Sunday, September 23, 2012

Reading Partnerships

During our first unit of study in reading workshop, we are learning strategies active readers use to increase stamina, engagement, and comprehension.   Here is a chart listing some of my mini-lesson teaching points during this unit:  
Part of being an active reader, is having conversations about our reading with others and writing about our reading to prepare for conversations.  To ensure we make time for these important conversations, we dedicate the last 10 minutes of reading workshop to partner conversations on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  On Tuesday and Thursdays, we write in our reader's notebook for the last 10 minutes of reading workshop.  This schedule not only ensures that students are given time to do this important work as readers, but also makes sure there is a balance between talking and writing about reading.  

Before students wrote down three possible classmates on an index card they thought would be a good reading partner for them, we talked about the purpose of a reading partner and identified qualities of a good reading partner.  

         
I work hard to always make the purpose clear to students about what I am asking them to do as learners so they understand the "why?" behind everything we do in our classroom.  I also think it is important for students to see the connection between their writing about reading and their partner conversations.  When students gather for a partner conversation, it is expected they will refer to their book and reader's notebook during the conversation and use them as tools to help them have a thoughtful conversation.  
I am a firm believer that students need to be explicitly taught how to have successful partner conversations, need to have conversations modeled for them, and need opportunities to share what they noticed about the conversations they watched.  In my classroom, we refer to these modeled conversations as "fishbowl conversations".  The partnership modeling the conversation sits in the middle of the circle on the rug and the rest of us actively observe by watching and listening in to the conversation by making a large circle around them.   I let students know that I will be asking them, "What did you notice?" when I pause the conversation, so they need to be ready to respond and share their noticings.  This is also a great way for them to learn from one another and also honor their hard work as learners.  

I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas about reading partnerships and ways you model conversations with your students.  






6 comments:

  1. As always, I am so delighted to read your post and get a little glimpse into the day to day functioning of your classroom. I think this particular post is really important; so critical that we build these relationships and conversations early in the year!
    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am an Instructional Coach and want to help a teacher at my school with Reading Partnerships. I have spent a good amount of time looking on the internet, but most of it, to me, is more like partner reading where a most of the time is spent on reading together. I am wanting more time to be spent on great conversations about reading. I really enjoyed reading your post and am looking for information on this topic. Do you have helpful hints for me?
    Thank you :)
    I'm your newest follower.
    Antoinette
    http://4321teach.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Melanie,
    Great post-I accidentally stumbled upon it when I was reading your posts about Reading Notebooks. I taught primary grades for many years and used Reading Partners for reading together as well as talking about reading. Last year I moved to third grade and and did not continue with partners. I did use a lot of partner work, such as turn and talk, but didn't have long term reading partners. Instead I assigned what I called Thinking Partners after I realized most of my students were very passive during whole group conversations and I wanted to help them become active, engaged learners. Thinking partners sat next to each other during our whole group lessons at the carpet. That way they could easily turn and talk. I could also use Thinking Partners in all curriculum areas. Most partnerships were long term, but there are those few students that need to have a change of partnership periodically! As I read your post I realize there is great value in continuing this reading partner relationship in the intermediate grades. And I totally love the way you have allowed for the partner talk and writing time to be scheduled in without cutting into the reading time. I believe I may steal that idea.
    Debbie

    ReplyDelete
  4. Melanie,
    Great post-I accidentally stumbled upon it when I was reading your posts about Reading Notebooks. I taught primary grades for many years and used Reading Partners for reading together as well as talking about reading. Last year I moved to third grade and and did not continue with partners. I did use a lot of partner work, such as turn and talk, but didn't have long term reading partners. Instead I assigned what I called Thinking Partners after I realized most of my students were very passive during whole group conversations and I wanted to help them become active, engaged learners. Thinking partners sat next to each other during our whole group lessons at the carpet. That way they could easily turn and talk. I could also use Thinking Partners in all curriculum areas. Most partnerships were long term, but there are those few students that need to have a change of partnership periodically! As I read your post I realize there is great value in continuing this reading partner relationship in the intermediate grades. And I totally love the way you have allowed for the partner talk and writing time to be scheduled in without cutting into the reading time. I believe I may steal that idea.
    Debbie

    ReplyDelete
  5. Do you have any suggestions for videos that might allow me to show students a "partner talk" in conversation as an overview to a week of teaching points on that topic. I'll be getting specific with them throughout the week, but I'd like some models of excellent reading partner shares! They just don't know how to talk to each other yet - and instead constantly summarize what they read. It never goes any deeper!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Do you have any suggestions for videos that might allow me to show students a "partner talk" in conversation as an overview to a week of teaching points on that topic. I'll be getting specific with them throughout the week, but I'd like some models of excellent reading partner shares! They just don't know how to talk to each other yet - and instead constantly summarize what they read. It never goes any deeper!

    ReplyDelete