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Everything in the book comes from conversations with real kids and teachers. I surveyed students during conferences to discover their interests, which helped me to choose motivating materials and develop short lessons that students completed over three consecutive days. Fifth grade ELA teachers working with me tested the lessons, and their feedback allowed me to adjust and refine.
David, can you explain the process of deciding on topics that would engage this age group?
Laura provided a first list of subjects to consider and I added to it. As the list grew, each topic had to pass several litmus tests, the first being: Would it capture the interest of our readers? Sitting at my keyboard, I would imagine a 5th grade boy somewhere who needed to get better at reading, wanted to desperately, and deserved something to read that grabbed him, made him want to push on to learn what was coming next. Somewhere else an 8th grade girl had exactly the same problem, except she was four years older than the first student. About all they had in common was they were both developing readers. My challenge was to keep both kids in mind with every decision I made and word I wrote.
Laura, in the book you offer two kinds of guided practice lessons. Can you explain each one and how they can help learners?
While working with students, I observed their growth, strengths, and questions to identify areas needing practice such as: writing about reading in notebooks and trusting their thinking about questions and prompts. Instead of overloading students with too much practice, I created two different lessons: Partner Discussion and Shared Reading Lessons. In the book, both types of lessons open with students enlarging their background knowledge by watching one to two, completing word work, and then silently following as teachers read the text out loud with expression and fluency. Lessons close with quick assessment ideas and suggestions for supporting students.
Partner Discussion Lessons ask teachers to pair-up students and invite partners to select questions or prompts they’d like to discuss. Teachers remind students to provide text details to support their responses. In addition, writing about reading that can improve students’ comprehension is a feature of these lessons. There are guidelines for teachers to model in a “cold write” for students who in turn use the model as a resource when they complete notebook writing.
Shared Reading Lessons invite students to think about a text’s meaning independently. Teachers divide texts into meaningful chunks, pose open-ended questions, provide think-time, and ask students to volunteer and respond using text details as to support ideas. Students risk sharing ideas in classes where teachers build trusting relationships and create a community of learners where everyone feels safe.
David, I noticed you include a variety of genres—is there a reason for this?
My poems and texts needed to engage kids as much as four years apart in age and who would have vastly different interests and social priorities. I needed to appeal to their age appropriate intellectual and social development, using vocabulary to allow access to the material without the frustration and discouragement they’ve so often encountered. To accomplish that we wanted to present a wide variety of subjects presented in a rich menu of genres. Our final selections were chosen based on a variety of subjects, balance of topics, awareness of diversity among our readers, backgrounds, and core school subjects.
Laura, you offer directions to teachers for developing their own lessons. Can you explain why?
David and I agreed it was important for teachers to be able to create their own guided practice lessons. Having this skill allows teachers to choose texts they believe students will enjoy and create lessons that respond to needs students reveal during practice and while conferring. Directions for developing lessons are in the book’s Appendix as well as two poems and two short texts by David. Teachers will also find lists of texts they can explore to find short pieces.
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