Chapter 4 – Read To Self
“Just adding more time and space for independent reading is not enough. I’m advocating a carefully designed, structured reading program that includes demonstrating, teaching, guiding, monitoring, evaluating, and goal setting along with voluntary reading of books students choose…When an independent reading component is added, test scores go up.”
- Regie Routman
Having students read to themselves is the first step in the Daily Five and is the foundation for creating independent readers and writers. When implementing this step, The Sisters advocate the use of the gradual release of responsibility model which involves the repeated describing, modeling and practicing of behaviours we want students to learn.
The explicit descriptions of how to implement the Read to Self step are fantastic – like a really detailed lesson plan. This makes implementation super easy! Here’s an overview of the process described in the chapter:
Introduction
The first concept taught is that there are three ways to read a book:
Read and talk about the pictures
Read the words
Retell a previously read book
Read To Self Day 1
Brainstorm and record why it is important to read to ourselves
Brainstorm and record appropriate Read To Self behaviours
Select student to model appropriate Read To Self behaviours
Select a student to model an inappropriate way to Read To Self then have the same student change their behaviour to the appropriate way to Read To Self. For this task, The Sisters recommend selecting a student who you expect to engage in off-task behaviour.
Practice Read to Self. Three minutes maximum – but cut it short if students are unable to focus on his or her book or stay in the one spot.
Checking Back In. Review the chart with the appropriate Read To Self behaviours then have students reflect on their practice session. With their hand near their heart, give a thumbs up if they thought they were successful or put their thumbs sideways if they thought they could improve in an area.
Repeat practice session then check back in once more.
Review the lesson to summarise the key points.
Read To Self Day 2 And Beyond
The lessons that follow are very similar to the first with the biggest change being an additional minute of practice time. By modeling and remodeling the desired behaviours, these behaviours become common knowledge and habits for all students.
As you can see, it’s very easy to implement the Read to Self step in our classrooms! I look forward to hearing how it is going in your classroom. I was perusing the awesome The Daily Café website and the following video answers two questions which I considered while reading this chapter:
Sisters on the Spot: Two Important Questions
1) How do I get my first graders, who aren't really reading yet, to do all I'm asking of them during Daily 5 without relying on centres?
2) If I'm devoting so much time to literacy, how do I manage to fit content into our schedule?
Oh and we all know how much I enjoy decorating my classroom! Check out the following video for a great idea on storage and display of student’s book choices:
Design – Personalising Book Boxes
Finally, The Sister’s recommend the goal for primary students (I assume this would be Grades 3 to 6?) to be able to Read to Self for 30-45 minutes. Do you think this is realistic? What would be an appropriate goal for other Grades?
Looking forward to reading your responses!
Jenn
3 comments:
The use of modelling to reinforce good reading behaviours leads to students consistently practising good behaviour. The way students are shown how to read to self becomes a firm habit. They know what the purpose is, they know what to do with a book, which would lead to the students having such self confidence about what they are doing. I am going to have to try this!
I tried the strategy of read to self with my class by having them read the pictures instead of reading the story and this worked really well. When they read to a partner i found that i had a couple that really struggled listening to their partner read and watched others rather than listening to the story.
I love the explicit teaching that takes place before launching 'Read to Self'. Explaining and modelling appropriate and inappropriate behaviours before you implement the 'Read to Self' step is such a fantastic idea. Jenn, I did a double take when I read what the sisters expected for primary students (30-45 mins). However on second thought, my son (year 2) and daughter (year 4) can stay engaged for over an hour when they are reading, so maybe it's not such a big ask?
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