New Strategies

     This week featured amazing presentations of several new strategies that I hope to implement in my classroom. Each of the strategies that I saw modeled and I experienced could be adapted for use in the second-grade classroom. They all fostered engagement by actively involving students in learning. In the discussion web, we had to speak and listen to one another in groups as we developed our decisions and arguments. In the lesson featuring history frames, we were reading, writing, and reporting on our findings. As we journaled during art, we had to read, think, and write quickly so that we provided thoughtful responses to our partners. Further, all of the strategies developed literacy skills and content-area knowledge. This is particularly significant as we strive for that high minimum standard of 50% of the school day spent in reading and writing.

     
     One lesson built on the vocabulary self-collection strategy from Vacca et al. (2017), but it expanded that strategy to include collaborative reading and discussion. In groups, we read short passages from primary sources in Texas history, identified and defined unknown vocabulary words, and then discussed the meaning of the text. This strategy was particularly appealing to me because it supports student-directed learning, provides choice, and builds backgrounds knowledge while scaffolding reading comprehension.

     In second grade English language arts, vocabulary is a weekly instructional component, and the words should be contextualized in reading materials. This strategy offers a positive alternative and variation to always pre-selecting the vocabulary words for students. It empowers students by giving them ownership of the learning process. In second grade, students could preview the text in groups, just as we did, identifying words that they do not know. They too could use technology to identify words for discussion and elaboration. Together, we could build and record the list of six to ten words for the week, adding the words and definitions to our word wall and our vocabulary journals. I would also adapt the strategy for younger students by limiting the discussion about the meaning of the text. As we read together, we would review the words again and build our strategic understanding of the text. We would also revisit vocabulary words several times throughout the week to provide additional and varied contexts.

     Every strategy presentation was interesting, insightful and motivational for me. My classmates offered creative applications of the strategies, and I plan to incorporate many techniques that I observed in these lessons. The lessons also reminded me that even in the elementary classroom, it is important to create and maintain momentum. These strategies offer the means to active learning, student engagement, collaboration, and a positive classroom climate.

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J.L. and Mraz, M. (2017). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum (12th ed). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.

My Classroom Library

     Few things are as exciting as assembling a classroom library in an English language arts classroom! A lover of books myself, I want to share the amazing experience of reading quality texts with my students. As reading volume correlates positively with vocabulary development and reading and writing achievement, the goal for me as an elementary ELA teacher is to offer a large classroom library with diverse texts and a healthy range of reading levels. We can no longer be assured that students take weekly visits to the public library or enjoy literacy-rich environments at home. Twenty minutes of independent reading per day. Fifty percent of the school day involved in reading and writing. These imperatives demand classroom libraries that are robust, accessible, and engaging.

     As I sift through stacks of books for my classroom library, I remember that my library should be organized and accessible for students. Making high-quality texts available to students is one of the primary considerations in building my library. This is accomplished through offering texts on grade level, above grade level, and below grade level. Libraries do not necessarily have to be arranged by reading level, but students should be taught how to find books that they can actually read. Further, I want my students to understand they are both welcome and encouraged to explore our books. The classroom library is always a shared space.

     In ELA, I am also not limited by content; I should offer books across a wide range of content areas, topics, genres, and formats. A good library will then have excellent picture books with powerful imagery and writing and superb illustrations. There will be chapter books, series books, graphic novels, novels in verse, and poetry anthologies. All seven genres will also be included especially non-fiction. Young students are often intrigued by topics such as weather, horses, space, etc. so texts must be available to nurture these preferences. Books will incorporate concepts and topics relevant to my students as well as diverse, multicultural characters and themes. But the unifying characteristic across all my books will be quality. The books that I make available in my classroom must represent the best authors, illustrators, and content from past and current publications.

     Although I am clearly starting with a collection of tried and true favorites, my students’ interests will direct new additions. I want to capitalize on what my students want to learn by offering them related texts. As an elementary ELA teacher, I also hope to connect every student with a transitional or chapter books series, recognizing the motivational power of series on student reading. The classroom library then is more than books in bins with crafty labels in bright colors. It is a dynamic space that grows and evolves with students’ needs and interests. It invites students to preview, experience, and read texts, and it empowers students with competence and choice in their reading. And most importantly, a good classroom library and daily independent reading make school-based reading positive and engaging.

My Reading Habits

     I would like to say that I have always been an avid reader, but in truth, my reading habits and preferences have fluctuated with the changes in my vocation, family, and personal interests. More accurately, at times, the demands of my life have eclipsed my commitment to reading.

     When I was young, I loved to read, nurtured by picture book read-alouds with my mother and silent reading hour with my family. The Emily of New Moon and Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery along with Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren engaged me as a preteen, but I also loved to read fairy tales and folklore. I was enraptured by the naturalism and beauty described by Montgomery and the magic of fairy tales appealed to my questions about human virtue and behavior. I read many other treasures throughout middle school that connected with my love of fantasy and my appreciation of good humor.

     The greatest hindrance to my reading in secondary school was finding great books. I remember reading all the books that my older sister was reading for her junior English class one year. I also remember reading through a two-volume collection of Sherlock Holmes novels that my father received for Christmas during my freshman or sophomore year. I was looking for books, and I learned to love literature because that was more available and accessible. Regrettably, as my high school courses became more taxing, I read less and less beyond my required school texts. A course in humanities during my senior year ignited my reading again, but my interests had become focused on Christianity. My reading followed suit. I read excellent books and treatises on the nature of God, Christology, and spiritual devotion throughout college. I would often find an author such as Richard Foster that I enjoyed, and I would read whatever books that I could find by him or her. This trend in my reading continued until I went to seminary, and once again I found myself primarily reading texts for my coursework.

     Of course, then I got married and had three children, and reading seemed to stop altogether. Perhaps the only book that I read for myself during those years of sleep deprivation, play dates, and recurrent ear infections was Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child – three times.

     Fortunately, as we discarded large pieces of molded plastic and sold off the cribs, I began reading again – this time with more diverse interests. I read powerful works of great literature like Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I read inspiring biographies like Toward the Golden Shore about Adoniram Judson. I tried to understand learning through books like How Children Succeed by Paul Tough and Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian. And sometimes I took on the problems of the world with books like Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind.

     I quickly realized that there were more books that I wanted to read than I had time to read. And so a few years ago, I began the habit of creating ambitious book lists for myself, usually at the beginning of the year. Although I do not always complete them, they make my reading more purposeful and fulfilling. I make sure that my diverse interests are well-represented on my lists: Christian faith, theology, education, literacy, and parenting because learning about these things is really what motivates me to read. I also include great literature and poetry because I have increasingly recognized the need for beauty, hope, and excellence in my life. I am still exploring new authors and new texts that captivate me, and I have now discovered children’s literature.

     Thanks to my children’s literature course, I have recently realized how much I enjoy children’s books. During these years of reading about education, faith, and parenting, I had also been reading children’s books – to my own children. I read books aloud, I used them to teach, and I delighted in them.  Then I enjoyed four months of discovering new children’s authors, and children’s literature has infiltrated my reading list. And I’m a little worried that children’s books might soon overwhelm the others!

     Perhaps that is the joy of reading. I can find great books of great quality for whatever I am motivated to read. For me, my interests have evolved over the last several years, and they may certainly change again. Today my list tips toward children’s literature, but next year, it may be focused on literacy and reading disability. I will keep carrying an extra book in my bag – just in case. And I suspect that I will continue staying up too late to read because the best books really are irresistible.