What happens next? They complain and resist reading. Wouldn’t you if you were a student in your class? What about Kendra, the avid reader who already could read the material without any vocabulary preparation? What about Gerard, one of your low readers who is shaky on grade-level material?
These issues can be dealt with if you build into your reading lessons an expectation that they will re-read after the class reading. However, not only should they expect to re-read, but they should have a very special purpose for re-reading.
An example of this might be to explain that their eventual class project will be to write 100 words that sound just like the author of the class story. To do this well, they are to collect the author’s action words in their writing journal as they re-read. That way, when they begin their author-write-alike, they will have some of her actual words in their collection.
This has an added benefit of making the study of parts-of-speech actually useful to your students. Instead of teaching a dry grammar lesson on verbs, students learn about how verbs can be useful in their writing. They are motivated to learn and understand parts-of-speech.
You still have the problem of Kendra and Gerard. What I do is to whisper to Kendra, that she can skip the re-read if she reads another book by the class author during that time to build her action word collection. She’s happy.
As for Gerard, I have him re-read with me, a partner, a volunteer, a recorded book or some other support. Sometimes this re-read session is done with several students who need extra support.
Research has told us that students who read the most, make the most reading progress. Putting everyone into a developmentally appropriate book captures the attention of all students. Thinking up excuses for students to re-read a story should be part of every reading teacher’s job. Watch this blog for other excuses to have your students re-read.
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