Introduction
Students are not provided with the opportunity during their academic day to engage in independent reading. The pressing accountability to pass standardized tests is a key reason for the lack of time provided to "drop everything and read" within the school day. Students carry various books around throughout their day. A math book, an English book, a literature book, a spelling book, a science book, and a social studies book weigh them down. Students read for a grade in a class or to earn Accelerated Reader Points. Motivating students to read independently for the intrinsic reward becomes a complicated task. The once positive attitude towards reading is replaced with a negative connotation that reading is work. Therefore, the idea of carrying around another book to read for entertainment declines.
Producing a mind set in a young child that reading can be a life-long enjoyment does not happen instantaneously. Sculpting a successful reader is analogous to building a puzzle. Each puzzle piece represents different elements of a story. Plot, theme, characters, setting, climax, and resolution represent the different types of puzzle pieces. After opening the box and dumping the pieces on to a table there is an unwritten protocol that all of the edges are put aside and the border is completed. The borders of the puzzle are the components of pre-reading skills. The four components are decoding, phonics, phonemic awareness, and fluency. The same is true for independent reading. There are things that need to be in place to successfully connect reluctant readers or have a positive introduction of reading to a new reader. First, just like picking out the puzzle of interest to build, students are in need of a well-stocked classroom library. With the diversity within each class, libraries need to vary in reading levels, styles, genres, authors, and topics. Putting the puzzle together does not happen by accident. There is a strategy that is involved. Group pieces together that are similar in color or image. Next, students need strategies. If a student is unable to comprehend what he or she reads, then what is the purpose of continuing to turn the pages? Strategies may include, but are not limited to, summarizing, talking to the text, and think-alouds. Finally, nothing is more frustrating to get to end of the thousand piece puzzle and only nine hundred ninety-nine pieces are on the table. Opportunity and practice are the equivalents of that missing piece and if it is not provided, then the puzzle will never be complete.
Literacy, at any grade level, is a concern that crosses all curricula. Merriam-Webster defines literacy as the ability to read and write. All educators have an obligation to their students to shape them into productive members of society. It is my opinion that being literate, being able to read and to write, would qualify as one criterion for being a productive member of society. So I ask this question, "Isn't it obvious that literacy is important?" In order to foster literacy, I feel that it is important to get kids reading at an early age.? By the time a student is in middle school, the selections of readings are chosen from a textbook. Time is not set-aside during the school day for students to read independently. The question next is, "How do I get students to read independently?"
This unit will start out by having students learn about themselves, as readers. I will introduce the first book to them in The Bluford Series, Anne E. Schraff's Lost and Found. I will read the book to them outloud. The goal of reading to the students is to captivate them as listeners. The book will be broken up into small sections. An average of two chapters a day will be read. Progressing through the book, structured teacher led focus switches to a student led discussion of what has happening in the story. Various strategies and activities will be done before, during and after reading to demonstrate comprehension/understanding. At the conclusion of reading and discussing the first book, other books in the series are available in the class for students to read. If the students are not intrigued by this particular series, there are other age appropriate books listed in the Appendix.
Comments: