Read, Write, Lead: Chapter 3

Checking in with the book study on Regie Routman's Read, Write, Lead again :) I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

Chapter 3

Reminder: This year I'm in a book study focusing on Regie Routman's Read, Write, Lead with literacy specialists. I'm reflecting on them here. The ASCD created a study guide with thought-provoking questions. We were encouraged either to choose one question from guide and react, or to choose a resonating quote and explain why it struck us. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

"Examine the quality of the texts being used at your school. Are they of the highest quality by excellent authors or are they mostly texts from published programs? Why does this matter? Are you providing a healthy balance in your classroom and school libraries of outstanding and relevant fiction and nonfiction texts? How can you ensure a balance?"

No. 

The read-aloud, mentor texts the teachers often pick are typically high quality because many of the teachers know the value of that quality in encouraging joy of reading. 

However, most of the guided reading texts we have are from several structured programs. The older books in our library room focus on a phonemic skill and build a "story" around it. These are helpful for phonemic skill building, but they hardly teach comprehension with quality story-lines and far from inspire joy of reading. Others are "tower books," accompanying the basil program. 

I want to ensure a balance through selecting classics, like Routman's grandmother, and constantly rotate genres and styles. High quality literature is the path to students excitement about reading. I want these kids to desire to wrap themselves in a book like their favorite quilt.