Saturday Sayings!

Happy Saturday!  Welcome to the second installment of Saturday Sayings!  I am excited to join Tammy at Forever in First, Julie at Lighting a Fire in Third Grade, and Lori at Conversations in Literacy, as we share our favorite quotes and reflections! Tammy has allowed us to link with her during the month of April! Please visit all of our blogs and join the discussion!  We would love to hear from you!

My quote is taken from Reading Today, the April/May 2012 edition of the IRA publication.

Sally Grimes writes about school-based models for struggling readers.

"The Literacy Team should be led by a strong, knowledgeable principal, and pass the "ACID" test which addresses: Assessment, Curriculum, Infrastructure, and Development (of Professionals).  The members of the team plan grade level and data meetings that focus on intervention plans for struggling students that assure appropriate programs, adequate communication between those involved with the child, proper group composition, and time."

As the RTI coordinator for my district and a literacy coach, I agree with Sally!  Administrators, teachers, and volunteers can increase their knowledge of literacy/interventions and work together to meet the needs of struggling students!  Classroom teachers cannot do this alone.  They need the support of a knowledgeable team to help them meet the needs of struggling students.  

What do you think?  I would love to hear from you!

Sandi

Like Me On FB!

Napping House Video

Here is a great video to go with the book The Napping House by Audrey Wood.  This video has the words at the bottom of each picture so that it makes a great shared reading or listening center video!  My last post contained other links and a freebie that you might enjoy, too!

The Napping House and Freebie

The Napping House by Audrey and Don Wood is a wonderful book.  The repetitive phrases make it great for beginning/struggling readers.  The remarkable illustrations bring the story to life.  

Kizclub has story patterns that can be printed on cardstock and laminated.  Attach a magnet on the back so that students can use the pieces to retell the story.  

Audrey Wood's website has coloring pages.
Carol Hurst has great ideas for using the book.
Here is a 10 page idea booklet for using the book by Itty Bitty Bookworm.

I like using the book to teach synonyms.  The author uses them and it makes the story fun!  Here is an activity sheet for students to make their own synonyms.

Download Here

Saturday Sayings!

I am tickled pink to join Tammy at Forever in First, Julie at Lighting a Fire in Third Grade, and Lori at Conversations in Literacy, as we share our favorite quotes and reflections! Tammy has allowed us to link with her during the month of April!  Please visit all of our blogs and join the discussion!  We would love to hear from you!

My quote this Saturday is from Richard Allington:  

"If children are to read a lot throughout the school day, they will need a rich supply of books they can actually read. This seems a simple statement of fact. But there also exists a large and potent research base supporting supplying children with books of appropriate complexity.  Simply put, students need enormous quantities of successful reading to become independent, proficient readers."  (Allington, 2001).

We have put this quote into practice this year with great success!  Here's a few of the things we have learned:

• It takes A LOT of books in every classroom to makes this work!
• It takes constant conferring with every student to find books that interest them and are on their independent reading level.
• You have to teach students what real reading is-Engaged Reading!
• You have to monitor student engagement.  We focused on at least 30 minutes or more of sustained reading daily.  

The results are impressive!  The classrooms where teachers focused on engaged, independent reading saw increased scores throughout the year.  But most of all, they saw students fall in love with books!

I would love to hear how you have focused on independent reading!

Sandi