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?
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Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteYou ask a great question about whether or not to help students when they can’t infer word meaning from the context of a passage of the book they are reading. I would help them to problem solve how to infer word meaning because I think this is a time when the teacher is their to help and I want to give them all the help they can get when I am working one on one with them. So, I would tell them the meaning and I would then find clues within the text that might help them to understand word meaning in the future.
I can completely understand not wanting students to constantly be going to the dictionary to look up the meaning to words. Another idea I have is to read with a buddy and maybe even have them reading the same book so that they can discuss word meaning together. This will also give the students a chance to discuss certain aspects of the book, based on questions from the teacher, to help them develop retelling and comprehension as well.
I think developing reading goals for the students is also a tough task for teachers because it is so specific for each student and it takes a lot of time with that student to understand what it is that they need.
Great post Ashley!!
Kim
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI forgot the link I found about what teachers can do to help with word meaning.
http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/vocabulary#do_kids