Reading Project--Day One

I got into the classroom with the reading project for the first time today. All in all I think things went really well.

As the teacher said, each of her classes has a very different personality.

The project, in my opinion, is really worthwhile. And that is largely because of the reflective element that the reading teacher based it off of.

Yesterday, the students did a pair reading. They listened to one another and gave each other feedback. Based on the feedback, they had to reflect on APE (the things you need to not sound like an ape when you read)--accuracy, pacing, and expression.

She wasn't entirely pleased with their reflections from yesterday. She revisited what directions they had been given and created a writing assignment for today. After the students recorded themselves, they had to listen to themselves at least twice. While listening, they had to read the article and find miscues and errors. Then, taking that information, they had to reflect on APE. She gave students specific directions. For each letter, they had to find two things they did well, two things that need improvement, and two ways they can work on improving them. They have to find specifics from their recordings.

This is of course in preparation for the next project where everyone will hear them read. This way they get a chance to hear themselves and a) realize how important it is to practice and b) figure out what they need to work on.

We didn't get as many kids recorded as I had hoped. However, that was largely do to some house keeping that needed to be taken care of. We'll still be able to finish most if not all of the recordings tomorrow. My biggest worried--the microphones picking up too much background noise from other kids reading--was not a large problem. Its low level buzz, but students can still make themselves out clearly on their own recordings.

I think the teacher is currently pleased with how the project is going. She also said that, especially now that it is started, she's very happy to have a second person.

I am anxious to see how much the students improve between the first round of recordings and the second. In other words, I'm anxious to see if the students are taking advantage of the reflection and learning from the work they do.