Before April vacation, students were reading and thinking about the book A Long Walk to Water. While reading, they watched for unfamiliar words in the text, while also listening for questions that can be used to deepen their thinking and understanding.
At the beginning of each class, we check in on Independent Reading. Students tell what books they are reading and what pages they are up to. They share their thoughts and reactions. This conversation steers the kids to be reflective about their reading habits and preferences. It also helps me be able to recommend new texts.
Before and after the vacation, we did the usual planning and reflecting. Students all made Vacation Reading Plans so that whatever they did while away from school, their reading habits would be maintained. The reflection part helped students learn about themselves and about how to set realistic goals for themselves.
Once ELA MCAS was behind us, we started working on nonfiction reading. Students will do more and more reading-to-learn as they go through their school careers, and I want them to be confident readers of nonfiction. We are working on reading with an open and curious mind, noticing when the text surprises or confuses us, noticing when the text confirms what we already know, and noticing when our thinking is changed or challenged. We also talked about how it's smart to periodically stop and summarize what you have read and learned so far. Most recently, we have been talking about all the things that can make nonfiction texts challenging to read and understand.
