Lehua's Chapter 10 reflection

The point about giving feedback to our students really struck me most. It is so important to give positive feedback - maybe just as important as giving feedback about improvements. I keep on regretting the times, especially during my running records time when we were just starting out doing the RRs, that I forgot to give positive feedback. There were even times, to be honest, when I completely forgot to give feedback at all. That's when I felt like they must have felt as if they were laboratory animals. They were just there to be tested and then put back - for my benefit. For the most part, I did RRs with the same group of about ten students to see the progress, so hopefully they didn't feel like an experiment that just benefited me but instead, that they got some practice reading and using picture clues. I have to remember that each and every time if I want to become an effective teacher.

Jaime's Ch. 10 Reflection

In Chapter 10, Taberski writes about the benefits of one on one time. Meeting with students individually allows the teacher to go over strategies that the students may not have understood in a large group. It must have been such a great feeling for Taberski when her students compared with each other the number of times they met with her for individual conferences. This just proves the many benefits of having a one on one conference with students.

I like how she explains her step by step methods of holding reading conferences. The first thing she suggests is to give positive feedback first. Everyone needs to hear their strengths before any suggestions of improvement. The next thing she mentions is to give children honest feedback. Providing children with honest feedback is important for their development. She is able to give honest feedback to her students because she has established a respectful relationship with her students from the first day of school. I think having a respectful relationship with your students will lead to a successful classroom. Then the students are not offended by the teacher’s feedback because they know that the teacher wants them to succeed. Finally the students are sent to read independently. Just like any other skill one learns, practice makes perfect. Eventually the student will become an automatic reader and will not have to think about which reading strategy they should use.

Kendrah's c/8, 9, & 10 Reading Reflections

C/10 Teaching Reading Strategies One-on-One

I thought the beginning paragraph of this chapter was cute because when the teacher asked who needed a conference she said she saw all these hands shoot up. One child needed help finding books, another wanted to just meet because he hadn’t met with her in a long time, and a young girl wanted to show her a finished reading response. I hope that one day I will have students who will be just as enthusiastic as these students. I know that I will have to play a big part as a teacher and make reading as well as conferences a fun and great thing. I already know that one-on-one time is very important. I wish that every child could get one-on-one time everyday because no child would have a reason to be left behind. Overall, this chapter “shows how working one-on-one with children provides opportunities to reacquaint them with strategies that have been demonstrated in a large and small group setting. It also helps students understand the concepts of print, text, and books that underpin their reading.”
Over this past semester I’ve been given the chance to work with students one-on-one in my fourth grade field experience classroom. I wasn’t too sure at first about how to work with students and their reading but I think throughout the semester and with practice I have come a long way. Some new things I learned about one-on-one time in this chapter while working with a student is that I need to start with what the child is doing well at. Affirmations are important in order to improve as well as giving a child honest feedback. When the child knows what he or she needs to work on it will help the child know what needs to be done when he or she is sent off to read independently.
What the main point of this chapter and many of the other chapters in this book is to produce a successful reader. However, this can’t be done without a good teacher who will take the time to sit down and help. Students need to know what they are doing well, what they need help on, and discuss together how improvements can be made. With all of these components success will come easily.

C/9 Word Study Groups: Analyzing Words for Their Phonetic, Structural, and Morphemic Features

This chapter reminded me a lot of the spelling words my mentor teacher chooses to put up on her boards for her students. These words are given weekly and most of them have the same endings or sounds like the ones mentioned in the first paragraph. It said that Jack sat in the chair in front of his class talking about his experience for the day and that he came across a word that he didn’t know. Fortunately, Jack remembered that he and his word study group was finding words earlier in the day with the same ending sounds with “ow” and it helped figure out that the word was “now”. The word study groups mentioned in this chapter sounds like a very beneficial thing to do. I read on about what they do in a word study group. The phases were interesting because it starts from the child recognizing whole words, then gaining more knowledge to recognize associations between spelling patterns, and then being able to recognize words by making connections between them. Since I’m very oblivious to the reading process everything I read is interesting to me. It’s funny how I went through these processes as a child to be able to learn how to read. I also read that early readers need lots of practice with examining monosyllabic words with two, three, and four sounds, or phonemes. Students can group these words by their length, common letter/s, common sound, and spelling patterns. Recognizing patterns can be done in the same way for polysyllabic words or bigger words. The chapter also goes into more detail about rearrangement of words, adding, removing letters, letter sequence, working with compound words, exploring common prefixes and suffixes, and much more. I also learned that when teaching about vowels it is better to teach to students in a whole group setting because it is easier for the students to handle new information this way. I definitely take all this information into account and I plan to put up spelling words that will enable my students to be able to understand all of these concepts brought up within the chapter. I think my mentor teacher does a great job at helping the students learn words by doing a spelling pattern display on her boards. I plan to do one just like her in the future.

C/8 Guided Reading: Demonstrating Strategies in Small-Group Settings

The beginning paragraphs of this chapter intrigued me because I read that making pancakes is similar to doing guided reading. I wondered why this was so and I continued to read on. I got from the text that they’re similar because at first it may seem like a simple process but it gets complicated when you take into account all the steps needed to create a successful outcome. As I continued to read more into the text I found what guided reading is and isn’t. Overall, “guided reading is a way to help children understand how reading works and to learn techniques…” I also learned that checking up on a child’s reading progress is very crucial for the child to develop skills to the best of his or her potential. Pairing students up in the same groups for the whole year won’t be as beneficial as letting them work with other children in the classroom throughout the year. I really liked the guided reading planning sheets in which students are put into groups depending on their strengths and needs. I like the guided reading groups sheets also because it shows what book the group will be reading and what strategy they will be working on as well as the members involved. This sheet can be done every month and the good thing about it is that the students are able to learn with one another and the teacher can observe their progress and simply group each child in a same or different group for the following month. It seems like it’s a very organized and structured way of maintaining a guided reading class time. I really enjoyed the character maps, story maps, and chart as well because the students are able to reflect on what they read and are able to identify specific parts of a book. At the beginning of this semester my mentor teacher gave me a bunch of worksheets like the ones mentioned. I was very excited to have my mentor teacher want to show me the various ways of having children show what they have learned or read by simply doing a character map, Venn-diagram, story map, and more. I can’t wait to use them with my own class. This chapter shows me that selecting groups, books, and specific times for reading is very important to produce successful readers.

Sei's Chapter 10 Reflection

Teaching Reading Strategies One-on-One
Chapter 10 Reflection

In this chapter, Taberski guides her readers on teaching reading strategies to students one-on-one. She states the importance of individual time; the “rules of thumb for optimum one-on-one instruction”; and what to teach and why.

I agree with the common belief that the more one-on-one time that students have with their teacher, the more they’ll learn to the best of their potential. I think that students learn better in a smaller classroom in which they are enabled to get more individual attention. Taberski believes that individual time is crucial because “individualized instruction is invaluable when learning a new skill” and I agree. When learning a new skill, like reading, students “need the ‘expert’ to watch what [they’re] doing, and then show [them] a better way.”

When I read the part that Taberski wrote that often, children don’t quite understand that “what they read should make sense, sound right, and match the letters”, I thought of a reading session I had with my Kindergarteners at Mililani Waena. I’ve noticed that a lot of the time, the students look at the pictures of their books and will substitute words that they don’t know for words that are being portrayed by the picture even though the letters don’t match. For example, one student came across a sentence that read “Pat is napping” and the picture on that page showed a dog that was napping. This student went about reading this sentence as “Pat is sleeping” and when I asked her to read it again, she again said “Pat is sleeping.” I then pointed to the word “napping” and asked her if the letters matched “sleeping”. She then sounded the word out and learned that it didn’t say “sleeping”. Another example is when a student kept on reading the “bug” as “bee” because the picture showed a girl dressed up as a bee. These are instances in which I’ve found the “you said _____. Does that match the letters?” technique very helpful.

What I found interesting under the section of the “rules of thumb for optimum one-on-one instruction” is the part when Taberski says it’s essential to give children honest feedback. This is to say that there’s no sugar-coating and no beating-around-the bush. You just say it like it is and if you’ve created a learning environment in which that is appropriate and embraced, the child will be able to accept the constructive criticism and as a result, it will be helpful to the child’s learning process. Although Taberski’s logic makes perfectly good sense, I’ve personally found it hard to be frank with children. I guess I just feel like I’m going to make them cry or feel like failures. I know that I’d have to say it in a way that’s not totally criticizing, yet still honest. I guess this is just something that’ll come with time and will only work if I’ve set up an emotionally safe learning environment with a mutual understanding between my students and myself. I found it motivating and touching when I read that Taberski does it because “if [she] can’t show them directly what they need to do better, as well as what they already do well, who can?” and “it’s because [she] want[s] them to succeed that she tell[s] them what [she] see[s].”

Chelsea's Reflection (Ch. 10, On Solid Ground)

Chapter 10: Teaching Reading Strategies One-on-One was a short chapter. I guess it was short because Sharon already had talked about reading strategies, but teaching them to her students in whole group settings. This chapter focused more on teaching reading strategies to her students in a one-on-one conference. I didn't think teaching a child how to read would be so much work. There are so many differnt things that a child needs to learn to be a good reader. I guess I never really understand the real meaning of reading. I always thought of it as just picking up a book and reading the words that are written it, but that's not what it is at all. In order to be a successful reader, a child needs to know other things like understanding the text, the meaning of punctuation, and sounding out words. Reading is not just reading, it involves grammar, language, and literacy as well. It's a lot of work, but I know it will be fun. I enjoy reading, and teaching my kids how to read would be a joy. I'll especially get excited when someone from my class goes around telling everyone something good that they have learned from me or even if I said they were "cool." I thought it was so cute to read about Sharon's student Taha who went around telling everyone that Sharon said he was cool. She was really proud of him, and he was even proud of himself. Accomplishment achieved! :)

Coby's Response to Chapter 10

In chapter ten of her book, Taberski talks about teaching reading one-on-one. She talks about the benefits that one-on-one teaching has and gives the reader a view of how she opperates these sessions.

What I found interesting was Taberski's statement that children who are acquiring reading skills generally don't know how to get help. They are not aware that text "should make sense, sound right, and match letters" and to cope with their misunderstanding some of them decide to mask their problems. As long as the problem stays masked a solution is hard to come by. I see this with one of the students in my mentor classroom. He has a hard time reading and writing so when it is time for either activity he plays around and makes trouble to other students so that his mind gets taken off of his work. Furthermore working with him one-on-one can be very frustrating because it is hard to get him to pay attention and do the activity. Whenever I tell him to read or write something his famous words are, "I cannot." The thing that discourages me is when he finishes I tell him, "See you can do it." Then the next day he acts like nothing happened the day before.

Taberski says that during her one-on-one sessions she "reacquaints" the student with concepts that were covered in large and small group sessions. That's pretty cool and in a way it is the same as tutoring in school during classtime. On one hand that is a nice way for me to look at it because I have working experience as a tutor and on the other hand it is profound because if all teachers taught like that I would not have a job to go back to during the summer.

Leila's Ch. 9 Reflection

Taberski's word wall is a very clever idea! I think it is does much more thank helping students recognize words. It can also teach them spelling. As long as the word wall is up there through the school year, I have no doubt that students' would have a lot of those words down by the end of the school year. As Taberski mentioned, learning words is recursive.
Learning new words is a hard task for students. After reading this chapter, I never realized how many ways words are structured. Similar to math, we cannot just give the students a handout or tell the "thumb of rule" for finding an area of a rectangle; in this case, vowels have a long or a short sound. We have to let the students make their own connections. That is what Taberski does with her students. She had the students sort out monosyllabic words according to either their length, their common letter(s), their common sound, and their spelling pattern. She also had her students clap out the syllables. The purpose of clapping syllables helps children understand that each syllable in a polysyllabic word can be analyzed for its spelling patterns in the same way as monosyllabic words. These are just two of the many activities that she does with her students.

Jaime's Ch.9 Reflection

What I liked From Chapter 9:

Taberski’s Dependable Spelling Pattern Word Wall is a must have in my future classroom. It’s a great way to group words into their families and children can see the spelling patterns. I think a word wall is also good for Kindergarteners because they can see that the words end the same and therefore the words are rhyming words. Many of the Kindergarteners I work with are having difficulty with rhyming words. The word wall that Taberski shows as an example is definitely not for Kindergarteners. Some of the spelling patterns I would use are –an, -am, -ing…These are fairly simple words for Kindergarteners and once they know the pattern they can start writing words without using inventive spelling.

Another thing I liked from this chapter was her suggestion on Making Words. I like the idea of working with a smaller group because all the children will have the chance to get more of what they need from the teacher. It seems like a fun and effective way to help the children figure out a word by building smaller words that are in the bigger words. Confused? Her secret word was ‘skate.’ She gave each child a ‘s, k, a, t, e.’ Then she told them to make the word 'at.' So they put the ‘a & t’ together. Then eventually she added more letters until they figured out the secret word was ‘skate.’ Both of Taberski’s strategies are realistic and cheap and that’s what I like!

Tara's chapter 9 reflection

this chapter to me felt like it was geared towards the younger grades, like kindergarten or first grade. it talks about sounding out words and making associations, even recognizing words using logos.

i never got to really observe this in the classroom at it's fullest. i remember my mentor having days where she taught the kids phonics where she gave the ending sound like -et and she asked the kids to give her all the words they can think of with the ending sound or letters with -et. i thought it was interesting to see. every week she had a different ending sound like -eb, or -ap, or -et, or -ick, etc. she would make a chart of all the words the kids could think of with those ending sounds and she would put them on this clip thing she had. she would take them out all the time and tell the kids to remember them and use them in their writing. she also had spelling worksheets that emphasized and furthered their understanding of those words and the kids would have a spelling test at the end of the week. i never had to correct their spelling homework because she always had someone else do it. i really wanted to though.

almost all of my first graders knew how to read really well. only about one or two couldnt. i had to work with them a couple of times to pronounce words. my mentor would give me a book with about 3 columns of words and she would tell me to let the student i was helping to read all the words he/she could and make note of the ones he/she couldnt. she even had tests on words she called "sight" words. a lot of the kids made major progress from the same test they had at the beginning of the school year!

my mentor also had a word wall which is what taberski talked about. she has all the words the kids should know or needed to know on there. it had words like because, and, at, the, etc. if the kids spelt the word wrong and my mentor knew it was on the word wall, she would tell them to use their resources and to find where they needed to look to spell the word correctly. i think that is a good idea and i could use that in my future classroom if i have lower grades.

Tara's chapter 8 reflection

this chapter was on guided reading. it looks like taberski does a very detailed guided reading guessing from the info i had to read in this chapter.

i did a few guided readings in my class last semester. i was given a group assembled by my mentor teacher of about 5 or 6 kids and she gave them a choice to read this book, or that book. they always picked the one that had animals in it. i noticed that. we would go off to the side, some place where they wouldnt be distracted by the other guided reading group my mentor teacher was conducting. most times it would be in the library my mentor had set up in the room because it had a couch in it. i sat on a chair. i know greg said he would not stay there and would walk around the class and let the kids just read on their own silently, but not for me. i stayed with my group the whole time and watched them read. my mentor would stay where she was at too unless another of her students needed help. my kids would read out loud too. i said they all had to read so i could hear all their voices. i did that so i could tell the ones who were having trouble reading from the ones who could read. my mentor had the kids write down on a post-it their own reading strategy and to use it when they go to guided reading. most kids put down if they didnt know a word, they would try and sound it out. i heard most of them doing that when they got stuck on a word. some i heard would try but they would eventually skip it because they wanted to read a long. after all the kids were done reading, i would ask them questions from the book. they werent allowed to look in their book unless they really didnt know the answer because i had to know if they understood and remembered key events in the book. i also asked them what was the problem if there was one, and how was it solved. i also had to ask the kids what words they had trouble on. if a kid had trouble with a word, the rest of the members of the guided reading group are supposed to help him/her out. and they did that. they would tell him/her the word and then i would ask the kid who had trouble to say the word to me again. and of course this time he/she could. i dont know if that is how you would conduct a guided reading but that is how i was told to conduct one. i just basically asked the group what they liked about the book, if they could summarize what happened in the book, any problems, what are the solutions, and if they could answer questions i gave them pertaining to the book.

i am really glad that i got to do these guided readings in my class last semester because it gives me practice for when i have my own classroom. the only thing is i didnt get to pick the kids and i didnt get to pick the book they got to read. maybe next time or if i get to do these guided readings, i will ask my mentor if i can choose the kids and pick the book. i think that will be more of a challenge to me. i need to really know the levels all the children are on and what books are good for them to read.

Lehua's Chapter 9 Reflection

This particular chapter was very much made for kindergarten teachers. Kindergartners are the very ones who are starting to sound out words phonetically. At first, when I heard my teacher doing modeled writing with the students and they would spell out words in the way that they sounded, I wondered, "Why have them learn the wrong spelling? Why not just tell them the correct way?" After learning a little more and observing how they read, write, and converse everyday, I now understand why the teachers do so.

Chapter 9 talks about the difference between guided reading groups and word study groups. I like the word study groups because it is very informal, as she says. They aren't picked strategically according to their abilities. And, the teacher doesn't have to constantly take notes (on paper or mentally) about each student and his or her progress. That also takes some tension off of the students. Taberski talks about having the students who need extra help, especially those who are ESLL, in these groups to help them out by a smaller group.

I liked how she listed the kinds of questions that she'd ask for each word. For example, she would ask, in the case of monosyllabic words, "What words are grouped by length? Combined letters? Common sound? Spelling pattern?" These questions would be ones that you would definitely introduce to a kindergartner because they are just learning the visual part of reading and writing.

Leila's Chapter 8 Reflection

In this chapter, Sharon demonstrates how to do guided reading in small-group setting. It takes a lot of planning and assessment to identify what groups a student belongs in. The groups are created based on their reading level. This idea seems like students are being tracked. I can understand why she would create the groups in that particular way because that way you can focus on the same problem with similar students. I was wondering how effective is it when groups are set up this particular way compared to others. I was thinking why don't we mixed the groups up where it creates an equal opportunity for all students. For example, spread out the fluent readers so that students can help and learn from each other. Just a thought that came up as I read about the section on listing the groups.

Chelsea's Reflection (Ch.9, On Solid Ground)

Chapter 9-Word Study Groups: Analyzing Words for Their Phonetic, Structural, and Morphemic Features was an interesting chapter for me. I've heard so much lately about teachers having a word wall in their classroom. It always sounded and looked like a great idea to help students in analyzing words, but I never really heard on how we are supposed to use it. This chapter clearly explains what a teacher can do with a word wall in their classroom. The word wall in Sharon's classroom is full of spelling patterns in which the kids can use to relate to other words. For example, if the spelling pattern is -ow, then the kids would list words they can think of that have the pattern -ow in it, such as cow or now. In the beginning of the day, right when the kids arrive in the classroom, Sharon pulls a few aside and has a word study group with them. She goes over spelling patterns with them that they might have ran into while reading a book or poem the days before. She wants them to get familiarized with the pattern so that they can learn how to spell words that are similar or be able to say when they are reading. I really like this idea because it doesn't take too much time and effort. I mean, it's a simple duty, that only will take a couple of minutes of a teacher's time in the morning while the rest of the kids are getting prepared for the day. I really like how she just pulls kids in groups. It's a great way to get to know her students better. I haven't seen a word wall posted in any classroom that I've observed it, but just reading about it makes me want to create a word wall of my own when I have my own classroom. It seems like the perfect idea in helping students learn how to spell or even read those specific words.

Jaime's Ch. 8 Reflection

In Chapter 8, Taberski explains in detail about Guided Readings. It’s another way of “helping children acquire the strategies and skills they need to become fluent readers.” Children are encouraged to read independently but are also given as much assistance as needed. She explains how she does her Guided Readings from the very first month of school until the last month. I think the reason Taberski makes it seem so ‘easy’ is because she is so organized. I like her planning sheets for the different stages of the readers. The best part of that sheet is that she pre printed the strategies the children should be focusing on at the top of the page. Then that way all she has to do is look at the strategies and see what the child lacks or is meeting.

What’s great about Taberski is that she wants the child to be successful at reading. She suggests choosing books that children can read with a 92 percent to 97 percent accuracy rate. When she meets the groups for Guided Readings she always tells them why she called them and lets them know what she’s learned about their readings, how she plans to help them and what they need to do. Her explanations are never negative. She always has something good to say about their readings and then mentions what they can do to improve.

Coby Thornton's Chapter 9 Reflection

Taberski states that a child's knowledge of phonics is not the "sole determinant" of how easily a child will catch onto reading, making connections and using what we know to learn new things are just as important. The main lesson is don't worry about formally teaching children all of the "thirty-seven" spelling patterns because throughout the year you will run into frequently used words that rhyme with each other thus creating an opportunity for the children to spot spelling patterns.

Taberski seems to be challenging teachers to teach spelling by helping the children to find and apply their own patterns. This strategy reminds me of times when Neil Pateman will say, "Stop telling the children the answers! Ask them questions so that they can figure it out on their own."

As I reflect on my own experiences of learning how to read I realized that I was taught phonics as a starting point but I was trained by reading things and noticing patterns and contexts. (Not always books.) One of the first patterns I remember finding was when I read the word "pow" while I was playing "Super Mario 3." I realized that the "ow" at the end made an ow sound and so I could use that when trying to spell other words such as wow, now, how, etc. I still can't figure out how I could start spinning the wheels of that thought process in a way that would be practical for a classroom full of children. What questions could I ask? What activities could I do?

Leila's Chapter 7 Reflection

In my class, we regularly have read aloud and shared reading in whole group. I have practiced many of the strategies that Sharon had mentioned in this chapter. I always "stop to think" here and there throughout the chapter that I'm reading and engaged the students to what had just happen in the story. I feel that helps the children realizes that this is an important point that will affect what will happen later on in the book. When we come across a word that we don't know, we write it down on an index card and search up the definition after when we are done reading the story. Then we put up the index card among other words on the word wall.

The past books we hadbeen reading were Charolette's Web and Esperanza. With the Charolette's Web book, the children have been working on story mapping. They just turned in a timeline of the main events in the story. As for every chapter, they do a prediction sheet in which they write down what they think will happen in the story only from reading the title of the chapter. Afterwards, they evaluated their predictions with support from the chapter and they make a connection or idea to that chapter. As for the other book, they listen to it at the end of the class for enjoyment. There is no work that my mentor ask for them to do.

Overall, I like how this chapter is divided into many read aloud and shared reading strategies for a whole class. I know what to look for in each strategy. Also, I like how Sharon suggests some books for you to go find and use for every grade level. It is very helpful!

Chelsea's Reflection (Ch. 8, On Solid Ground)

Chapter 8: Guided Reading: Demonstrating Strategies in Small-Group Settings is another well informed chapter. Sharon states that "guided reading is a way to help children understand how reading works and learn techniques to figure out words and comprehend texts that are just a little too challenging for them to read without support." I like this strategy for reading. I like that there are small separate groups of children reading the same text that is a little challenging to them. This way the teacher is able to see how the student thinks and what they can comprehend from the text they are reading. The students have support from their teacher while they are reading to help them at that moment with any questions they may have. After reading this chapter, Sharon pointed out a lot of great ideas on what a teacher can do with his/her students through guided reading. I like how she groups her students into groups by early, emergent, transitional, and fluent readers because they all will be on the same level. However, I was thinking how it would work if the students were grouped in a mix so that each student can help each other out and teach each other different strategies in reading. I don't know if that would be too chaotic or get too out of hand. Also, I think for most of the time, the students are supposed to be reading their text quietly to themselves, so I'm not too sure if that idea would work out.
I really enjoy reading all of Sharon's chapters of her book. I think all her strategies are really great ideas and want to try them out one day myself. She does a whole lot with her kids, and I'm trying to see where she fits it all in. Nowadays, teachers have shortage of time throughout the school day and end up rushing through a lot of things. I'm just really hoping that I can get done what I want to accomplish with my kids when I have my own classroom. I know it's not always going to work, but I want my kids to learn and have fun all at the same time.

Sei's Chapter 9 Reflection

Word Study Groups: Analyzing Words for their
Phonetic, Structural, and Morphemic Features
Chapter 9 Reflection

Reading this chapter immediately got me into thinking of my class at Mililani Waena. Mrs. Johnson does a great job at working with the Kindergarteners’ reading skills. She has a very organized and well thought out literacy routine for the students.

During the literacy block, Mrs. Johnson has the children rotate in 3 stations. The first group sits at their desks and writes a journal entry. The journal entry usually is some sort of response to a book that was just read to the class.

While that group is doing that, a second group is playing literacy games. One of the literacy games is one in which the students are to connect the pieces of the puzzle that have pictures of rhyming words on them. For example, the student should be able to put the picture of the cat with the picture of the bat while putting the picture of the pen with the picture of the hen. I think that this game is great because not only do students have to be able to name the figure in the picture, but also be able to rhyme that word with another picture. Another game that the students play is “write the classroom”. This is a game in which students are given individual dry erase boards, pens, and markers and observe items in the classroom and write them on the board.

The third station is the one that enables Mrs. Johnson to work one-on-one with each student. This station requires the student to read the “sentences” that they had written the night before to Mrs. Johnson. She will then write a reply and the student is to read her response and answer her question. After reading the “sentences”, the student will then read his/her guided reading book to her. You see, Mrs. Johnson sends home a guided reading envelope on Mondays through Thursdays. In that envelope, there is a notebook in which the student is required to write as many sentences as they’d like about any topic that they’d like every night (these are the sentences that are read to her during the third station). Also in the envelope is a guided reading book, which is distributed by reading level and rotated every Mondays and Wednesdays.

I got to work with the children in the third station last week Thursday. This station is very important in assessing the progress of the children and giving them the individual attention that they may need. I really enjoyed this time with the children because not only did I learn about their reading and writing skills, but also about their personal lives. I learned that Stacie takes Japanese Language Lessons and that she reads at a second grade level. Her guided reading book is a chapter book and she’s only in Kindergarten. Even at a second grade reading level, she read the book effortlessly…and understood!

Another thing that my teacher does is tests the students on their “sight words” every so often. I got a chance to test the children and most of them can read all their Kindergarten level sight words while some can read most 1st grade level sight words, with the exception of Stacie, who can read up to 2nd grade sight words with proficiency. I see the sense of achievement in the children when they’ve moved up a level. When I tested them, two of the students were able to read 75 out of 75 of the Kindergarten sight words and were moved up to reading 1st grade sight words. They were very ecstatic! It’s a great feeling to have a child come up to me and say, “I can read that big word now. I can read ‘because’!!”

Sei's Chapter 8 Reflection

Guided Reading:
Demonstrating Strategies in Small-Group Settings
Chapter 8 Reflection

In chapter 8, Taberski focuses on the concept of guided reading. She gives a month-to-month timeline of how she implements guided reading during the school year. This is a helpful tool because it can be used as a reference when I start up my own classroom. It’s basically a How-to chapter on guided reading. It provides knowledge on assessing the children’s reading abilities, using planning sheets, to placing the children into groups, etc...

To be very honest, what I found more interesting than the guided reading timeline is the section on selecting guided reading books. According to Taberski, she uses three criteria to select a text for a group to read. The first is whether or not the book is worth reading. This is very important to consider because it’s our role as educators to ensure that our students’ experiences in our classrooms are fruitful and beneficial. I linked this with the part in the last chapter about selecting books for read alouds. Taberski stated that we must pick books that are interesting to the children, not us. Not only must we select books that are interesting so that it will motivate them to read more, but also with a good message or life lesson. The second criteria that Taberski uses is that the book selected must be able to be read “with the required rate of accuracy” by EVERY child in the group. This is important to consider because the whole point of having guided reading sessions is to have children read and learn about reading through their reading. If the book selected is too difficult, the child will not be able to learn much about the reading process due to the fact that he/she is busy trying to read the words on the page. The last criteria used by Taberski is whether the book “supports [her] demonstrations of the strategy [she] wants the children to acquire.” This is to say that the content of the books that are selected must coincide with the strategies that the teacher wants the child to develop.

Reading Taberksi’s book makes me feel though I have to go out and start buying and collecting children’s books. From everything that I’ve read so far about the techniques of teaching children to read, it can be concluded that teachers not only have to be avid readers on their own level, but also at the level of their students. Teachers must be well familiar with the contents of many children’s books and popular authors of children’s books. The only way that we are to know which books are “just right” for certain students or which books are appropriate to teach a certain reading strategy, we must have read a wide array of children’s books ourselves. At this point, I guess I have to start reading children’s books so that by the time that I start teaching, I’ll be well aware and knowledgeable of children’s books.

Lehua's Chapter 8 Reflection

The first thing that I thought about guided reading in Taberski's chapter 8, is "How do you gather a group of 3-6 children at the same reading level where the book that is being read together is one that the children can almost, but not quite, read on their own?" I understand why this is important but it seems to me that it is quite a difficult task - that is - if you can get a group of children on the exact same reading level and comprehension for pictures, words, etc. (Not to be pessimistic at all)

The more I see how Taberski makes sure that her students are continuously reading and that she is constantly taking notes and helping each student individually, it is hard for me to grasp the big picture. As a teacher candidate - not quite a teacher yet, I am feeling the overwhelmming sensation about trying to "cram" all of the subjects into a daily or weekly routine. It seems so hard for me to see how someone can spend so much time on one subject - such as reading - when there's so many more subjects to "hit."

I understand that I shouldn't be thinking about it as "hitting" the subjects because, according to Neil - "Don't think of which benchmark you have to hit and then make the lesson, make the lesson and THEN see which one it hits." AND, I understand that reading and writing is so universal and something that will always be used throughout their lives. As you can see, seeing the examples of the running records and the guided reading planning sheets that Taberski shows is can be overwhelming. I am still learning a lot...obviously.

"I'm Retelling on You!" Ch. 6

Doing running records is becoming easier to do as I do it more often. Listening to the students, making checks for correct words, writing SC or the miscue used are all essential for a good running record, but in all honesty I find the retell to be the most challenging. Is it because I'm new at this or am I doing something wrong? Most of the time I am being so cautious of what I hear the student saying that I'm not even making any meaning myself. I like the fact that our students get to choose their reading material, but it's also causing me to not know if the child's retell is accurate. Although the Procedures for Asking a Child to Retell Texts and figure 6-3 in chapter six have enabled me to become more efficient at understanding my students comprehension of not the entire book, but what the child has read so far.

Coby's Reflection to Taberski Chapter 8

In this chapter Taberski talks about the importance of matching children together to form a group and matching that group with an appropriately leveled book during a guided reading. She asserts that it does not always come out perfectly and that there are many time when even she has to make adjustments to her matchings. Sometimes she will notice that a student is not keeping up with the rest of his or her group or the book that she gave a group to read is not appropriate for them. Sometimes she even has to change the guided reading into a read aloud and look for a different book.

The poignant thing that I found in this chapter was when Taberski said that no matter what you do you will never get it perfect and you will continue to make mistakes. She asserts that the most important thing is whether or not you learn from the mistakes that you made.

This lesson is something that is good for everyone. Last semester I felt like I made more mistakes in the field than anyone else in the College of Education and it made me feel like a failure. Eventually I had to learn that I'll never get it perfectly but the main thing is whether or not I learn from the mistakes that I have made. I can use that lesson when doing guided readings. I can see myself getting flustered if something goes wrong the first time I try one but I guess I have to remember to stay calm, do the best I can, learn from my mistakes, and "cut my loses." It will be an interesting journey.

What Would You Do?

Hey Greg and everyone else,

I found this on facebook and wondered how would you respond to a student who turned this in. Personally I think this student is bright but he is also bored. I may be wrong. What do you think?

Christina L. Chapter 3,4,5,6 reflections

Christina Lim
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CHAPTER 3 RESPONSE

This chapter of the book was centered on the organization of a classroom which centers around fostering students abilities pertaining to literacy. As Taberski stated, referring to the environment as the “third teacher”, is what this chapter focuses on; ways to make this process easier and more efficient for both the teacher and his/her students.

As for the organization section of the chapter, I thought that Ms. Salch’s method of adjusting the leg height of her tables to better accommodate her students, as well as, make better use of the classroom space was a great idea. At first, it seemed a bit radical, but I do see now the valuable space that could be opened up for other uses. I also liked how Taberski provides her students with the materials they need in their “community pots”, so they don’t have to bring any extra unneeded materials. I also liked how Taberski gets the funds she needs by sending a letter home to each parent, asking them to reimburse her for the materials she provided. This effective way of organizing her classroom allows the child’s parent to not have to go school shopping for his/her child’s reading, writing and spelling supplies, as well as, allowing Taberski to make sure that every child has exactly what they need to succeed. I also like how Taberski does her shopping way in advance, during the summer before anyone even steps into her classroom. I thought that the list Taberski gave about exactly what she needs was also very helpful, it’s as if she is giving away her secrets to success, I also liked how she had some other alternative solutions to what a teacher could do if he/she doesn’t necessarily agree with shopping for their students themselves.

As for the classroom library Taberski sets up, I liked how she organizes it so meticulously, focusing on each level of difficulty; color-coding, etc. I really like how she stores her books with their covers facing out, which invites the child to look at it, and possibly even scan through it to see if the book is “just-right” for them. I also think that the idea of book bags is a very encouraging way to get children to read the books they enjoy both in, and out of school, but to effectively implement this idea the teacher must first have a solid system in place about the coding and levels of books in their library.

The only thing that discourages me about this chapter is that Taberski believes that in order to effectively work with students, individually, in small groups, and as a whole class, we need large, uninterrupted blocks of time to work with the students. She uses up more than half of the school day to teach her students about the importance of literacy, and to give them a chance at a lifetime of loving to read and write. I don’t disagree that literacy is very important, but I don’t know that it would be realistic if I were to allow that amount of time to be devoted only to literacy. There are other areas of curriculum that need to be given the same opportunity, as well as, the same amount of time devoted to fostering our students learning, whether it be math, physical education, art, etc.

Christina Lim
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CHAPTER 4 RESPONSE

Taberski has made it very clear that reading conferences are of the upmost importance when it comes to the success of her students. She has mentioned her conferences in other chapters, and has given us many ideas, and shown us what has worked for her. In this chapter, Taberski goes more in-depth about why conferences work for her, and why each part of the conference is important.

I liked how Taberski see’s the importance of learning what cueing systems each of her students use; this reminds me of one of my students. I have one student in my mentor teacher’s class who is one of the youngest of the bunch. I started to conduct my running records, and was choosing students; some of them who my mentor told me knew how to read. I did a few with some students who obviously practiced reading their “I Can Read” books (these are books that are put into their folder to take home and read), they had no trouble reading what they had. I then went to this one child to try and get her to read me a book. She brought out her book, and I told her to start reading, she started out by trying to read the title. She was obviously making it up, because the words didn’t match the text at all. Then she moved on to the body of the book, which she started to “read”, but I immediately noticed that she was only using visual cues; she would look at the picture, and then tell me a sentence that matched the picture. I let her continue this, until our time ran out and I couldn’t finish my session with her. I have been bothered by this since then, I don’t know where to start, and I would like it if she could show some progress before I leave. My mentor seems to think that she is behind because she is one of the youngest in the class, which I agree with, because she does lack skills that the other children in her class already have. I just want to know what I could do with this situation, I would like for her to start over, or something, I just don’t know what to do, or how to start.

Another part of the chapter I could relate to was the fact that even children like to have an audience listen to them. I noticed that after I conducted some running records, some of the children who had previously read to me wanted to read to me in their spare time. Not all of the time, but I was surprised, because I only had some of them read to me once, or just a few times, and they were already eager to read to me again. I can only imagine how much more of them would want to read to me, and more often, if I applied this strategy in my own future classroom.

Christina Lim
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CHAPTER 5 RESPONSE

In this chapter, Taberski talks about the importance of running records. Much of the chapter is devoted to the inner-workings of how a running record is supposed to be conducted, as well as, the importance it has on child’s progress. I thought it was helpful that Taberski showed us some of her notations she uses when she conducts her own running record conferences. Taberski previously spoke about miscues and how we calculate them. After reading Chapter 5, I now am not as concerned about getting percentage of miscues dead on. Taberski says that she just estimates the rate of accuracy, when it comes to determining the percentage rate. I previously thought that getting the percentage rate was a critical factor when it comes to accurately recording a child’s progress, but I now know that this is not true. I am beginning to learn the importance of this system, and I am starting to see how much progress a child can have if the teacher implements this strategy in the correct manner. This is encouraging, but discouraging at the same time because to get this system down seems like it would take many years, and much practice. I am seeing how giving your students “just-right” books offers them the right amount of “supports and challenges”, and I now understand that it is critical to keep your students reading in the 95-100 percentile range in order to keep them reading just right books.

As I stated earlier in my last reflection, I have this one student who is having trouble reading and only uses visual cues to attempt to read. This Chapter touched on some of the things that this student does; it seems as if she can be helped. I think that this student should be given books that resemble the book in the Chapter, A Zoo. I have seen her “I Can Read” books, and she is reading level 1 books with patterns, and one sentence per page. I think that she needs to go down a level, and begin to read books like A Zoo, then she will be able to move up to more structured text. She doesn’t even know what she is reading at this point, and she needs to begin to connect meaning to her reading. Her story reminds me of Jasmin’s story at the end of the Chapter, because it seemed as they both started at the same level, and Jasmin made such progress by the end of the school year. I hope for the same when it comes to this child, but this story hits a nerve with me, because I now can relate to this strategy, and now I am beginning to see the importance of this type of teaching, and how much of an impact it can have on our students in one year’s time.

Christina Lim
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CHAPTER 6 RESPONSE

This Chapter focused on retellings and reading discussions, Taberski focuses on Jasmin and his story; how she knew that he was making progress. I like how Taberski showed us that she knew that Jasmin was making his progress, she knew because of a few things that he did; how he provided general and specific information about the text, read it more than once, and most of all, she could tell that Jasmin connected emotionally to the story. I think that this last thing is critical; it is a clear indicator that a child is interested in the literature he/she is reading, and is very encouraging to a teacher who is trying to get a child to read for meaning, as well as, getting a child to have a lifelong relationship with literature.

I like how Taberski executes her procedure when it comes to conducting a retell session. I think that it is a great idea to explain to the child your purpose at the start of the conference, because it is so easy to just assume that the child will not question, or wonder why they are in a conference. I think by doing this, we may even get the child engaged in what he/she is about to do. I also liked how Taberski prompts the child with questions to see if he/she is reading for understanding. The questions seem like casual conversation-type questions to the child, but to the teacher, these questions are a critical tool that will help them understand if the child understands what they are reading.

I also enjoyed learning a little bit about reading discussions. I like how Taberski conducts a very informal one at the start of the school year; to see what stage a child is in his/her reading process, what he/she is interested in, etc. The second discussion is not really formal either; it is just to periodically update a child’s progress, interests, concerns, etc. Like Taberski stated: “It is important that each child enjoys what he reads”, which I completely agree with. I think that it is key to keep updated about what interests your students, and to keep the necessary materials readily available for them to access. The only way a child is going to love to read, is if he or she loves what they are reading, and continues to read texts that interest them.

Lehua's Reflection - Ch. 7

While reading this chapter, I noticed that Taberski uses a lot of different strategies for the different grade levels. She incorporated upper el and lower el very well into this chapter. In the beginning, she mentioned a story about using books with a child's interest intertwined in the book. It is a great idea and, what I thought at first, is that it obviously works! But then she went on to say that the reason the boy knew the word "world" was because he wrote it the day before. Even so, he definitely used context clues, visual clues, etc. - everything we need to take note of in the running records idea. It is great to read stories like this one. I know that as a teacher when it happens to me personally and I see that spark in the student, it will definitely be worth it!

Taberski talks about her main point throughout the chapter - "helping children become strategic readers." This is exemplified in the pictures of her student's work. Just looking at figure 7-5 of the student's "The Beast in Ms. Rooney's Room," I can see just how this student progressed to be here. It's funny when we step back and take a look at student's work. We've all done story maps throughout our elementary years through our college years. It's just inevitable. When I truly look at the progress that the students go through - especially since I'm learning how children start to recognize letters, let alone pronounce them, it makes the bigger picture quite clear. It is rewarding and the process needs certain steps that are vital to the end result. Going from drawing letters to reading children's books, to creating a detailed story map, it is a very rewarding end of the road - both for the teacher and the student.

Lehua's Comment on Tara's Ch. 7 Blog!

Hey Tara!

I totally agree with you on the whole "my kids aren't really reading this semester" thing. I'm sure they're not for the same reasons but I know that it is difficult - especially when we are required to do certain things for our classes. It was even hard for me to fit in a math lesson because in kindergarten, these children didn't focus on it that much. So I completely see where you're coming from. However, it is a great challenge for us as teacher candidates to try to incorporate lessons into their daily routine that is probably very robotic by now. It seems as if, according to Neil esp., that teachers need to do more to ensure quality learning in the classroom. Or, to be more blunt, "I don't know why you Americans do it that way!" It's so confusing! - Australian accent added.

Leila's Ch. 6 Reflection

All the running records that I have done so far, I never had asked my students to retell me what they read. The reason for that is because I don't know what the story is about.

From reading this chapter, it helped me realized that you don't need to know the story a student is reading in order to do a reading discussion. It is impossible to read all the books that is labeled for a specific grade level. Sharon simply advises teachers to read the summary on the back cover, scan the table of contents, and galcne at the pictures to get a generalization of the story. That isn't too hard to do. But how do you know if your students knows what the story is about? If the student talks confidently and accurately about what he/she reads, then he/she probably has a reasonable understading. It makes sense to me. With these fears of mine addressed, I think I am now able to try it out as I do my running records.

Tara's Chapter 7 Reflection

this chapter was about reading aloud and shared reading. again im going to talk about last semester because i dont do anything reading related this semester. the kids i have this semester just dont read at all. maybe a couple of kids actually do read, but they only get about five minutes to read and all the rest of the time is designated for their testing.

i must say i did a lot of reading alouds last semester. my second week in to the semester last semester i was doing read alouds. i basically did a read aloud every thursday until the end of the semester. my mentor wanted me to do these because the kids loved to be read to, she wanted to them to understand story mapping like the beginning, middle, end, and the problem-solution, and she also wanted them to understand about the main characters. she let me pick any book i wanted as long as they had main themes to it or the problem and solution was very apparent for the kids to see. the first book i read was the hawaiian version of the three billy goats gruff. i taught the kids hawaiian words and i asked them to look at the book cover and tell me what they think the setting is what they think the characters are and what they think the problem is going to be. i was really impressed with all the ideas my first graders could come up with. and they were very engaged in the story when i read to them. i had this big poster with the setting, characters, problem, solution behind me and when we came around to one of those concepts, the kids would tell me and i would write it down or write more down since they already told me in the beginning what they thought the story was about. i would also stop every once in a while to to show the kids the pictures in the book and ask the kids questions like how many bridges are in the book or what kinds of fruits can they see or what do they think is going to happen next. i got some really impressive responses. we would go over the beginning, middle, and end of the book just to see if the kids understand. i would also ask if kids could tell me what happened in the story when i was done with the book. i would call on kids who raised their hand and some who didnt. my mentor teacher used the book to let them write in their journals. she would let them make up their own story related to the book, or she would pose a question that came from the book and she would tell the kids to write in their journal. she would let the kids write in their journals to get them used to writing and so that she could see where the kids were at in their writing. it was good. so i think what i did with the kids covered all the topics taberski talked about in this chapter.

Tara's Chapter 6 Reflection

this chapter was on retelling. i used to do this last semester with my kids at kapalama. that was my duty every wednesday and thursday. i didnt mind at all because i was interested to see if the kids could retell what they read to me. i had kids of every reading level in my class last semester and it was really neat to actually see the different reading levels. i didnt quite understand the different reading levels my mentor had but all i know was that there was not a single child who was on the same reading level. my mentor teachers reading levels go from 1 to i think it was 20 and not from a to z like how i always read about. i forgot to ask her about her reading levels. i was curious about them and she did sort of brief me on what she did and what i should do when i get my own classroom.

all the things im learning now in class i basically already know since my teacher does running records, guided readings, shared readings, and retellings. i have had the opportunity to experience all of them and i am happy that i did. well, when i come in on wednesdays and thursdays, my mentor tells me in the morning what kids i will be doing shared readings with and she tells me to do running records and retellings. she tells me to document them on the child's reading folder. my mentor was very organized with this kind of stuff. i didnt do the checks if the kids got the word right, but i did do the stuff if the kids got the answer wrong, or if i had to help them, or if they self-corrected themselves. i think that way is faster because you dont have to keep checking off stuff. but when it came time to retelling, i would close the book and leave it in front of the student and then ask them if they can tell me what happened in the story so i can see if they understand what they have read. i would leave the book in front of the student just to see if they would grab it and open it to look in it. only my ESL child would have to look in the book because he didnt understand the word and when he came across it in his retellings, he would have to look up the word and show it to me because he couldnt say it. other then that, all of my kids could retell. and they were really good too! i was kind of uncertain as to how to assess them because all of them could retell the story to me. i kinda figured that if they could go in to good details about the story, then i would conisder it an excellent retelling. most of them could too. they would tell me the summary of the story, going over the main points, and then i would think of questions pertaining to the book just to see if they could answer it. thats what i was told to do. i was told to get the summary from the kids and then ask them main point questions from the book to see if they could answer me. if they could do that then they had a good retelling. and most times the kids could! i was proud of every one of them. im glad that i was able to learn about retellings and running records last semester because in class i understand what is going on and im not confused.

Jess - ch. 5 & 6

So chapter 5 is all about the records we are doing in the field class. Running records are important piece of the reading puzzle. They tell us how our students are doing when it comes to reading. They tell us what kind of books the students can read and what they are interested in. Using the forms we have right now, it is definitely harder to keep up with the students reading. (esp. in the upper grades) I have been observing my mentor listening to the students read. She listens to the way the read - their tone, attitude etc. She doesn't really right down their miscues. But then, that is what the standard calls for. I haven't had a chance to get the students to retell. Chapter 6 discusses the importance of retelling. It is an excellent way to see if the students are understanding what they are reading. I have come across some students who are very good readers in the past but once asked what they had just read, they could not tell me. When my mentor listens to them read, she doesn't do a written record nor does she ask for a retell, what she does instead is gives them certain questions to answer where the students have to understand what they just read in order to answer the questions. I have to say that last semester, I did alot of running records. They were, however, where the words were already written down where we just had to make the marks. I have to say that is way easier to manage. There is less room for error. I guess there has to be a lot more practice.

Ch.5 Randall No Can Handle

Have you done a running record and had to write down a long text word and a long attempt or miscue then had to quickly scan the child's reading to catch up to there place? If you have, this must frustrate you like it has me. I thought you shouldn't interrupt the student, but from what I understand it is okay to tap the student on the shoulder to pause for a moment.This type of "silly" information was cleared up for me in this chapter. There were so many questions I had before reading chapter five like how is running records really going to help us understand what children are using as reading strategies and why do I keep hearing "just right book".

After looking at the Notations to Record Children's Oral Reading, I began to realize that these notations are the same mistakes that the children I'm working with either make or have made while reading. It was interesting to see because all this time I've been wondering why we used these notations and it' s because they are common amongst children rather than a bunch of useless information. By knowing which things to look for and that there shouldn't be a curve ball thrown at us, we should already know what to expect during a running record. Put these into practice and finding a "just right book" will be no problem.

The "just right book" isn't something I've been puzzling over because I agree that our students are better off with a just right book instead of a hard one. However, I didn't know what to do with the child once he/she has reached that point and when will they use their just right book. Helping our students reach the level of a book that suits them has now created meaning for me. As teachers, we can't afford to let our students sit in their desk and not have any understanding about creating meaning in text, looking for structure, and how to use visuals as an aid to help read through text. If this is established , only then will the student be able to read independently in his/her "just right book".

Jaime Ch.7 Reflection

In Chapter 7, Taberski writes about different reading strategies teachers can do during read aloud and shared readings to support children to become strategic readers. I’ve done a few shared readings and read aloud at field and the students enjoy it even though their teacher has read them that book for two days in a row. I like Taberski’s strategies for comprehension. Comprehension is so important because without them understanding what they’re reading, they’re just calling out words. Having children stop to think about what they’re reading is a good way to teach comprehension. I’ve seen my mentor do that with her students during a read aloud. She had the students predict the story by looking at the front and back cover. She also had them explain why they made that prediction. It’s interesting to hear the students because a lot of them like to relate their predictions to their own lives. My mentor has also ‘proven’ the students predictions. If a student’s prediction was right, then during the reading she’ll say that this person made a good prediction and again ask why they made that prediction. In the conclusion, Taberski states that she demonstrates the same strategies for read aloud and shared readings “again and again.” In kindergarten, you’re demonstrating EVERYTHING again and again. But it’s okay because repetition helps the children become more confident and they’ll be successful learners.

Leila's Ch. 5 Reflection

Running records provide many benefits for teachers and students compared to traditional written and oral testings. It allows a greater flexibility and opportunities for assessment because it can be taken anytime. You just sit next to a student and listen to them read for a couple of minutes each day. Using running records as a "tool for teaching", teachers can gather explicit information on their students reading such as what kind of reading strategies is he/she using? Also, teachers can discover what level is best for a student to be at. All these insights that running records provide to teachers help better the students to become stronger readers.

As easy as it may sounds, there is more than just making little check marks as the student reads. There are many notations you must learn because it represent actions the student has taken when he/she stumble across unfamiliar words. If you don't record such actions, then you won't get an accurate picture of the student's reading. It is like a doctor making a wrong diagnosis on his/her patient. The worst diagnosis that a teacher can make on a student's reading can either cause the student become frustrate with reading or provide the student with no challenge. It is important that teachers help students find that "just-right" book.