Happy Martin Luther King Day

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today I wanted to share one of my favorite professional teacher books!  Next Step in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson.  Two years ago, my building did a book study with this book.  It is a great book that focuses on guided reading with the teacher.  If you are not currently doing guided reading, this book will help you organize your lessons based on the level of the readers in your room.  It will not help you with the literacy center/workstation component.   

My favorite part of the book are the one-on-one lessons for pre-emergent readers in kindergarten.  We use these lessons as a foundation in our kindergarten intervention groups.  She does a great job explaining the schools that she has successfully implemented this program (with students that came to school with limited literacy skills), and gives examples of how much growth students had between the beginning and the ends of kindergarten.  My school hasn't had quite the same results, but they are still really good.  I attribute much of the difference in results to attendance issues.  If you aren't at school, it is hard to learn :(

She also includes different activities for different levels. There are specific activities for sight words, individual reading, guided writing, and word word study, depending on the guided reading level. Students that are reading at a level Q have a different lesson plan that students that are reading at a level G.   

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Next-Step-in-Guided-Reading/Jan-Richardson/e/9780545133616

 On a different note, school starts this week.  I drive over an hour to go to class on Thursday nights.  I just saw the syllabus, and I will be busy.  My dissertation proposal is due by May 1st and I take my final comprehensive exams in April.  My goal this semester with my blog is to have Friday Freebies, where an item in the store will be free on Fridays, and then I'll blog about reading strategies we are using at my building.  I would love to blog more, but my coursework kind of takes priority :)

*** Our winners in this weeks drawing were....Alana, Rachel, & Hillary!  Thanks to everyone that participated!