Yesterday, completing an idea that I think I took from one of Kelly Gallagher's books, I had my students engage in silent reading for 30 minutes. Afterwards, I had them count the number of pages they read, and had them calculate their "pages per minute" ratio. Then, I had them calculate how much time they needed to devote to the rest of the reading chunk that night.
It was really neat. Students know (and I know... I'd never actually tested this before) that they read 0.57 pages/minute, or .24 pages/minute, or 1 page/minute. It was eye-opening for me because one student got through 32 pages and other students got through 9 pages; and there was no sleeping or heads down during the time. I didn't gauge understanding while reading - that will come with the quiz on Friday - but we'll see how that goes.
All these years I've been teaching and I still try to figure out new ways to read a novel. I teach such a wide variety of skills sets - some have never really read a novel before, and one kid has read East of Eden - and need to figure out how to effectively differentiate instruction to make them all grow. (I'm having a bit of an issue with the East of Eden kid, actually... I worry the class is way too easy for him.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I like this idea...I might try it next month, when I start teaching Tess of the d'Urbervilles
I know exactly what you mean. I have my own version of your East of Eden student. He is so smart that he's always bored! But what to do? The other students seem to struggle.
That's a fantastic idea! I think it can really allow the students to learn more about how they read and possibly how they decide what to read as time goes on. It would be interesting to compare the page per minute ratio with different genres, and even writers. It's good that they will have this information to look back on, perhaps some will have a feeling of accomplishment as/if ratios begin to increase or when they see, they really do have an easier time of reading one author as opposed to another etc.
They can even start to challenge themselves to be more effective readers. This idea really lends itself to many possibilities.
Post a Comment