Read-a-Rama
The class teacher in Grade One this year (2015) was finding it difficult to hear all kids read and get a good idea of the levels her students were reading at. I worked on an organizational system that would allow her more time for this, presented it to her and 'Read-a-Rama' was born.
The students rotate through 8 different reading experiences over the week (2 a day). These are independent, allowing the adults in the room (teacher, teacher aide and parents) to hear each individual child read. Read-a-Rama ends each day when all the kids have been heard. Sometimes this takes the full half hour, sometimes less.
The teacher has a conferencing sheet for each child to record comments about their reading and over the week every child has at least one comment recorded. (Only the teachers fill these in - other adults in the room, simply sign the children's check card.
The students have enjoyed the variety of reading experiences this has allowed them, all children can have their reading heard each day we do Read-a-Rama (4 days a week) either by teacher, teacher-aide or parents (as a support teacher I continued to put my focus on the struggling readers but also got to hear so many more of the kids reading). The reading materials needed to be changed over about twice a term. We switched out the author collections frequently, just by loaning from the school library. I had a set of Where's Wally books which pushed the limit of what could be called reading, but the kids loved them and we switched them out later for Garfield books. Big books were also very popular and we had a bunch of youtube clips ready for the kids to do for 'Listen to Reading'. I also made some 4-line poetry books the kids could use and we did these together as a class first, so the weaker readers could use rhyme and memory to help them read them. It was a bit of work at the start to get the centres set up but once they were, it pretty much ran like a dream. Teacher feedback indicates that Read-a-Rama allowed her to gather a great deal more information about each child's reading which made for better catering for individual needs and making sure students were reading 'good fit' books.
The students rotate through 8 different reading experiences over the week (2 a day). These are independent, allowing the adults in the room (teacher, teacher aide and parents) to hear each individual child read. Read-a-Rama ends each day when all the kids have been heard. Sometimes this takes the full half hour, sometimes less.
The teacher has a conferencing sheet for each child to record comments about their reading and over the week every child has at least one comment recorded. (Only the teachers fill these in - other adults in the room, simply sign the children's check card.
The students have enjoyed the variety of reading experiences this has allowed them, all children can have their reading heard each day we do Read-a-Rama (4 days a week) either by teacher, teacher-aide or parents (as a support teacher I continued to put my focus on the struggling readers but also got to hear so many more of the kids reading). The reading materials needed to be changed over about twice a term. We switched out the author collections frequently, just by loaning from the school library. I had a set of Where's Wally books which pushed the limit of what could be called reading, but the kids loved them and we switched them out later for Garfield books. Big books were also very popular and we had a bunch of youtube clips ready for the kids to do for 'Listen to Reading'. I also made some 4-line poetry books the kids could use and we did these together as a class first, so the weaker readers could use rhyme and memory to help them read them. It was a bit of work at the start to get the centres set up but once they were, it pretty much ran like a dream. Teacher feedback indicates that Read-a-Rama allowed her to gather a great deal more information about each child's reading which made for better catering for individual needs and making sure students were reading 'good fit' books.
Read-a-Rama Rotations
(1 pg word doc)
(1 pg word doc)
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Read-a-Rama Icons
(3 pg word doc) |
Read-a-Rama Signs
(1 pg word doc) |
Read-a-Rama ended up becoming part of the Grade 2s' daily literature lessons. We made some modifications to combine it with the good stuff that was already happening. The Grade 2 focus was to allow more guided reading time.
Read-a-Rama Grade Two
(1 pg word doc) |
Read-a-Rama Grade Two Icons
(2 pg word doc) |