Reading has always been one of my favorite pastimes. I will steal a moment to read as often as I can. It may be the last 15 minutes of my day as I am winding down and preparing for bed or a few moments as I am waiting to have a check up at my doctor’s office.
My passion for reading is, I am certain, one of the reasons I absolutely love working in fourth-grade teacher Flo Anthony’s reading and writing workshop. Mrs. Anthony and I work together several days a week. I completely lose myself as she is teaching her mini-lesson at the beginning of reading workshop. She tells stories of her childhood and her experiences raising her horses, going to concerts, and taking care of stray animals while using vivid details and specific examples. She shares her personal stories in order to build connections to the lesson or skill she is preparing to teach. Her stories are so alive that the students and I can actually place ourselves in the midst of them.
Mrs. Anthony is so talented in her craft of teaching that the students do not even realize she is laying the foundation for her objective of the reading lesson. She teaches the students that if they are to become skillful readers and writers, they must use meaning and structure. Mrs. Anthony builds background knowledge and lays the foundation for the different type of text she plans to share during her mini-lesson. The students are active listeners to the text and to Mrs. Anthony’s thinking strategies.
Then, the students try the thinking strategies with their partners. These strategies help the students to have a better understanding of the material. Eventually, as Mrs. Anthony reads the texts, students began to focus on the vivid details and meaning within the text. This allows them to have a clearer understanding of the material.
Mrs. Anthony is cultivating a love of reading not by force, but by modeling her own love of reading and showing her enthusiasm and excitement.
