Hi everyone ! It is the final week of The Literacy Teacher’s Playbook Book Study Group! Wow! It has been hosted by Abbey of A Teacher Mom! This week I am looking at the entire book by Jennifer Serravello’s book (I read the K-2 version but there is also a version for upper elementary- check them out below and click on the images to read more about them at Amazon).
The book is structured in a way that it is easy to either read it from front to back and understand everything or to search for something specific. Chapter one was all about collecting data, chapter two focused on interpreting data and setting goals. Chapter 4 focused on how to get started with an actin plan, shared some information on instructional formats and decision making, conferring, reading partnerships, and reading clubs, how to involve other in helping the child make progress in literacy, advising teachers on planning for multiple students and across a week and also advising teachers on how to know when a goal is met. There also is a long and detailed appendix.
What is my personal takeaway from this book? For me personally, I plan to be more organized with all of what Serravello goes over. I do it all – assess, analysis, set goals, implement, monitor and more, but she gives some good advice and shares forms and data collection recording sheets to help teachers get and stay organized. I know this book is directed towards literacy teachers, and I have been looking for a job in that area, but I will be teaching second grade this year. Many of the ideas Serravello puts forth can be implemented by classroom teachers. There are a few that might not work for me personally, but I can communicate with our reading specialist and wrk together with her to accomplish them.
If you are a literacy teacher or a classroom teacher who is looking for new or better ideas, a refresher in helping students who need help in reading, or just want to do some professional reading, this may be the book for you! It also is not a hard book to get through. I did not feel like I had to keep going back and rereading sections like I do at times when reading articles from professional journals. She is straightforward and easy to understand. Definitely worth a look!
What is your favorite book for teaching reading? Anything you want to recommend here, please comment and let me know!
Thanks so much to Abbey of A Teacher Mom for hosting this linky for 8 weeks! Wow! Hard work! She rocks! Stop by her blog and she what she thought of the book in her final post.
Thanks everyone!
