A Gentle Nudge or a Big Push - Acquiring Independence in Reading

A big part of being a fourth grade teacher is helping students to become more independent in their academic environment.  I have always felt strongly about this notion of independence and each year have tried to instill that in my students - mainly by providing a structured environment with an ample amount of modeling in my instructional practices. But with the implementation of Common Core, students are being required to problem-solve and think for themselves, beyond what my past teaching strategies may have provided on a daily basis.  So this past week I got a good lesson in "letting go" thanks to our wonderful Science coach!

The Science Lab at our school has been booked with activity and our coach has been busy supporting teachers in their Science lessons.  My students were scheduled to set up their animal habitats as part of our life science curriculum.  When we arrived, another class was leaving.  Our materials had been gathered but were not set up and organized.  In the past we would have had this activity a little more structured and given the students specific instructions about the procedures of building the habitats.  But instead Ms. Science Coach told the children, "We are building a frog habitat, turn to page 14, read the instructions, come get your materials, and build the habitat." Amazingly, they did it - ALL BY THEMSELVES and DID IT WELL!  They proceeded to build their crab habitats as well, with the same lack of direction!  It was a highly successful moment for my students and myself. The time crunch forced us to let go and see what would happen and it worked!  That one activity has made me believe that it's going to be okay! My students can be independent thinkers and problem-solvers.  I am now determined to take that success and carry it over into other lessons in my classroom.

The Science activity was a perfect example of reading for information and then performing a task.  The Common Core State Standards have a greater emphasis on non-fiction reading and informational texts.  According to the CCSS, Fourth Grade students should be reading about 50% literature and 50% non-fiction.  Unfortunatly, many of our students may initially lack the skills to read informational text with great comprehension.  But, fortunately the iPad classroom can now offer the students support and independence at the same time.  I discovered over the summer that the iPad 2 can read any highlighted text out loud - whether it is on a web page, a text document, or a reading selection from iBooks.  To make the iPad read, go to your Settings, choose Accessibility, choose Speak Select "on", and then set the speaking rate.  Then while reading on the iPad, highlight the text to be read and choose "speak".  It's that simple!  Although I haven't implemented this in my ELA block yet, I am excited about the possibilities it may offer my low to average readers!  I plan on trying it out over the next couple of weeks through our Native American research projects, and some new Discovery Ed non-fiction readers I am purchasing through iBooks.  I'll let you all know how it goes!

I've got to give Ms. Frankie Broom a BIG THANK YOU for giving this structured teacher a gentle nudge . . .  I hope it makes a big difference for my students.