By Laura Robb

Students enjoy reading partnerships. The comments that follow were part of reflections they wrote after experiencing this relationship:

•      “I love talking about my book to a partner.”
•      “My reading partner helps when I’m confused.”
•      “My partner helps me find books to read.”
•      “I can ask my partner for help.”

Students’ reflections point to the benefits partnerships have for teachers and students. What these comments teach us is the sharing and supporting between partners results in learning, independence, and the development of self-confidence and efficacy.

•      Provides more time for teachers. When students learn to support one another and respond to partners’ needs, the teacher experiences fewer disruptions. This translates into extra time to confer, coach, or scaffold students. It also permits teachers to pull groups for guided reading or to discuss diverse texts of the same genre.
•      Taps into the social aspect of reading. Students love to talk to their peers. Moreover, in middle grades and middle school, students value peer opinions on a range of topics, including books they liked and disliked. Focusing discussions on favorite books and/or suggesting titles to each other can deepen students’ interest in reading.  
•      Develops independence for students. Partners can help each other unpack meaning from a confusing section of text, understand tough words, share background knowledge, and clarify a journaling task. Students have opportunities to get to know how a peer approaches reading and writing about reading. All this practice enables students to solve problems independently.

Organizing Partnerships

        Sometimes students choose a reading partner and other times, the teacher might organize reading partners for a unit of study that runs five to six weeks. Help students understand that if their partner is deep into reading or working on a project, they should feel free to ask another student for assistance.

What follows are suggestions for using partnerships to boost students’ comprehension, fluency, and enlarge their vocabulary.

Pair-Shares: The turn-and-talk strategy invites students to share, with a partner, their thoughts about a book the teacher reads aloud, a strategy such as making inferences, or a video clip, etc.

Poetry Partners.  Each pair selects a poem to practice reading aloud to a partner for four days, and on the fifth day, students perform the poem. Dr. Timothy Rasinski, an expert on fluency, favors this strategy. On the first day, students read their poem to themselves, then out loud to each other, and discuss its meaning. Then, they practice reading the poem out loud each day prior to performance day to develop fluency, expression, and comprehension—and enlarge their vocabulary.

Written Conversations About Reading. Partners can have written conversations on paper or on a computer about teacher read alouds, guided reading books, a lesson, a theme such as stereotypes, and genres such as science fiction. Students set up their written conversation with both names at the top of the paper and jot the book’s title or topic under their names. Students write their name followed by a colon each time they respond. Partners take turns commenting on each other’s ideas, asking an open-ended question, adding information, or offering a different interpretation. Teachers can read these to gain insights into students’ thinking.

Closing Thoughts

Sharing ideas, supporting and helping one another, developing friendships, valuing diverse interpretations combine to make reading partnerships valuable and memorable learning experiences. Always reserve time every few weeks to invite students to reflect on and write about their peer partnership experiences, then discuss these with their partner. What happens is both students read about how they impacted their partner’s learning, and in those moments, students strengthen their self-confidence and resolve to continue to work hard and learn.

Laura has written many excellent books! Check out The Reading Intervention Toolkit

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Educators and departments of education often believe that’s what’s new in learning will bring about significant change. I remember when filmstrip and film loop devices, as well as cassette players, were going to change education. In learning centers, my fifth-grade students watched filmstrips about history, science, or math; they listened to tapes of authors discussing their books.  For several years, classrooms had a television monitor, and part of the curriculum was students watching science experiments and listening to current events. In those moments, we believed this was cutting edge learning! WRONG!

Today, most classrooms have several computers and tablets and soon all students will have a laptop and/or a tablet.  Beware of using technology to continue practices that need to go: completing worksheets, answering questions at the end of each chapter of a book, or looking up a list of words on an online dictionary. Technology, used well can enhance learning and the digital natives you teach will appreciate Padlet, which allows them to respond to a discussion or story in real time, Storybird for digital storytelling, and an app to create digital portfolios.

Changes in education are abundant and continually happen. However, if we look back, we can see some of these past needs—must-haves—have faded away.  I’d be hard-pressed to find a filmstrip, film loop viewer, television, or a cassette tape player in any classroom today.  So now, it’s time to state one truth: needs and wants in education change, but there’s one exception: books.

        Too many educators in administrative positions in school districts and in state departments of education believe books are a want and not a need.  Instead of investing in books and teachers, too many schools purchase expensive reading programs on computers, believing that technology will transform students reading far below grade level into readers. Reading short selections on a computer, working on skills in isolation, and answering a set of multiple-choice questions doesn’t improve students’ reading skill. Looking for technology to make a quick fix can’t work as interacting with a computer doesn’t develop students’ ability to read long, complex texts, discuss texts, become active listeners, develop stamina, and analyze details. I’m in favor of using technology to enhance learning, not to replace interactions between students and a highly skilled teacher. All readers, especially those in grades 4 to 8 reading at a primary level need a skilled teacher and books.  And here are ten reasons why.  #booksandteachersmatter

Ten Reasons Why Books and Skilled Teachers Are Needs     

1. Skilled teachers love to learn. To become a skilled reading teacher means keeping abreast of the newest research and best practices. Skilled teachers read professional books and articles and join Twitter to develop a PLN (Personal Learning Network) so they can make a difference in the reading lives of children.
2. Reading is social. In addition to students interacting with the book’s author, they benefit from interacting with peers during guided reading, student-led literature circles, and book clubs. A need to share emotions, fears, and predictions are part of reading. Conversations bond readers to books because talk can affect their hearts and minds. To share ideas with others—to talk about books in a group or conference—not only improves recall and understanding but also invites readers to organize their ideas so listeners understand them.
3. Teachers provide face-to-face positive feedback. Working with small groups enables teachers to notice and spotlight interactions that work. Building on positive behaviors—“I notice how you found evidence to support your inference.” or “I noticed how well you used picture clues to figure out that word’s meaning,”–develops the self-confidence students need to continue to work hard.
4. Teachers form relationships that motivate students.  It’s impossible to form a meaningful relationship with a computer. But when teachers and students interact with books, opportunities abound to develop trust and experience humor in a nurturing environment.
5. Teachers make decisions to support readers.  Computers can grade multiple choice tests and cite the number right and the type of questions a student missed such as factual, main idea, inferring. A skilled teacher offers helpful feedback in the moment and then uses what students say and do to make decisions about interventions and next steps.
6. Teachers cultivate critical thinking and inferring. Whether working with a small group or one-on-one, teachers can model the process of inferring or using context clues to determine a word’s meaning.  By thinking aloud and modeling, teachers build students’ mental model of how a process works.
7. Books by the finest writers should be read.  When students read beautifully written, engaging books, they also learn about excellent writing and how specific genres work.
8. Volume matters. The number of books students read with the guidance of a teacher and the amount of independent reading they complete matters.  The more students read and practice, the more they improve and move forward.
9. Picture books develop visual literacy. Instead of reproducible books, learning to “read and interpret” outstanding photos or illustrations is frequently students’ introduction to art and critical thinking.  
10. Poetry cultivates fluency and comprehension. Follow Tim Rasinski’s advice and research and have students select a poem a week, practice saying the poem to a partner, and performing the poems to develop fluency and improve vocabulary and comprehension in an authentic way.         

Closing Thoughts

Remember, no replacement exists for a highly skilled teacher, and every child deserves one. Immersing students in books, giving them choice, and allowing them the time to learn how to self-select a book they can read for independent reading can make a huge difference in their progress and desire to read at home and school.

Books and skilled teachers make a difference in learning to read and developing a rich, personal reading life. Malala Yousafzai understood the power of the book, the pen, and an educated child when she said: “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first.” Malala Yousafzai  #booksandteachersmatter

Differentiating Reading Instruction By Laura Robb

Before July 2013, I was clueless about the wide world of connectivity afforded by Twitter and other social media platforms. True, since childhood, I have been a wonderer who curiously gathered information to expand knowledge and experiences. True, I have attended countless conferences and learned from the some of the best literacy and technology luminaries. But not until I retired from public education, did I realize the potential of Twitter for continuous professional development and deeper wondering. It was then, that I took a leap of faith and became a connected educator, consultant, and  global citizen reaching out to educators across the world. Thanks to guidance from JoEllen McCarthy and Tony  Sinanis, Twitter became my viable channel to express myself, connect, and collaborate on issues of importance with educators beyond my region.

Moving from unconnected to connected has been an expansive journey for me from no exposure, to lurking, to moderating #NYEDChat, to interviewing connected educators, like Tom Whitby live on Google Hangout, to creating fifteen poetry galleries of artistic expressions. I titled my blog, Beyond LiteracyLink, because of the interactive nature of my journey from unconnected to connect. Then, a couple of years ago, I found Wonderopolis, a site “where the wonders of learning never cease…where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery in learners of all ages.” Delving deeper into the resources afforded by this free site, led to being appointed a Wonder Lead Ambassador for Wonderopolis. I now write for Wonderopolis from the Wonder Ground, offering educators ideas on curiosity-powered instruction for today’s interactive classrooms. The steps on my journey opened doors to engage in collaborative conversation, pursue professional wonder, and rank among the thousands of worldwide, connected educators inspired to expand their knowledge base.

For me and other connected educators, wondering is an active practice, a journey toward exploration and discovery from “that is the way we always did it” approach to innovative, vigorous teaching. It is a spark to create change in practice. Through the rise of the connected educator movement, I have watched professional wonder grow in intensity. Twitter chats have globalized the asynchronous collegial circles that I designed over a decade ago. At focused, weekly convos, connected colleagues and I seek to enhance our professional wonder. We converse with other educators, parents, and community members to voice opinions on various topics and chat with students whose voices are strong representations of the younger generation. We support each other; nurture our love of learning, share successes, and review missteps with reflective action as steppingstones to success.

You may ask but why Twitter as a framework for conversation? Is it a viable platform for 21st-century discourse? For connected educators, Twitter is a place to listen, collaborate, share ideas, and gather new knowledge beyond the walls of the classroom, school building, or community. It is easily accessible and opens twenty-four hours for global networking. Recognizing that one-shot professional development is not successful in sustaining change and increasing professional wonder, Twitter provides  21st-century professional wonderers an asynchronous digital platform to explore global approaches to teaching and learning.

Final Thoughts

Professional wonder can be cultivated and sustained through online networking and learning together as connected colleagues. Becoming a unique voice in a diverse world of thought is a positive move. My message is clear: Be a risk taker and continue to wonder about ways to impact teaching and learning.

Tips for Harnessing Professional Wonder:

• Read continuously.
• Explore the possibilities of connected educator conversations.
• Listen and learn alongside passionate educators on Twitter.
• Build your circle of connected educators, your professional learning network.
• When ready, let your voice rise on Twitter.
• Start a blog exploring your professional or personal passions.
• Share your wonders.
• Celebrate learning.
• Let the wonders of being a connected educator impact your professional life.

Follow Carol on Twitter @cvarsalona