Guest Posted March 12, 2004 Share Posted March 12, 2004 hi i thought i would copy Susans topic intro! how do other people organise their reading? I'm a Reception teacher and think my school places a great emphasis on 1-1 reading! Just wondered how other schools compare. all my children need to have their reading book changed twice and week and be heard by an adult twice a week, until recently i was expected to hear them all read in a week. this was taking 2 afternoons a week and resembled a conveyor belt system! In addition to this I spend a morning doing group reading! I have now eased the situation by negotiating with the Head and hearing half of the class one week and half the next ( my TA and parent helpers hear the rest) I just wondered if this much reading was the norm as I find that I have little time for other activities, and often feel that 1-1 reading sessions are usually so rushed that they are of little value! Lizz xxxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted March 12, 2004 Share Posted March 12, 2004 Hi, I'm inclined to agree with you lizz. Like the writing it is something I am re-evaluating at the moment because I actually feel I do not do enough individual reading. We have been learning reading skills in shared reading and in Guided reading. We have used Jolly Phonics extensive and I'm working on getting children to hear the word generated by the sounds they have identified. But I have not been hearing them read on their own until this week. I am just beginning to introduce this and will also have it as an activity for Guided reading time with my NN, as I have the group and she works with everyone else. I try to have a guided reading/ book skills session every day but am very conscious that the input I give can vary greatly from beginning to end of week. Children sometimes don't want to wait for a turn either, so a morning as a reading focus could work well. I'll ponder on that one! I do not change reading books more than 2 or 3 times a week, as that also is amazingly time consuming. We've managed to cut the time a little by sitting everyone in a circle and passing books around, they then show me the title and I can record which book has gone home as we don't follow a scheme with a progression. Any other thoughts welcomed! Susan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 19, 2004 Share Posted March 19, 2004 I too struggle with this one! At the moment the children only change their books on a Monday and their library books on a wednesday, but they take 5 books home a week. It is so much easier this way and I encourage parents to spread the reading out. The children take home 3 levelled books, 1 library book of their choice and a book from our book corner of their choice. I feel this covers everything! Listening to them read 1:1 is a complete nightmare. I tend to do guided reading sessions and hear the children read individually within those sessions. If I am doing an assessment of how well they are using the skills taught to them e.g. sounding words out etc. then I hear them read individually, but that is the only time. If anyone out there has any bright ideas, I would be very interested to hear them! Shelley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 I've changed my organisation of reading this year. Having tried only group reading for the last 3 years and watched the children's attainment in reading go down, I decided to reintroduce individual reading during the first term and then develop groups as children became confident with text and each other. I use our core scheme Oxford Reading Tree for this guided reading. It is very good for contextual cuing and the children adore the stories. We have just bought Rigby Rockets for Home/School use and this has proved to be a fantastic resource for getting our children on the road to independent reading. I am much happier this year but I would still like to know how to stop the rest of my class from interrupting me or needing me when I am reading with an individual or group! Any good ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 22, 2004 Share Posted April 22, 2004 Hiya, I've never heard of Rigby Rockets. Who are the publishers? I am wanting to buy some new books as the starters for my class. We use the old Ginn360 which start with "Look" and while I like the very limited vocab which gives a sense of success, they are rather dated. So I'm on the hunt! (we eventually get them onto Oxford Reading Tree). Thanks heyjude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted April 22, 2004 Share Posted April 22, 2004 Somehow I missed Paus post. For my children Guided reading is more successful. But easier with proper graded resources using NLS keywords! Rigby Rockets are published by Rigby-part of Heinneman I think. Look at www.myprimary.co.uk They are brilliant as are Rigby star the Guided reading books but very expensive. I've just bought these and the non fiction National Geographical readers for our school. They are specially written using the NLS keywords and are colour coded to Book bands. Excellent support materials available too for ICT and Big books, and for parents and teachers. Perhaps I ought to join the sales team? Susan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 30, 2004 Share Posted April 30, 2004 Yesterday a lady from Ginn (I think?) came in to show us books. I have just ordered the Rocket home readers which I am hoping will be a great success. I particularly liked them because on the inside of the front cover it tells the parents what to do before reading the book and on the inside of the back cover it has questions the parents should ask their child about the story. I have ordered the 2 lowest levels (pink and red) with the hope that the parents will get used to asking the right type of questions when reading with their children and once in the habit will use that knowledge when reading books at a higher level. I find that group reading works well for me. The children also read with older children once a week. It is interesting that many of you are just using one reading scheme. We don't follow a scheme, but we do have books from some of the schemes. Our school has levelled the books into boxes and we read a variety. I am following the Early Reading Research programme and one of the key principles behind it is that children should read a range of texts otherwise they lean to recognise words in one font type only. What do you all think? Shelley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 1, 2004 Share Posted May 1, 2004 It's really interesting to see how differently people manage reading in their reception classes. We change their home reading books 2xweekly (we use Oxford Reading Tree which we intersperse with other books if we feel they need reinforcement of vocab. etc). I am very conscious that I rarely listen to children one:one, but only weekly in a guided reading session. I like guided reading as you can teach strategies to 4/5 children at once instead of one at a time and they also help each other - acting as role models. We read books from outside the scheme, but our resources of multiple copied books are not brilliant! Other than that I listen to them 1:1 when they are moving to a new level or if parents' comments alert me to a possible problem, and my TA and I pick up children who don't read regularly at home. I'm lucky to have an excellent TA who has a system for changing the books and is alert to any problems! I've been honest with parents about this, emphasising that we rely on them regularly reading with their children and letting us know of worries they have and - surprisingly maybe - they have been very supportive on the whole. The main point is we TEACH reading in shared/guided reading sessions and I have found in the past that 1:1 reading in the context of a busy classroom is ineffective because of interruptions etc. and it really is only PRACTISING reading (although I do value the opportunity to chat to the children and get to know them better!) Sorry this is a bit lengthy ....... ! JackyP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 1, 2004 Share Posted May 1, 2004 I am a Nursery teacher and some of my children have started taking home reading books- Oxford reading scheme. We do a lot of whole class 'reading' and I prefer to hear my readers myself. This is so that i can monitor progress at this early stage of emmergent literacy. My problem is finding time to do this regularly within the 2 1/2 hours available each day. I do a lot of c-v-c word building as well during my 1-1 reading sessions. I also try to get 2 chidlren explaining or reading the sotry to each other and they enjoy this as it makes them feel very important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 1, 2004 Share Posted May 1, 2004 OOPs I've just realised that this is a dedicated Reception Yr 1 spot. But please do give me your feedback Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 1, 2004 Share Posted May 1, 2004 Hi Priya Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting. Dont worry about where you post-most of us reply to most of the topics. Its good to know what diferent peolpe from each of the settings are doing. Hope to hear from you more. Linda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 IT's always going to depend on what works for each person in their setting and how many extra pairs of hands are around! I have a variety of strategies similar to others. My children are grouped and once a week they have a guided reading and PiPs session. We have found it useful to weave the two together - PiPs games reinforcing or introducing things they encounter in the books. My TA takes this with a different group every day. We also do work on key words in our small groups and using Jolly Phonics do whole class work on blending etc. We ensure that between us (me, a full time and a part-time teacher) we hear every child individually every week and parents come in to help on top of that. This helps us to know where each child is at because we have a few who do not participate readily in guided reading sessions. We use a mixture of reading schemes and are currently looking at replacing our very old GINN 360 readers ("Look", "here" etc.) Any suggestions on what we can replace them with as first take home readers? Good to chat heyjude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 Hi Leo & welcome, you must be doing really well if your nursery children are doing that much reading.As for fitting it in in a 2 & 1/2 hr session, well it can be impossible in a full day! How many children do you have? Heyjude, Rigby Rockets and Rigby Starr are the Individual & Guided readers published by Rigby part of the Heinnemann group. They use the NLS keywords and are book banded (re ELS). Children really love them and theres good support for parents and teachers in the respective sets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 HI also to Jackyp & welcome. You make some really relevant and pertinent points Jacky. Guided reading can be really successful. I find if children are not interacting I regroup them and so far I've managed to overcome their reluctance. In my predominant EAL classroom I often have children who are reluctant to speak but who will participate in a non verbally in a GUided Reading group and at least I can assess their book skills in this context and move them on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 Hi Susan, I have 20 children in my nursery and 5 who are on the 1st words oxford reading tree scheme. Then 8 on the oxford reading tree without words. But I feel it is important to hear all 13 sometime during the week. It's also hard to convince parents that books without words are reading books as well. We make a big deal about the chidlren getting these 'wordless' books and say its very important for children to make up stories that they can relate to others. I have had 'pushy 'parents who are quite open about their dislike about 'these' books and this puts the child off reading as well. I think this forum is wonderful just to know that you are not alone. Often you are dictated so much by the importance of KS1 and KS2 that Foundation stage and \nursery is considered easy work as children are 'just playing' But suprisingly none of those teachers want to spend any time within the nursery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts