Are your students engaged and motivated to learn?

The best compliment I get as a teacher is when parents tell me how their child loves coming to school and that I make learning fun and exciting for them.  I think the biggest part of my students motivation for learning comes from our reading and writing workshop time.  To me the most important element during workshop times is sharing.  It is so important that we make time for kids to talk about what they're reading and writing with enthusiasm.  My enthusiasm for reading and writing carries down to them and then they motivate each other through activities such as book shares and author share time.  Students learn so much from each other when they have the chance to listen to another child's thoughts on what they're reading or writing.  My students look forward to getting to the next book on their "Books I want to read next list" and enjoy giving their book recommendations to others.
Setting up specific procedures and practicing what this share time looks and sounds like is key.  It's important that students are taught how to listen and reflect on what their classmates are saying.  This is not something that just comes naturally for most children.  I always post some guidelines for listening/sharing during these times for students to continually refer to on my Activ Board.  I have also been known to video tape the discussions and share sessions for us to reflect on as a whole class.
Take a listen...
The author of the blog site Book Whisperer, Donalyn Miller, discusses in this Choice Literacy podcast how she defines 'engaged' reading and her role in motivating students.  She talks about how she thinks one of the most important things you can do to motivate student reading is by taking time to conference with each child on a one on one basis in the beginning of the year to find out what their interests are and helping them get excited and engaged in a book.  
What do you think is important and necessary to engage the students in your classroom?

Sites to try for helping kids find a just right high interest book:
Access book talks and trailers on this blog site:  http://mrschureads.blogspot.com/
Have your kids check out "bookcasts" to find a book that interests them:  http://www.readinginaction.org/

Conferencing Time Constraints

One of the most challenging things for myself and colleagues during reading workshop time is spending one on one time conferencing with my students.  We all know how important this time is in goal setting and monitoring each students reading growth, but meeting with (give or take) 25 kids during even a weekly period can seem overwhelming and impossible.  How do you manage conference time, yet make sure you are getting it all in? 
I have found that organization is the number one factor that helps me to keep up with my readers and which students I need to meet with and when. Keeping binders with individually labeled sections where I write anecdotal notes, goals, and needs for future meetings are key to being prepared for each conference and staying on task.  Using a conference calendar is also an essential organization tool, where I can see at a glance where I can add students to days and where I know I just won't be able to fit everything in.
In the Quick Take: Time for Conferences Video by Aimee Buckner she discusses how she limits her time with her conferences.  She says that she uses time to guide her future planning for mini lessons.  If her conferences are taking longer than 5 minutes she reflects on what she is discussing with the student and how she can address it in a whole group mini-lesson.

The following links are resources that I've found helpful on conferencing:

This site has tons of printable forms and rubrics that you can use in your conferences and that can help you stay organized and make your conferences purposeful.
http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/tools.htm

Choosing Books for Reading Instruction and Independent Reading

 Choosing Books in my Classroom:
I have spent quite a bit of time and money developing my library of picture books that I think are great resources for modeling and teaching reading comprehension strategies.  Picture books are wonderful resources for engaging children of all elementary grade levels and even for modeling specific strategies at the middle school level.  I also love to incorporate non-fiction picture books into all content areas as well.  I try to have a resource center of picture book texts available for each big umbrella topic we study.  I find that the kids get so much more out of reading and searching through these types of texts, rather than just assigning them pages in a textbook.  "Mentor texts" are also really great for modeling writing and teaching students about specific writing genres.  My students are encouraged to go to the "mentor text" area during their stages of writing to get ideas and refresh their memories about what we have discussed in mini-lessons.  Lucy Calkins gives a great list of mentor texts in her "Units of Study" series that I often refer to.  One of my favorite mentor text authors is Cynthia Rylant.

Comprehension Strategy Teaching/Independent Reading:

I came across a podcast from Sharon Taberski, author of On Solid Ground: Strategies for Teaching Reading, K-3, where she discusses Book Choice; how she chooses books for teaching comprehension strategies and guides her readers to independent book selections.  I like how Sharon said that she chooses a comprehension book not just because it is a good strategy book, but it is a book that she loves and knows the kids will love too.  She cites how important it is to engage the kids first and then look for how to incorporate strategy instruction, oral language and vocab., phrasing, and prior knowledge, etc.   For guiding independent selections she says that we need to be "a whole lot more careful about the books we put into our children's hands for independent reading."  In order to make the best use of students' independent reading time they need to be reading a book with 98-99% word accuracy.  Too often children are choosing books that they cannot read or are too easy because they've read them too many times.  She also discusses the benefits of "look books". 

How do you use picture books and mentor texts in your classroom?

RTI Podcast Resource

"Mary Howard, author of RTI from All Sides, talks with Heinemann consultant Judy Wallis about RTI and what it means for teaching. She shares 7 keys to success and emphasizes the importance of high-quality instruction, sensible assessment, professional development, and materials that support flexible implementation."
(http://www.heinemann.com/podcastDetail.aspx?id=5)

  

Response to Intervention is a Hot Topic right now in literacy education.  I thought this podcast was a great resource in explaining the purpose behind the RTI process and what it's benefits are.  Mary Howard makes some really good points about not using the RTI process as "a scripted program" and that we need to make informed instructional decisions as the expert.  She also talked about the importance of tier 1 saying, "What happens at Tier 1 will largely impact how many kids will need support in tiers 2 and 3...We need to provide quality instruction from the beginning and not just when children start to struggle." I think these are some good thoughts to ponder with this process as I think many teachers are feeling overwhelmed in implementing all tiers.  I think the important thing to keep in mind is that the ultimate goal is to improve the quality of instruction for all students.  What are your thoughts?