This week is my first week of inservice and I am hanging on by a thread, but I wanted to share an amazing professional development that I attended in July!
The librarian at my school is a GEM. I love her and everything she does. She blogs over at Mrs O’s Library. Go check her out!
She was kind enough to use her Scholastic dollars to pay for me to attend the Reading Summit in Austin, TX!
I started my day going to the book fair of course!
I scored these books! My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE the “Who Was” series!
Each Kindness is a fantastic heartfelt book. I adored it so much I wrote a blog post with an extension activity you can read about {HERE}
I also scored some AMAZING Scholastic swag!
I can’t wait to share these goodies with my kids.
I read Reading in the Wild last summer and did a {book study} over it.
I just finished The Book Whisperer two days ago.
My teacher heart is full 🙂
I was able to hear some amazing educators speak.
Alan Boyko, President of Scholastic
THE Donalyn Miller (#Fangirl)
& Kate Messer (author)
I even took a shameless selfie with Donalyn Miller!
How cheesy do I look? 😉
That was a real quick overview of my trip. Reason being, I want to share with you some key points that I learned at the conference and how I plan on taking these ideas into my classroom.
My favorite session was about troubleshooting independent reading challenges through conferring.
If we want our students to love reading, then we must let them read what they love.
However, if everyone is reading different books, how can teachers hold students accountable and access what children know?
Conferring is the answer.
We MUST sent aside time for kids to read in class. How can we assume kids are reading 20 minutes at home if we cannot give them 20 minutes at school?
In Miller’s Reading in the Wild, she taught her kids about “reading emergencies”. These are down times that students have even a spare moment. If they had a book on hand, this time would not be wasted but rather spent in another world and increasing comprehension.
By conferencing with students, we are able to assess their individual needs on a deeper level.
I can easily see what they do or do not understand about a skill by my questioning.
With me, it’s time management. How do I fit it in?
My school starts at 8:05 and kids can enter the room at 7:30. If I start conferring when they walk in the door, I can get a few in that day.
Do I have to confer with every student every day? NO
At least once a week is best, and some more than others.
READING. Plain and simple. READING.
This is the best time for the kids to receive their 20 minutes reading goal while you are being productive.
Miller has a conference form that she recommends.
I think the form is fantastic, but realistically, I don’t have time to constantly copy the forms and I am sorry but true story—–I’m lazy & I hate to write.
There, I said it.
I HATE writing. It hurts my hand and a computer is so much faster.
So I decided to make the conferences digital.
Let me begin by saying that I decided to make Google DOCs and not Forms. The Docs took less time to create & I did’t want to read the responses in a form, because it’s all horizontal.
Do what works for you 🙂
1) I created a folder on Google Drive for each of my kids
2) I numbered folders within the folder for each kid
This is because I may want to add more work into these folders that are not just reading conferences.
If you are comfortable with evernote, I wold recommend that as well.
I like Google Drive for something like this.
3) I created a google doc
(File, Doc)
4) I created a table like the one below. Once you make the table, you can copy the doc in to all the other kid’s folders. I will create a new page for every conference I have with that child and just copy/paste the table before I begin conferring.
This will be a powerful conference tool with parents as well!
It is important to mention that before you begin conferences for that week, you focus on a specific skill during the conference. Begin each week by explaining to the kids, “This week when we’re conferring, we’re going to be talking about {skill}”.
What a powerful formative assessment!
If you want to just copy the form that I made, you can snag it FREE by clicking
{HERE}
Give the kids a quick short story if they’re reading poetry or a nonfiction book!
You can still confer with them about their reading, but switch to a short story to assess the skill!
Miller suggests that if the student is on the 1st chapter of a book, reschedule for another time.
Miller calls them, ‘Shrek Kids’. These are the kids that break the mold and just get “it” right away.
Use these kids to model a conference in front of the whole class. Model and discuss expectations.
What did Ms. Calderon do to prepare for this conference? What did the students do?
Remember, after every conference a student is to leave with a goal for the following conference.
I want kids to keep track of books they want to read throughout the year. Since I am 1:1 iPad I am going to have my kids utilize the “To Read” app
I also created this product that is packed with resources for a reading folder AND everything you need to get your kids writing reading response letters!
Click {HERE} to see more!
I hope this was a PeppyZesty idea for you!
I’ll be back later to chat about book talks!
I’d love for you to follow my Reading Resources Pinterest Board!
Kelly M
August 24, 2015 at 12:11 amWhat a fantastic post! It sounds like it was a wonderful summit! It sounds like a dream really. Surrounded by books & people who love them #swoon. I have been meaning to read The Book Whisperer and I've just gotta get that in now. Thanks for sharing amazing & helpful ideas as usual! 🙂