Discussion #1

Reading Is Strategic
During my reading, one snapshot stood out to me.  It was about a student named Alverro who was reading a story about giraffes.  While he was reading, he got stuck on reading the word "already" rather than understanding the meaning of the text.  As a kindergarten teacher, I spend a lot of time working on decoding strategies when I really should be putting more focus on comprehension.  The teacher worked with Alverro and came up with a plan where he would STOP and think about what he had just read at the end of every page.  In essence, the end of the page became a red light for him. 
In my classroom, I plan on making a stop light to act as a visual reminder for my students and I to take the time to really think about what we have just read throughout the text.  The text said "reading is thinking," and I couldn't agree more.  Teachers have a responsibility to help students to become active readers while still having strong decoding skills. 

Leaving Tracks of Thinking
In the text, the author spoke of the importance of connecting reading and writing.  I loved this quote from the text: "In the same way as animals leave tracks of their presence, we want readers to 'leave tracks of their thinking.'" This includes having students write responses to their thinking on post-it notes, in the margins, and in a writing notebook.
This year, I have been working diligently to have students track their thinking using reader response notebooks.  Everyday, we do a shared reading and respond to the text.  Students love being able to retell the story using pictures, and letters to represent words. 
I plan to tell my students the above quote to help them visualize what I want to see in their writing. 



Interactive Read Alouds
A focal point for me in the classroom this year is comprehension.  One way that I am achieving this is by doing interactive read-alouds, mostly in the form of short chapter books.  While I am reading, I try to focus on a specific comprehension strategy.  I model my thinking and questioning using high interest texts.  In the past I have used Junie B. Jones, Ready Freddy, and plan on using the Peter Rabbit series.  In the past I merely read the story and modeled my thinking.  This year I am trying to go further and I am naming a specific strategy and exposing them to words that will aid them as the progress in school.  For example, I have been using the word "visualize" with my kindergarteners, telling them that I am making a picture in my head. 
I also plan on jotting down my thinking on the easel as we do a read-aloud in order to model some notes or reminders about what I have read.  I also may have my students respond more to the interactive read-alouds in their reader response notebooks.