Blog 2: Miller’s Ideas

Miller has an amazing amount of ideas which can be implemented in the classroom. For starters, she works with 6th graders – that’s one of the potential groups I’d teach as well. If her strategies and techniques work well for her then I’m sure that I’d be able to transfer her ideas and have success with slight modifications if needed. I love how she wants to create a reading-centered community and effectively does so utilizing simple methods. There’s nothing particularly fancy about what she does, but it all takes time and effort.

Some ideas which I’d for sure like to implement are her check-in/check-out system using a tablet organized by ISBN, author, genre, etc. That makes it more simple, user friendly and concise compared to a paper-based system and much easier to keep track of compared to a whiteboard system. She provides great ideas for different types of read-alouds, even ideas for when there are substitute teachers for any amount of time… that’s something I might not have thought of on my own. Going back to the tablet-based system of organizing books, I like how she made it so that the kids can write their own reviews which carry over from year to year because it gives kids a variety of opinions on the book/series. Something else I’d like to implement is the practice of mini-conferences – like the Golden Gate Bridge approach idea: do what you can, when you can and if you can’t, accept it – always keep working at it though.

I wouldn’t say that there’s anything I’m AFRAID of when it comes to teaching reading, but as a future teacher I feel like I should have read more children’s books (or books in general) so it’s a matter of creating a TBR list for myself and following through over time. I’m definitely excited to teach reading though. I spent three years as a reading tutor/after school mentor for CalSERVES AmeriCorps and it was one of the most rewarding experiences. I’ll never forget the passion which the kids showed for learning. It was possible to make any activity fun for them – some of the books I feel I MUST HAVE for my personal library are books which the kids loved (books which I would read to them or them to me). I’m also excited to see what ideas I come up with myself and what other discoveries and ideas for igniting a passion for learning I’ll be able to create and share with my colleagues.