immediately recognize what letter/word knowledge they already have.

Toontastic
Toontastic is a MUST HAVE storytelling app for every Kindergarten through 5th grade classroom. A few features that make this app stand out from other storytelling apps are it's flexible graphic organizer, tools for drawing unique settings and characters, screen animation, audio recording, and a safe online environment for publishing.

Book Creator
Book Creator provides a quick and easy way for students to create eBooks and instantly share them on iBooks.

For the full article click here: iPad Apps

A different learning support Resource model may also be something for consideration at our school. Reading Recovery or other early literacy interventions might be more beneficial than a Resource model that pushes more support in the intermediate years. I believe early intervention will decrease the need for Resource support in those intermediate grades and therefore when students get into the intermediate grades, they will have more confidence with reading and won’t need as much support (because they had received the support they needed in their early school years). Watch the following video for more information on this topic:

 You can also watch the video from this link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAVh6U27qqA

I think our school and the primary teachers within, have done a wonderful job fostering a reading culture at our school. Each teacher has then added to their classroom in various ways to get books into students’ hands. Now, the focus can be books and technology tools to support literacy. I know I have a lot to learn still but I am eager to try some of the apps, guided reading suggestions, and literacy activities to continue to engage and foster a passion for reading!

Bibliography

EDCHAT. (2013, August 6). Teacher’s TV: Reading Recovery in Schools. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAVh6U27qqA

Edutopia. (2011, October 25). K-5 iPad Apps According to Bloom’s Taxonomy. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/ipad-apps-elementary-blooms-taxonomy-diane-darrow

Holland, Mandy. (2007, January 28). Guided Reading- Mandy’s Tips for Teachers. What are the other kids doing? Retrieved from
http://www.tips-for teachers.com/Guided%20Reading.htm

Scholastic Canada (2014, October 1). Tips for Getting your Guided Reading Groups Started Quickly. Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/genia-connell/tips-getting-your-guided-reading-groups-started-quickly/