Reading Groups

I love reading groups.  I love hearing them talk about the books.  I love discussing our predictions.  I love hearing them WANT to read out loud.  I love how the interact with one another about things they noticed about the text.  I love hearing the connections they make to the text they are reading.  I love seeing kids excited about a book they are reading.  I love reading groups.  We meet on the carpeting (there’s more room over there!) and we bring our planner (to write our assignments in), our Reader’s Notebook (for keeping track of our books and writing things about the books we are reading), a pencil, and the book we are currently reading.  We will read both fiction and nonfiction this year.  We will read short stories and long stories.  We will read about things, people, events, and worlds that exist in our amazing imaginations.  Our reading groups give us a chance to chat in an informal way about the books we read together.  There are never more than 6 people in a group (although sometimes two groups may meet together – as we did last week.  They each read a nonfiction book and then switched with someone from the other group.  They had GREAT discussions with one another about the books they had just read!).  We use sticky notes when we are reading.  We use highlighters (if we are reading a RazKids book) to help us understand words, or remember important facts.  We even get completely off track.  Yup.  There are times when our discussion morphs into something else.  The book reminds us about someone or something.  That makes us remember something else.  In the end, we’ve had an amazing discussion, despite not talking about our original thought.  It happens.  In the end, reading groups are all about the effort we put into them, how engaged we are in the conversations, and remembering to finish our reading (they have time every afternoon to read!).  Ask your kids about the books they are reading.  Ask them to describe the characters.  Ask them to tell you a fact they learned.  Talk to them about what they are reading!  Ask them to show you their planners and look at the reading assignment.  It helps them to know you are interested in what they are doing.  Thank you! 

 I love reading groups.