Transcript

Each day I conduct an individualized reading conference with at least four students within the classroom. During this reading conference we sit down and I do a running record of the student's reading. 

Now the texts that the student chooses to read to me is based upon the books that they have put in their book bin. Books that they've placed within their book bin are determined by the reading conference and which level that I think the students are reading at. When we sit down to do a reading conference I note which strategies the student is using to be a good reader, and I write them down in the student's journal. I also note what strategies the student could learn and could use for next time that they're reading, something as simple as pointing to the words, it could be discussing the pictures, sounding out the words within the text is also a very important strategy. Maybe there are some students who aren't necessarily ready to sound out the entire word so we focus on the first letter sound that a word makes. 

After the students read, I ask them what did you do to practice being a good reader? I also discuss with that child another thing that they could do to become a good reader, and I take a moment to model or guide or even we do a shared practice of that reading strategy together. And that's something that I write down within the journal as well. So that next time we conference I will go over the, what I call Two Stars, the things that they did really well as a good reader, and the one wish that I had, something I hoped that they would use next time they sat down and read with me. We review that before they read so that they could put those strategies into practice. 

When a student is finished reading a leveled text to me that text generally goes home and they read that text with their parents. Texts are taken home by a book bag. Within the book bag there are assorted strategies that are listed for parents so that they can utilize the strategies that we've been using within the classroom. There's also a sticker sheet which encourages students to bring back their books in a timely manner so that all the texts are coming back at one time, rather than throughout the week.