Reading Conferences

The school that I am at has a school wide focus on improving reading comprehension and so we are now doing reading conferences in the classroom using almost the exact same model Routman uses, except my MT has the students read aloud even though they are older. Routman explains that with intermediate students she does not have them read-aloud because most of the reading we do takes place in our heads. Which is true but doesn't reading aloud help students to develop fluency?

I certainly agree with Routman that reading conferences are much more enjoyable than other assessments- (the DRA’s we did in September were pretty dull) and they are really great for me as an intern for getting to know the students better.
What I found to be the most challenging part of the reading conferences was setting reading goals and also evaluating strengths/weaknesses. It is challenging for me to identify exactly what the students needs to work on, and setting goals that they agree with. I will definitely be using Routman’s list next week!

These are some questions I have about comprehension/vocabulary that I encountered during the conferences I completed: What strategies should students use when they cannot infer word meaning from the context? During a conference do I just give them the word? How long do I let them struggle? I hate telling students to “look it up” all the time but should I be doing that?

Reading Records

This section of the book is about the essential reading life. Pick a quote that strikes you as being important to your reading life as a teacher. Explain your choice and consider how it relates to your current teaching placement.

"When teachers begin to keep their own reading records, they stop worrying about book levels and the number of pages and number of minutes students read each day. That carries over to students, who also stop focusing on how many pages they've read" (pg. 35).

I love Routman's idea of keeping a reading record! I wish I had started one when I was in grade school. Imagine the sense of accomplishment I would have now! I can definitely see how a reading record would be a powerful tool for students, being able to look back and see all of the effort you put into reading without the pressure of sharing how many pages you have read each day. I know in my placement the students are assigned 30 minutes of reading each night and then the next day the teacher records their page number. Also, recording pages is done in front of the entire class, out loud, so the students who are not fast readers are made very obvious to everyone. This always seemed a bit strange to me. If I were a student what would keep me from making up what page I was on?

Why not have every student keep a reading log and just take a look at it once a week or so to make sure that students are adding to it and reading a variety of texts. I think it would be much more satisfying for the students and the teacher- you would get to know your students better by seeing what books they enjoy and you wouldn't have to take time to record pages daily. Plus, if you kept one with your students and even read during independent reading with them that could be much more motivating for your students than most of the other activities surrounding reading.