Betsy Brown
The Read to Someone choice is a popular one in my third grade classroom. This is not a surprise! Students love the chance to meet up with a buddy and spend some time reading together. I know as an adult reader, when I've finished a good book, the first thing I want to do is talk to someone about it.
Starting at the very beginning of the year, we go over the procedures of Read to Someone time. Students are aware that they not only need to read, but also have some conversation about the book.
It is music to my ears when I hear, "I just heard you read..." coming from all over the classroom. But it seems that after a few weeks, routine sets in and soon enough, students are not using the language as frequently. It is important to keep this conversation alive. Below are some strategies to help students:
Checkmarks: Students use checkmarks as a reminder to Check for Understanding and have a conversation after one partner reads. One of my colleagues wanted to create checkmarks for her students but didn't have the resources to make wooden checkmarks. She made her way to the craft store and found the craft foam sheets. She was able to create more than 30 checkmarks for under $8.00. These checkmarks are flexible and have held up quite well with the kids.
- Increase the Level of Talk: After using the checkmarks for several weeks, the students got used to them. It was important to me to raise the level of talk, but I wondered, "How do you help my students do this without sitting with each partnership?" After thinking about how I help students become a part of my Interactive Read Aloud discussion, I realized that have those sentence starters accessible would help students during Read to Someone. The foam checkmarks have space on the back where these sentence starters where you can use Velcro to attach laminated sentence starters.
- Continue to Model Read to Someone: Invite another teacher, librarian, or parent to come into the classroom. You can use that person to review Read to Someone procedures, but also to model how to have deeper conversation using the checkmark sentence starters.
- Discussion of What Makes a Good Partner: Students may not realize what makes a good partnership. We have discussions on a regular basis about the importance of finding someone who is a good partner.
- Video Taping: Students love the chance to be "the star." I've found that videotaping has been a huge motivator to keep students engaged and accountable during Read to Someone. We have a videotaping station in our classroom. Students record their reading and conversation. You can then review the tapes and use them for assessment, share time, or even part of your mini-lesson to review Read to Someone procedures and expectations.
- Be Proactive: I found that one of the most important things to remember to keep students engaged during Read to Someone time is to be proactive about issues that may come up. As soon as students start struggling with using this time, I plan to review the procedures and expectations. I believe that Read to Someone time will always be a popular choice in my third-grade classroom. Using these strategies helps students stay on task and learn from each other. Read to Someone allows my classroom to be a community of readers who learn from each other.
Betsy Brown teaches third grade in Avon, NY. She has eight years of experience working with children in grades 2 - 5. Betsy has been using The Daily 5 to guide the readers in her classroom for the last few years. This year, she started using CAFE to help students set goals for reading. She is very excited about the progress her students have made already!