AUTHENTIC ENGAGEMENT vs COMPLIANCE
Authentic engagement is doing work with the purpose of making a difference and making an impact on future endeavors.
It's important that students authentically engage in their learning work rather than just strategically comply. When students authentically engage, they dive deeper into actually doing the work to benefit their own learning goals. When students comply, they are just trying to mark a task off the 'To Do' List.
A few questions to ponder when thinking about authentic student engagement:
Do your students authentically engage in their work?
Does a worksheet cultivate a good reader?
Does silent reading (absolutely silent…all the time….) cultivate a good reader?
Does a student sitting with a book in front of his/her face with a blank stare (a.k.a. FAKE READING) cultivating a good reader?
How can I encourage students to authentically engage in their work rather than strategically comply?
How can I encourage my learners to build on their previous learning?
How can I encourage my learners to work towards their own learning goals?
CHOICE & MOTIVATION
If we want students to become better readers, they have to read what they want to read for their own purposes. If students have a choice in what they read and how they respond to it they will be motivated to do the work.
However, we can’t just walk into a classroom and say “Okay choose your reading!” and expect them to do it and authentically engage. Structures have to be put in place about how to make good choices and how to respond to books.
Structures need to be set so that students can be successful in their work. Students need the teacher’s guiding hand in their reading work to gently nudge them a little farther in their learning.
BUILDING STRUCTURES THAT FOSTER CHOICE & MOTIVATION
Understanding how a reading identity evolves
Students have to know who they are as readers. Help students to identify the kind of reader they are.
Teachers can hold discussions about what kind of reading they do and encourage students to determine what they like to read.
Understanding how to use reading identity to make book choices
Students need to discuss how readers choose books. Walking into a library or a bookstore can be an overwhelming task. There are so many books from which to choose. So, if readers know the kind of reader they are, they will be able to strategize their book browsing and shopping to make that task a little less overwhelming.
In order to keep students engaged in their reading, they need to know how to choose books that are just right for them. We have to guide students to make good book choices.
Understanding how to TALK TALK TALK about books
Another strategy for student motivation and engagement is talking.
When teachers get a new book, we don’t want to keep it to ourselves. We want to TALK! When I finish reading a novel, I want to TALK! I remember when my daughter finished The Maze Runner, she came racing down the stairs to tell me she finished and started talking about the characters. When she finished The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, she cried and we had a conversation about World War II.
Reading is a way to spark conversation and develop those listening and speaking skills in our students. Readers need to understand how to engage in book talk.
Understand how readers listen to their inner voice while reading
If we want readers to stop and think while they are reading their Just Right book, we have to help them understand the little voice that talks to them while they read.
When we hear that inner voice talking, good readers know that is a time to stop and jot down the thinking. Students will begin to realize that their inner voice is making predictions, connections, drawing conclusions and so much more.
When teachers have these discussions with students, this will provide confirmation about what kind of thinking they are doing and what they can write on their post it notes. It’s a good idea to create an anchor chart as a reminder for students.
Consider introducing a choice board
If you see that making choices about books and engaging in the text is a challenge, you can structure the choices by using a Choice Board.
A choice board establishes strategies to motivate students to make their own choices about what they are reading and to make choices in how they respond to books.
There are a plethora of Choice Boards to find with just a simple search on Google or Teacher Pay Teachers. Choice Boards are also easy to make yourself. Choice Boards can be specific to a particular book or topic; but, can also be more open-ended.
INDEPENDENT READING SHOULD BE THE BUSIEST PART OF A TEACHER'S DAY
Independent Reading is not a time for teachers to disengage. Independent Reading should be one of the busiest parts of a teacher’s day. Many teachers have raised many questions about what Independent Reading looks like in the classroom.
My Secret Confession:
When I started teaching in my first classroom, SSR (Sustained Silent Reading), aka, DEAR (Drop Everything and Read), was a daily staple in my schedule. We never missed SSR. Unfortunately, it wasn’t for the right reasons.
I watched the other teachers on my campus stop and read their own books while kids were doing the same. There was even one teacher who admitted she took a little cat nap. Who’s to say her little people weren’t doing the same?
I hate to admit it, but I looked forward to SSR because it was a time in the day where I could get off my feet for a little while. It wasn’t until a literacy consultant came to my campus the 2nd year of my teaching to provide PD on Balanced Literacy, that I began to realize that I needed to be teaching my rear end off during that time—one student at a time!
It wasn't until that literacy consultant stepped into my classroom during my 2nd year of teaching that I truly understood the importance of instruction during independent reading.
Teacher leaders in literacy have discussed in their professional publications and professional development sessions that independent work time is where the most intensive and focused instruction takes place.
It's here that teachers are working in small groups and conferring with individual students based on unique needs observed in the students' work & learned through conferring conversations.
Back to my early teaching confession, I had to be more prepared & organized for independent work time than the actual lesson. Independent work is where you must know each of your students' individual and unique needs.
Teachers must be just as prepared for Independent Reading as they are for other parts of their day. They must be prepared for meeting with individual students and small groups to help them move forward in their reading.
INSTRUCTIONAL TOOLS TO UNCOVER UNIQUE INDEPENDENT READING NEEDS
Every teacher needs a progress monitoring playbook--a solid plan with easy to use tools to informally assess a student's independent work to determine their unique learning needs.
What's in a Progress Monitoring Playbook?
✅Informal Running Record Form and Comprehension Check
A simple informal running record form is needed to keep track of a student's reading without pulling out that formal box of assessments.
This informal running record form should track several components of a child's reading in just a few minutes of time.
✅ A Conferring Toolkit
Anecdotal notes are a teacher's best friend because these provide an ongoing snapshot of each child's reading progress.
Conferring with readers is not just a check in; it has a purpose for that particular reader based on their reading performance so far.
A system for keeping track of these records will benefit you so that you are prepared & organized for teaching each reader. A handy collection of essential tools is also needed so that you have a toolkit to pull from that could address a reader's particular need.
✅ Conferring Guidelines
Students need to understand the purpose of individual conferences as well as procedures for requesting a conference.
Learners also need a clear cut plan for how to participate during a conference.
Teachers should be prepared to demonstrate for the classroom group what an individual conference looks like and sounds like.
✅ Reading Level Tracking Charts
Reading level progress charts keep track of student progress on reading levels throughout the year or several school years.
These forms are meant to be beneficial to understanding where each reader is and where they are expected to be within a given time frame.
It is up to the teacher to determine if this tracking form is for teacher eyes only or if it should be shared with the students too.
✅ Reading Logs or Personal Book Shelf
Individual reading logs or a personal book shelf provides a glimpse into the kind of readers you have in the classroom.
These reading logs and personal bookshelves provide you with a snapshot of your readers' engagement and behavior during independent reading.
This type of reading documentation form can be used with readers during a conferring session to determine their own behaviors and engagement during reading.
✅ Written Response Rubrics
Rubrics for written reading responses are helpful in guiding your teaching decisions as well as helping students understand what his or her strengths and needs are when responding.
Rubrics can be created for longer written responses and even for short responses such as short jots about thinking during independent reading. Learners need a clear guide of what is expected within written reading responses.
✅ Discussion Guidelines and Rubric
Readers need to be expected to engage in book talk. However, readers need a clear guide in how to participate in reading discussions.
Learners should be given a rubric of expectations and talking stems to guide their participation in discussions.
This will likely evolve throughout the school year but gives readers a starting point of what is expected when it comes to talking about books.
✅ Student Created Reading and Writing Goals
Readers need to set their own personal learning goals. Learners need a step by step guide to engage in creating and writing their own learning goals for reading and writing.
Learners need a clear plan for how to review previous work and reflect on how they are doing as readers (and writers).
When readers can reflect on their own work and discuss what they want to do as readers and writers, they will find a clear path for writing their own learning goals (with the teacher's guidance, of course)
When students take part in authentic engagement, their classroom has structures in place that encourage that real practice. The teachers have packed their instructional toolkits with the necessary tools and resources to consistently uncover student learning needs as learners work independently.
Authentic engagement will have learners diving deeper into their reading & writing as they work towards achieving their own personal learning goals.
Instructional resources and tools pictured in this article can be found here
Progress Monitoring Tools
Click product images below to find the individual resources or read more about these tools bundled together in this ⬇️⬇️ Progress Monitoring Toolkit Bundle⬇️⬇️ here
✅Informal Running Record
Form and Comprehension Check
✅ A Conferring Toolkit
✅ Conferring Guidelines
✅ Reading Level Tracking Charts
✅ Reading Logs or Personal Book Shelf
✅ Written Response Rubrics
✅ Discussion Guidelines and Rubric
✅ Student Created Reading and Writing Goals
Independent Reading Structures
✔️ Understanding how a reading identity evolves
✔️ Understanding how to use reading identity to make book choices
✔️ Understanding how to TALK TALK TALK about books
✔️ Understand how readers listen to their inner voice while reading
✔️ Consider introducing a choice board
Click product images below to find the individual resources or read more about these tools bundled together in the Reading Minilesson Collection
Until next time...
