Sei's Chapter 4 Reflection
Chapter 4 Reflection
Reading Conferences: Creating a Context for Assessment
“Teaching must be based on more than a generic, one-size-fits-all program” and that’s one of the basic ideas of holding reading conferences. According to Taberski, “they provide information and inspiration for [our] work and allow [us] to keep [our] finger on the pulse of each child’s reading.” Although reading conferences may take time and practice to perfect, it’s a technique that can turn the academic careers of children around and, therefore, well worth the time and effort.
In chapter 4, Taberski addresses the protocol that she follows for her reading conferences. From how scheduling conferences within the first month differs from that of the rest of the year to teacher-initiated and child-initiated conferences, Taberski addresses all the need-to-knows of reading conferences.
I like what Taberski stated about the distribution of her teaching time: “I don’t give each child in my class equal time, but I try to give each of them what they need.” I couldn’t help but to nod when I read this sentence. Although it may appear unfair to spend more time with one child than with the next, it makes perfectly good sense. Afterall, the fluent readers wouldn’t need as much help and interaction as the emergent and early readers.
I could relate to Taberski 100% when she stated that she conducts running records to make sure that the student is reading a “just right” book and more importantly, for the child to see that he/she is or is not reading a “just right” book. I experienced this yesterday at Mililani Waena. Normally, my mentor teacher doesn’t allow our students to borrow chapter books, but on this day, the librarian told the children that they could borrow chapter books. (my mentor teacher wasn’t present during this period)The students were so excited that they seemed to move up from reading easy picture books to chapter books that without even thinking of their own reading abilities, they all grabbed the nearest chapter book. I didn’t want the children to borrow books that they weren’t able to read and at the same time, I thought that it was wrong for the teacher to restrain the children from reading chapter books. My natural reaction was to tell the children that if they want to borrow chapter books, they have to bring it up to me and read with me for a little while first. I was happy to see that a couple children brought up “just right” books and they were able to read the chapter books. Although some of the other children were disappointed that they couldn’t borrow chapter books, I reassured them that they’d be able to in time with practice, just as Taberski had stated in one of our previous readings.
Taberski reiterates the importance of children reading a vast variety of genres in this chapter. Our duty as educators is to make sure that children are given the challenge of reading information text along with the less challenging fictional stories. Although poetry and non-fictional text may be harder to read, children can learn to enjoy reading them, provided they are given the right guidance in choosing appropriate books. Taberski also states that it’s helpful to keep children reading a range of material within a genre because “there’s so much literature out there-so many authors with diverse styles, writing about so many interesting characters and time periods.”
Reading Conferences: Creating a Context for Assessment
“Teaching must be based on more than a generic, one-size-fits-all program” and that’s one of the basic ideas of holding reading conferences. According to Taberski, “they provide information and inspiration for [our] work and allow [us] to keep [our] finger on the pulse of each child’s reading.” Although reading conferences may take time and practice to perfect, it’s a technique that can turn the academic careers of children around and, therefore, well worth the time and effort.
In chapter 4, Taberski addresses the protocol that she follows for her reading conferences. From how scheduling conferences within the first month differs from that of the rest of the year to teacher-initiated and child-initiated conferences, Taberski addresses all the need-to-knows of reading conferences.
I like what Taberski stated about the distribution of her teaching time: “I don’t give each child in my class equal time, but I try to give each of them what they need.” I couldn’t help but to nod when I read this sentence. Although it may appear unfair to spend more time with one child than with the next, it makes perfectly good sense. Afterall, the fluent readers wouldn’t need as much help and interaction as the emergent and early readers.
I could relate to Taberski 100% when she stated that she conducts running records to make sure that the student is reading a “just right” book and more importantly, for the child to see that he/she is or is not reading a “just right” book. I experienced this yesterday at Mililani Waena. Normally, my mentor teacher doesn’t allow our students to borrow chapter books, but on this day, the librarian told the children that they could borrow chapter books. (my mentor teacher wasn’t present during this period)The students were so excited that they seemed to move up from reading easy picture books to chapter books that without even thinking of their own reading abilities, they all grabbed the nearest chapter book. I didn’t want the children to borrow books that they weren’t able to read and at the same time, I thought that it was wrong for the teacher to restrain the children from reading chapter books. My natural reaction was to tell the children that if they want to borrow chapter books, they have to bring it up to me and read with me for a little while first. I was happy to see that a couple children brought up “just right” books and they were able to read the chapter books. Although some of the other children were disappointed that they couldn’t borrow chapter books, I reassured them that they’d be able to in time with practice, just as Taberski had stated in one of our previous readings.
Taberski reiterates the importance of children reading a vast variety of genres in this chapter. Our duty as educators is to make sure that children are given the challenge of reading information text along with the less challenging fictional stories. Although poetry and non-fictional text may be harder to read, children can learn to enjoy reading them, provided they are given the right guidance in choosing appropriate books. Taberski also states that it’s helpful to keep children reading a range of material within a genre because “there’s so much literature out there-so many authors with diverse styles, writing about so many interesting characters and time periods.”
posted by Sei | 12:51 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home