If you have been to our recently updated "Literacy Stations" page you know that we spent last week building stamina for "Read to Self" and we are already up to 15 minutes of independent reading. I wish you could be at school to witness this quiet and special time in our room. The children have hand picked 5 books for their book bag which meet their personal interests and are appropriate for their individual reading level. As a result, when they sit down to read they 100% engrossed in the pages. During this time everything in the room is still. As I told the children "it is so quiet, you could hear a pin drop (or according to Brenden, "even a pepperoni!")." The children are completely caught up in their picture books, chapter books, series books, poetry and magazines. They don't even look up when their proud teacher is sneaking around snapping pictures to mark the occasion.
It's hard to describe what it feels like to sit at my desk, hearing only the gentle buzz of tiny voices reading aloud. It truly makes my heart smile. The rewards continue as we come back together to check in after each building stamina session. The children make observations about the reading strategies they used to figure out tricky words, information they learned while reading a non-fiction book, characters they fell in love with in fiction and knowing in their heart a certain book is most certainly a "good fit."
Next week, we'll begin building stamina stamina for "Read to Someone." The children will learn how to sit when they read to someone else, various methods of partner reading and how to check their partner for understanding of what they've read.