reading instruction

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reading instruction
By kathleen

I may not necessarily be the best advisor on this subject, because this is my first year as a primary classroom teacher. However, last year I subbed long term in a fourth grade classroom that used an amazingly well organized
reading program: I acted only as a facilitator for it, because the kids were used to the program when I started subbing. Basically, the students were divided into groups of three or four based on reading level, and given trade books (a different set of books per group). Each day a certain member was given the job as group president, one as group secretary (recording anything of interest

in the material), group word finder, etc. The jobs changed per assignment. The groups read, sometimes aloud to find information, sometimes silently, and wrote/read from active journals they kept on the books. The journals were unique because the students knew they could illustrate ideas with their writing. Sometimes the assignments were based on reading comprehension, sometimes creative writing, and oftentimes vocabulary. The discussions that emerged from the groups were usually insightful, and I was able to easily observe who was participating and in what ways. All in all, I was AMAZED by the ammound of progress and interest I saw in the students!