Teaching Reading in a 5-8 Classroom

[Kyler Martin@kyler]

I am looking for advice in the following quandary. I have the four CLE reading courses for the four respective grades mentioned above and am struggling with knowing how to incorporate them into my schedule so that I actually have time to “teach” reading including substantive discussion/other group interaction with the material. I also value things like oral reading and would love to incorporate some books and poetry in my year. That will be almost impossible if I’m trying to coach all four grades, one of which will only contain a single student. I thought of making two reading classes and running 5 & 6 and 7 & 8 in cycles but I’m concerned about the leaps. Basically, I need the structure of a reading curriculum as a new teacher and think the systematic vocab work (for example) will be good but I am reluctant to make reading a mostly individualized study.

Do you have advice for me? What should I do this year? What should I aim for in the long run with my reading courses in my multi-grade room? What are the bounds on how many grades can collaborate in a reading course? For teachers who are familiar with this books, what are the strengths  on which I should capitalize and which should guide any adapting of the curriculum? (Please, these are just optional and clarifying questions…)

Thank-you!

[Jonas SauderModerator@jonas]

Kyler,
I’d definitely combine 5/6 and 7/8 for reading, beginning with the 5th & 7th readers (unless students had those last year, in which case you could begin with 6 & 8.) This would give you opportunity to teach reading rather than “assigning” it. Adjusting assignments as needed to meet some varying capabilities in the class is not so big a challenge as is not being able to teach either class well.
Having publisher-made ancillary materials is helpful to use as the “default” in teaching a class. This provides reasonable work with each lesson while freeing you to introduce alternative assignments such as writing assignments which can often be assigned as a takeoff from some reading assignment.

[Kyler Martin@kyler]

Jonas,

Thanks for your advice. That’s very helpful.

Kyler

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