Making Reading Fun!

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2004 : January : 4

Making Reading Fun!
By Denise

Hi Jeff, I also teach sixth grade social studies and this is my first year in this position. I'm finding myself in a similar situation, but have begun to really lean on my co-workers for help. I've connected with some other
teachers about content help. They have been able to suggest books/magazines, etc. to use other than the textbook. But as they've told me, it takes time to find the resources.
I am currently reading a book that is printed by Scholastic. It is entitled Teaching Reading in Social Studies, Math and Science (subjects might not be in the right order!). I have gotten so many useful ideas

from this book. Be warned it is over 300 pages, but Chapter 3 starts giving great tips on helping in reading. I plan to implement at least on of these next week!

I have also found that doing pre-reading with the kids helps a lot. First, it helps me find out what they already know. For instance, when I taught the Middle East most were very aware of current events, so we focused more on why things became the way they are today. We used the Junior Scholastic magazine and another resource called Calliope. In pre-reading we do a KWHL. K stands for what you already know, W what you want to know, H how will you get there and L what have you learned (used once the learning aspect is done).

Since I've started this book, I have gotten a lot of great tips for making reading alive and fun in my classroom. I highly recommend it! The sections are a quick read and give tons of examples!

Good luck and let me know if there is anything else I can help with!

Denise