Don't worry Megan...you're not the only one who slacked this semester. I don't know what it was, I just felt so overwhelmed. Sorry this is so late, and still not complete.

Chapter 3 – Taberski

I love the idea of having an informal classroom. Sometimes the classroom (and school in general) can be a scary place for students. Your classroom should be like a safe haven for them to go to if they need help with anything or just need a place to go. But in order for that to happen, the students need to feel comfortable in the classroom. It should have more of a relaxing feel to it, rather than intimidating.

Another thing I would love to have is an organized classroom. That might be hard for me since I’m not a very organized person. Well, actually, it’s more that it’s hard for me to get organized. If I start out organized, I have a better chance of keeping it that way. I really like how Taberski has designated areas in her classroom for everything. She has a meeting area, a conference table, etc. I do see that in many classes, but the areas are either inconsistent, or are all in the same area. But I think one of the main problems about having different designated areas is that most classrooms in Hawaii aren’t that spacious. Looking at Taberski’s layout of her classroom, it appears to be fairly roomy. As a teacher, you have to learn to work with what you’re given. So even though I won’t have a separate area for each thing, I can still have the same things in consistent areas of the classroom.

Chapter 4 – Taberski

One of the most difficult things about being a teacher, and one thing I’m afraid I might fail at, is knowing your students. For every student, for every subject, we as teachers need to know and understand the needs of every child. What they need help with, what they already know, what’s the best strategy to use. As Taberski puts it, “I teach not a class of twenty-six, but twenty-six individuals.”

It seems there are so many different things you have to look out for. What cueing systems/strategies are they using, are they reading different genres, are they becoming more fluent. That’s why it’s a great idea to have a reading folder. It’s not only for the students, but also to help you remember things about the student. You can also easily compare the results from their last conference to the most recent.

Reading conferences are still a semi-foreign topic to me. I haven’t really done an official reading conference with a student yet. I guess the closet thing I’ve done to one are the running records. One thing that I always wondered how it’s done is being able to conference with every student. How do I set it up so I know I can meet with every student? I really like the setup that Taberski uses for her reading conferences. She has the students sitting around a table and rotate seats when it’s time for another students’ conference. That way they know when it’s their turn, and she knows she met with everyone.

Chapter 5 – Taberski

I really like running records. They’re really simple and easy to do, yet they can say a lot about a child’s reading abilities.

I noticed that in the book, there are a lot more notations to be used than the ones we learned in class. When I did my running records with my students, I just used the basic marks. Besides all the different marks, I really need to learn how to estimate the rate of accuracy for the records. That’s one thing I didn’t do for my running records. In the book, Taberski says that she doesn’t use algorithms to find the rates, she just estimates them. I guess that makes sense, but that means that for every running record I would have to go back to the book and count all the words that student read. I don’t know if it’s just me, but when I do running records, I could be making more or less check marks than what the students actually read. Sometimes they read too fast for me to keep up with them, especially if they have a lot of words they missed. I have to write the substitutions they made, the actual word, and then catch up to where they are. And since we’re only supposed to meet with them for about two minutes each, they don’t always finish the whole book. I guess the only thing I could do is keep the book they were reading, mark where they stopped, and do the ratings later.

Chapter 6 – Taberski

I did some retellings after my running records. I just wanted to try it out, see if they were actually reading or just saying words. Some of them got it, some of them didn’t. For some of them it took a while to retell the story, others did it in seconds.

It seems that Taberski does her retellings in separate conferences than when she does the running records. I did mine right afterwards. Is that wrong to do? Although, she does go more in depth than I did. I like the idea of tape-recording the students’ retellings. That way you don’t have to assess them right away. You can focus on how to help them understand and comprehend the story. Then later you can listen to the recording and see how well they actually did retelling the story.

It’s funny to read this chapter and then actually do it in real-life. You can really see all these things that Taberski is writing about. For instance, when she’s explaining what a retelling is, she says that some children might explain the entire narrative, page by page. But a retelling is more like a summary, the main points in the story, and an explanation of what happened. If they can keep it simple and straight to the point, then you know they comprehended the story well. I’ve had both ends of the spectrum.

Chapter 7 – Taberski

I know I’ve said this before, but it’s still interesting to read this book and actually see and use all of this in the classroom. Read alouds and shared readings are strategies that we all got to experience in real-life classrooms. Everything that Greg taught us in class is in Taberski’s book.

I think these two strategies are awesome. Like Greg has said many a times, kids, no matter how old, love to be read to; especially when you have a good reader to read it to you. Some people have so much enthusiasm when they read that it captivates anyone listening. And that’s how read alouds and shared readings help kids explore different genres and motivate then to want to read.

Read alouds and shared readings also help kids to write. These writings not only help them better themselves at writing, but also show their comprehension of the stories. In my class, my students do this. Sometimes they write about their favorite part, their favorite character, the author’s message, or a book recommendation. It’s an effective way to check where they are in their writing as well as to assess their understanding of book the book and the topic they have to write about.