Each chapter of our book, Trusting Readers, ends with a section titled: Give It a Go. This section invites you to explore the classroom practices that we highlight in that chapter.
October is a good time to pause and reflect on how literacy instruction is progressing. Here is a Give It a Go that you can use right now. Do it by yourself or with a colleague.
Take five or ten minutes at the beginning of a school day to ask yourself:
- How have I shared my reading life so that students see me as a real reader and a model for independent reading?
- What have I learned about the readers in my classroom so far?
- What have the readers learned about themselves?
- Do I see every student in terms of what they CAN do as readers, instead of worrying about what they CANNOT do?
- How have the students already grown?
- How have they grown in terms of reading skills & strategies?
- How have they grown as readers?
Reflecting on these questions does not require anything but your thoughtfulness and your ability to see your teaching in terms of what you HAVE done, not in terms of what you HAVE NOT done. (You can, of course, study your conferring notes,lesson plans, and assessment data as you do this.)
Now, list for yourself (or ask your colleague to help you) which of these aspects of literacy instruction you are doing well. Yes, give yourself a compliment. Or two. Or three. Be specific.
And now, name what you would like to do next. Are there a few students you’d like to get to know better? Do you want to invite students to reflect on how they’ve changed as readers? Is there one student who would benefit from getting a curated book stack from you? Do you want to share more about your reading life?
Trust yourself to contemplate and then act. Let us know how it goes!
Trusting Readers 